SZCZECIN TRAM - Straßenbahnen Stettin (2015)
Features Stettin Szczecin A node in a geopolitical network.
The author shows how a small region, Stettin Szczecin, due to its strategic position is involved in important events in history.
Published in the print edition of the worlds Baltic Vol VI 3-4, pp 61-63 Published on 4 februari 2014.
In a Polish context, Szczecin German Stettin is a medium sized city, located in the northwest corner of the country, with poor connections to the capital, Warsaw, and with an economy in shipping decline and shipbuilding But since many centuries, Stettin was much more important, trade and geopolitically, as its relative proximity to Sweden and its natural resources have formed a north-south axis of coal for the iron trade.
Commercial shipping, like other types of transport, based on interaction between dealers, objects, places, and, of course, transport goods Another factor is the policy, the formal rules that actors are supposed to obey the less shipping theory, seas are an additional gray area of the rules on territorial waters, economic zones and bilateral agreements that are used or infringed by States, shipping companies and captains history of Stettin is an example of how the relative strength of these factors changes, and how, in turn, they change the realities in time of war, the rules are different even for States which are not formally involved.
Stettin is located in the valley of the Oder River, which is about eight kilometers wide It was the northernmost point where terrestrial connections between east and west were possible, with the exception of complex estuary in the delta of the rivers Oder and pork in Polish Odra and Świna on the Baltic coast town was also protected from the dangerous coast by the large lagoon between Stettin and Swinemünde Swinoujscie.
Stettin is mentioned in documents from the eleventh century as a trading post between the Germanic tribes and speaking Slavic The intrusion of German colonization has resulted in Magdeburg rights in 1243, Stettin and played an important role in trade herring with Skåne in Denmark politically, the city was mostly the capital of the Duchy of Pomerania, but for 80 years it was the capital of the Swedish province of the same name in 1720, Szczecin was captured by Prussia, who later became the nucleus of the German Empire.
The contacts with Scandinavia did not cease in 1720 During the 18th century, Stettin was a big Swedish rail importer of oil and grain exporter 1 While Stettin was under Swedish rule, the neighboring state of Brandenburg after Prussia built channels of the river Oder to Berlin to direct it away from Pomerania trade After the annexation by Prussia, Stettin became the main port for Berlin and Breslau Wrocław Its importance grew with industrialization the Oder river district Silesian coal, and when the north iron ore Sweden became technically usable for the production of steel through the process Thomas Stettin was in a strategic position, especially after Germany lost the Lothringian mines in 1919 2 Silesia coal could also be exported to Sweden, which had no coal the river is not always navigable, m ais Prussia built a dense network of railways The state iron ore mine in Gällivare was connected to Luleå in 1888, allowing export by ship Kirun The mine was connected to Narvik on the free Atlantic coast Norwegian ice 1902, but the connection Luleå-Stettin was shorter, simpler and safer especially in wartime.
On the German side, swine river was channeled in 1870 and connected to Stettin in 1889 by a deep channel across the lagoon The Oder River was prepared for shipment Breslau most of the year, except in the icy conditions icebreaker construction Stettin became a specialty, with different versions for rivers and lagoon in 1898, the Emperor opened a free port, and the traffic on the Oder peaked in 1914 Stettin was again Berlin connected by a canal with locks to handle the difference in 36 meters Stettin in 1910 was the largest German Baltic port, grain exports, sugar, flour, cement and chemicals 3.
Luleå on the other side of the Baltic Sea, developed in the main port of northern Sweden, including iron ore exports On arriving tonnage has increased considerably, and in 1900 the largest of Sweden cargo ship the shipping company Nordstjernan s Oscar Fredrik, loaded 7,000 tons on its maiden voyage from 1914 to 1915, the number of loaded vessels increased from 296 to 985 iron exports to Germany beat all previous records 4 Why.
The First World War had begun While Sweden was neutral, Germany was at war with Britain, France and Russia in Sweden needs coal and Germany needed iron ore German ships shuttle between Lulea and Stettin, while Russian submarines sought for prey German ships sought refuge in Swedish territorial waters, and some of them were sunk or hijacked by Russian submarines or destroyers Russia in such cases, they were falsely asserted in international waters, although some German ships were clearly out of the Swedish court when they were attacked 5 Almost all of these incidents occurred in 1916 later, the situation in Russia became revolutionary and the war effort of the weaker Russia, and after the coup Lenin against the weak Kerensky government in 1917 Russia established a truce with Germany.
But shipping is subject to other dangers too According to the report of a diver.
Cargo Hansa ship, built in 1910 in Stettin Oderwerke AG Buyer Neue Dampfer Co AG, Stettin steel hardware speed 13 knots Home Stettin Crew 18 iron ore load Wrecked July 29, 1917 on the road Luleå Stettin Place Öja Bremersvik south of Nynäshamn, Stockholm due collision with fishing boat 6.
With the Treaty of Versailles, geopolitical conditions changed there was a ban on the extension of the free port Stettin 7 after a disputed referendum, the region of Upper Silesia was divided between a reduction in Germany and Poland 8 Poland tried now restored to direct coal exports away from German territory, and to this end has built a port of Gdynia, his only safe access to the Baltic sea 9 due to Poland partial annexation of Silesia, Stettin lost its position as the largest exporter of coal and grain in 1919, sales fell in 1873.
The creation of the position of the Polish Corridor and Danzig as a free city under the formal domination of Poland made port of Stettin, Swinemünde, a maritime link to East Prussia and naval base 10 But contacts of Stettin with Luleå and other Swedish Baltic ports continue assuming power Hitler triggers a reset requires that the Swedish iron ore in 1936, a Swedish, Gösta Häggkvist, performs Luleå vacation trip to Germany, and has a film from iron ore loading script from stocks in cars Cargo ships Viktoria W Kunstmann 7800 tons offshore loading dock on Viktoria on the boat, my traveling companions, members of the Hitler youth in Stettin who received this trip to Luleå in the back as a bonus for doing a good job the first German buoy the Swinemünde ships in iron ore unloading U Stettin harbor No overview of Stettin hit the North German landscape of the train in Berlin the film continues its journey by train and ferry to Sweden 11.
Kunstmann The ships were a familiar sight in Luleå Harbor 12 But after Viktoria W Kunstmann ship disappears folders What happened Looking for information The ship belonged to the shipping company W Kunstmann Stettin until 1936, but was later renamed SS Radbod and was sunk by British Beaufighter aircraft near Ålesund, Norway, December 5, 1944, but why did he change his name.
The answer is political W Kunstmann The shipping company was established in Swinoujscie on April 1st 1870 by Wilhelm Kunstmann, born in 1844. His first ship was a brig, Adler, and a schooner, Minna in 1889 launched its Kunstmann first steamship Clara Siegmann After that, all the ships were steamers Kunstmann, whose names ending in -ia A Stettin office opened in 1886, later to become the headquarters of the company in 1915, all ships baptized with the surname Kunstmann Their main task was to ship the Luleå iron ore, Oxelösund and Gävle in Stettin, where he was sent on barges and rail in Silesia Kunstmann company bought the site naval Mercur Stettin.
After 1933, operations are increasingly precarious, and in 1936, the company was forced to sell the family was Jewish Kunstmann A non-Jewish society, Johannes Fritzen Sohn, the redeemed, and the purchase price was transferred in Britain, where Kunstmanns could emigrate in time buyer and seller were punished for illegal money transactions, and Werner Kunstmann Jr. Son of Albert Kunstmann, who died in 1940, spent four months in prison Britain's cooperation with Nazi Germany his father had been awarded an honorary doctorate and an honorary senator of the University of Greifswald; he was a member of the board of two associations of German shipowners and a member of the German delegation to the League of Nations in the 1920s, but its shares were transgressed by the Nazi government His academic qualifications were reinstated posthumously in 2000 13.
The trip Viktoria W Kunstmann in 1936 was probably the last trip of the youth happy Hitler would a Jewish ship initially eliminated Jewish property; Later, the Jews themselves, but the coal trade and Swedish-German ore continued, even increased ref Fritz, 1974.
In 1939, a new site was built in Stettin for small ships and submarines, and in 1940 a naval base was established as during World War II, Stettin developed during World War II as the main place of transfer to traffic with Scandinavia 14 in October 1940, the Isar ship called in Luleå in Sweden neutral Isar was used earlier this year to Weserübung operation, Nazi attack on Norway 15 Isar delivered a German military division for more transportation to Norway occupied a German warehouse supplies and equipment was established in Luleå, and obviously supplied by sea in recent years 16, but there was traffic in the opposite direction as the Swedish vessels and Manly Wormo , built in 1930, were chartered in 1942 by Fischereinkaufsgemeinschaft Norwegen to deliver fresh fish from Luleå in Stettin.
From 1943, Stettin, Swinemünde and Pölitz the site of a Silesian coal refining plant in aviation fuel were targeted by Allied bombers British bombers en route to Stettin and Königsberg passed over Sweden and were attacked by German fighters in spring 1945, the Soviet army advanced by beating the retreating German troops blew up bridges and port facilities the Soviet Union took over the Stettin harbor, while Pölitz, Swinemünde and the city of Stettin, while on the west side of the Oder, were put under Polish administration an exception to the Oder-Neisse line drawn at the Potsdam Conference 17 the German population was expelled in June, the Poseidon ship had already delivered the first Polish group of returnees, returning to the west with the Germans deported in July, the Isar, the same who had participated in the operation and called Weserübung Luleå in 1940, carrying Polish Lübeck to Stettin, probably Polish slaves now go home in Szczecin, which was emptied of its German population Isar, having changed names and owners several times, ended in Turkey and was scrapped in 1965.
The port was sufficiently compensated for the Soviet administration can ship the Berlin Industrial equipment and Stettin in the Soviet Union reparations Stettin All major industries were dismantled, including double railway tracks Only part of the port was available to the new Polish administration late May 1946 the Polish shipping company unloaded POLTRANS the first Silesian coal barges, intended both for local consumption and export June 19, the Swedish ship MS Ruth viscose discharged for artificial silk factory in Wroclaw, formerly Breslau another Swedish ship, the MS Anna Greta, was the first to be supplied by the trade Center Polish state 18 because of a death in the dock in Stettin 1946 another Swedish ship, the steamer Havsbris Stockholm, was involved in a maritime declaration to the Court Malmö, but the circumstances are unknown 19.
On March 5, 1946, Winston Churchill delivered a lecture at the University of the United States, saying: From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the continent, it was right to Stettin, now Szczecin, behind the iron curtain, but the same border between the Soviet power and the west would most west, on the border of the Soviet occupation zone but the Swedish Szczecin Contact now continues Silesia Śląsk was Polish, and as before the Treaty of Versailles, all transport routes were in the same state, although now another, with the exception of the Oder river, divided between Poland and its socialist sister country, the GDR.
The expulsion of Germans from territories under Polish administration has encountered huge obstacles In February 1946, Poland and Britain signed an agreement on the transportation of expelled Operation Swallow would carry 1,000 people per day by sea from Szczecin to Lübeck 1520 per day in Bad Segeberg Poland currently provide trains, food and protection But the conditions were terrible transport the Soviet occupation zone of Schleswig-Holstein in the British zone has caused enormous problems a reception camp to Gumience, Szczecin, was a former sugar factory without windows, doors, or furniture, and social conditions were appalling camp was scheduled to hold expelled for one or two days, but the ability of trains to the British zone could not deal with the movement of people evicted Even the Soviet authorities have complained about conditions al ors that Poland responded that those expelled were in such poor condition that Szczecin had become a major hospital Finally, the UK auth authorities managed to increase transmission capacity to evacuate the German population 20 A curious prehistoric tragic and paradoxical transport Stettin was Jewish by the brutal transportation in March 1940 1200 Jews from Stettin to Lublin, Poland Nazi occupation, which caused most often Pro- Hitler Swedish explorer Sven Hedin to complain to Heinrich Himmler 21.
Strange effect of the conditions after the war was that some Polish Jews pretended to be ethnic Germans to be transported to West Germany 22 Transportation of the eastern regions of Poland annexed by the USSR caused 25,000 Polish Jews in Szczecin in 1946, the unclear situation just after the war, Szczecin became a lock for Jewish smuggling into the British and American areas for further transport to Palestine or the US According to some reports, dozens of thousands of Jews used Szczecin as a gateway to overseas life a small part of this exodus was lawful in November 1948, the ship left Beniowski Szczecin linked to Israel with 615 Polish Jews aboard 23 what happened this trip is not clear from my sources, but Beniowski had visited the city before as the Kaiser, it was launched in 1905 the shipyard Vulcan Stet tin to sail the North Sea and the Elbe, but it was purchased by the Hamburg America Line in 1919, it was taken over by Britain reparation of war, but sold to the former owner After served in Germany during World war II, he again did a repair of war in Britain, but it was given to the Soviet Union and renamed Nekrasov in 1946 or 48, it was acquired by Polish owners and renamed Beniowski after a Polish explorer and adventurer, and after his trip to the Mediterranean, he sailed as a training ship along the Polish coast between Szczecin and Gdynia Sopot, before being scrapped in 1954 Szczecin, 49 years after it was launched are 24.
The history of Szczecin Stettin does not end with the abandonment of the Kaiser Nekrasov Beniowski But in the 1950s, the local situation has become more stable, for better and for worse, such as Poland's relations with the outside world that's another story, and another geography.
NOTE An earlier version of this article was published in Swedish in Geografiska Notiser 71, No. 3, 2013 124 130.
The author thanks Péter Balogh and Hans-Jörg Pust for their help and information.
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