Tczew (, formerly ) is a city on the Vistula River in the Pomeranian Voivodeship, in northern Poland, with 59,111 inhabitants (December 2021). Around 1200 Sambor I, Duke of Pomerania, built a fortress here. By 1252 the settlement was known by the names Tczew and Dirschau.

thumb|left|Medieval town walls

In 1258 a city council was created and in 1260 Tczew was granted town rights. The townspeople were expelled by the Teutonic Knights and the town's organization ceased to exist for more than half a century. It was rebuilt from 1364 to 1384, and was granted Kulm law by Winrich von Kniprode. After the Polish victory in the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, the town was briefly recaptured by Poland. In 1457, during the Thirteen Years’ War, Bohemian mercenaries on the Order's service sold Tczew to Poland in lieu of indemnities. The Second Peace of Thorn (1466) confirmed the reincorporation of Tczew to Poland. It became a county seat within the Pomeranian Voivodeship in the newly created Polish province of Royal Prussia, soon also part of the Greater Poland Province.

Modern era

During the Protestant Reformation most of the town's inhabitants converted to Lutheranism. In 1626, it was occupied by king Gustav II Adolf of Sweden, who built a pontoon bridge across river Vistula and who had his camp at the southern side of the town. Although it was rebuilt, it then suffered during the Polish-Swedish Wars. In a nearby battle on 2 September 1657, the Poles were defeated by the combined troops of Brandenburg and Sweden under general Josias II, Count of Waldeck-Wildungen. and later on, one of the insurgents' main escape routes from partitioned Poland to the Great Emigration led through the city.

With the unification of Germany, the town became part of the German Empire in 1871 and from 1887 was the capital of the Dirschau district in the province of West Prussia. The town grew rapidly during the 19th century after the opening of the Prussian Eastern Railway line connecting Berlin and Königsberg, with the Vistula bridge near Dirschau being an important part.

Under Prussian and German rule, the Polish population suffered from forced Germanization; for example Poles were denied Polish schools, and refused to teach their children German. The German official Heinrich Mettenmeyer wrote that German-appointed teachers were treated with the highest disdain by Polish children and their parents. The town remained a center of Polish resistance, and Poles established various organizations, including the Bank Ludowy ("People's Bank").

thumb|Maritime Academy in Tczew in the 1920s

After Poland regained independence in 1918, local Poles formed the People's Council in preparation for reintegration with Poland.

During the German occupation of Poland (1939–45) Tczew, as Dirschau, was annexed into the newly formed province of Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia of Nazi Germany. The Polish population was subjected to mass arrests, repressions, expulsions and murder. The SS-Heimwehr-Sturmbann Götze entered the town in September 1939 to carry out actions against Poles, including mass arrests with the help of local Germans organized in the Selbstschutz, who denounced local Polish activists. The Germans imprisoned hundreds of Poles in camps established in a former factory (present-day museum), in a craft school and in military barracks. In November 1939, Germans carried out executions of numerous Poles from Tczew, including local teachers, officials (including pre-war mayor Karol Hempel,) craftsmen, a policeman, and even a seventeen-year-old student. Catholic priests from Pelplin, who were not murdered in Pelplin, were imprisoned in the Tczew barracks and then murdered in the Szpęgawski Forest (see also Nazi persecution of the Catholic Church in Poland). In January 1940, the SS and Selbstschutz carried out two public executions of 33 Polish residents, including railway employees, officials, craftsmen and merchants, at the market square. Also Poles from Starogard and Tuchola counties, who refused to sign the Volksliste, were imprisoned in Tczew and then murdered in a nearby forest. From 1939 to 1941, the Einsatzgruppe operated a penal forced labour camp in the town.

thumb|Monument to Poles murdered in Tczew by the Germans during World War II

In 1941, the Germans created a transition camp for Poles expelled from the region in a local factory (present-day museum). People were held there for several weeks, and then expelled to the General Government. Some inhabitants were also deported to forced labour to Germany.

The Polish resistance was active in the town, including the Union of Armed Struggle-Home Army, the Pomeranian Griffin, Grunwald, Strażnica, Szwadron Śmierci and Military Organization Lizard Union, whose activities included distribution of Polish underground press and spying on German activities in the city and beyond. Polish forced labourers from Tczew continued resistance activity and conducted espionage of German activity also in Riga, Königsberg and Pillau, and Tczew was an important point for the transfer of intelligence gathered by the Polish resistance.

After World War II the town, was one of the most damaged cities of Gdańsk Pomerania. Virtually none of its remaining factories were capable of production. There had been considerable loss of population down to around 18-20 thousand people. Shortly before the end of World War II it was occupied by the Soviet Army. After the end of war the town became part of People's Republic of Poland and renamed Tczew again. German residents were dispossessed and expelled; Polish residents took the first effort of reconstruction, and revitalization.

Recent period

From 1975 to 1998, it was administratively located in the Gdańsk Voivodeship. In 1984 the Museum of the Vistula River, a branch of the National Maritime Museum in Gdańsk, was opened in the building of the pre-war metal products factory, in which during World War II Germans operated a transit camp for Poles expelled from the region.

Coat of arms

The coat of arms of Tczew depicts a red griffin in honor of Duke Sambor II, who granted the town municipal rights in 1260.

Sights

  • Józef Haller Square (Plac Józefa Hallera), filled with preserved historic townhouses
  • Parish Church of the Holy Cross – situated in the centre of the Old Town, by Wyszyńskiego street. It is the oldest building in Tczew. The church was built in the 13th century and features a Baroque interior. The high brick tower is the oldest part of the church and its wooden top was destroyed during the fire in 1982. The interior church walls feature old frescoes, the oldest of which dates back to the latter half of the 15th century.
  • Post-Dominican Church of Saint Stanislaus Kostka – located on Świętego Grzegorza square. It comes from the 14th century and is built in the Gothic style, with a characteristic octagonal tower. After the liquidation of the order, it was rebuilt into a school and later, until 1945, used by Protestants.
  • Bridges on the Vistula River – located by Jana z Kolna street and the Vistula boulevard are Tczew's main sights. The road bridge was the first one to be constructed, between 1851 and 1857. At the time, with its 837 metres’ length, it was one of the longest bridges in the world. Originally, the bridge had ten towers and two gateways – today only four towers remain. The other, railway bridge, was built between 1888 and 1890, when one bridge was no longer sufficient. On 1 September 1939 at 5:30AM, the bridges were destroyed by Polish sappers in order to prevent the German Army from accessing the city from the other side of the Vistula River. The bridges were rebuilt in 1940 and destroyed again in 1945 by the Germans. The final reconstruction of the bridges took place between 1958 and 1959.
  • Museum of the Vistula River – situated by 30 Stycznia street, in the pre-war agricultural machine factory where during World War II, a transitional camp for Poles expelled from the region was established and operated by Nazi Germany.

English Language Camp

For the last 19 years, the town has been the host location for the annual English Language Camp. The camp, often nicknamed "Camp Tczew" is hosted by the American-Polish Partnership for Tczew and offers students a three-week program where they have the opportunity to interact with Americans and improve their English.

Notable people

  • Alexander von Suchten (1520–1575), German alchemist, doctor and writer
  • Johann Reinhold Forster (1729–1798), Reformed (Calvinist) pastor and naturalist, contributed to early ornithology
  • Bernhard Kamnitzer (1890–1959), German jurist and Senator of the Free City of Danzig
  • Alfred Eisenstaedt (1898–1995), German-born American photographer and photojournalist
  • Roman Korynt (1929–2018), footballer, played 327 games for Lechia Gdańsk and 32 for Poland
  • Kazimierz Zimny (1935–2022), athlete, competed at the 1960 Summer Olympics
  • Teresa Budzisz-Krzyżanowska (born 1942), stage and film actress
  • Grzegorz Kołodko (born 1949), professor of economics, former deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance
  • Barbara Wenta-Wojciechowska (born 1953), rower, competed in the 1976 Summer Olympics
  • Janusz Akermann (born 1957), painter and Professor of Fine Arts in Gdańsk
  • Grzegorz Ciechowski (1957–2001), singer, composer, record producer, leader of Republika
  • Czesława Kościańska (born 1959), rower, competed in the 1980 Summer Olympics
  • Krzysztof Kosedowski (born 1960), boxer, bronze medallist at the 1980 Summer Olympics
  • Leon Koźmiński (1904–1993), economist and academic, Home Army member
  • Wojciech Wentura (born 1972), musician, actor, composer, pianist and Polish Operatic tenor
  • Jarosław Kukowski (born 1972), contemporary painter dealing with moral and social issues
  • Kornelia Stawicka (born 1973), swimmer, competed in the 1988 Summer Olympics
  • Sebastian Wenta (born 1975), shot putter, strongman and Highland Games competitor
  • Zbigniew Grzybowski (born 1976), footballer
  • Zbigniew Robert Promiński (born 1978), black/death metal drummer
  • Michał Zblewski (born 1980), bobsledder competed in the 2010 Winter Olympics
  • Piotr Trochowski (born 1984), footballer, 280 pro games and 35 for Germany
  • Bartosz Piasecki (born 1986), Norwegian fencer
  • Paweł Wszołek (born 1992), footballer, over 200 pro games and 11 for Poland
  • Agnieszka Buczyńska (born 1986), politician

Twin towns – sister cities

Tczew is twinned with:

  • Witten, Germany (1990)
  • Lev HaSharon, Israel (1997)
  • Biržai, Lithuania (1998)
  • Werder, Germany (1998)
  • Barking and Dagenham, England, United Kingdom (1999)
  • Dębno, Poland (2000)
  • Beauvais, France (2005)
  • Chornomorsk, Ukraine (2006)
  • Aizkraukle, Latvia (2007)

Former twin towns:

  • Kursk, Russia (1996–2022)
  • Slutsk, Belarus (2017–2022)

On 8 March 2022, Tczew ended its partnership with the Russian city of Kursk and the Belarusian city of Slutsk as a response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

See also

  • Execution of Tczew hostages

References

  • Municipal webpage
  • Cultural news and political information from Tczew
  • News and information from Tczew
  • Radio Fabryka - local radio
  • Birth, marriage and death records, 1637-1944
  • Trsovia - Featured Images of Tczew