Wejherowo


Wejherowo is a city in Gdańsk Pomerania, northern Poland, with 50,310 inhabitants. It has been the capital of Wejherowo County in Pomeranian Voivodeship since 1999; previously, it was a city in Gdańsk Voivodeship.

Geographical location

Wejherowo is located in Pomeralia, in the ethnocultural region of Kashubia, approximately west of the town of Rumia, east of the town of Lębork and north-west of the regional metropole of Gdańsk, in the broad glacial valley of the river Rheda at an altitude of above sea level.

History

Wejherowo was founded in 1643 as Wola Wejherowska, by the voivode of the Malbork Voivodeship, and Polish noble, Jakub Wejher. It was translated in the colloquial German of the time as Weihersfrey or Veyersfrey. According to the founder's will, the dwellers of the new settlement were to possess the same city rights as other towns in the region, hence the place granted Kulm law. The town's privileges, received in 1655, were confirmed by King John II Casimir Vasa of Poland.
Wejher, who survived the Smolensk War, built two churches in the new settlement. He also brought in Franciscan fathers, built a monastery, and founded a calvary, consisting of 26 chapels, aligned along the border of the town forest, which were built during 1646–55. According to the founder's written statement of 1655, all honorable persons, independent of their nationality, were invited to become citizens of the new settlement if they would pay a citizen fee of ten gulden each.
In the First Partition of Poland in 1772, in which the Kingdom of Prussia annexed most of Pomerelia, the town was incorporated into the Kingdom, and administered within the new province of West Prussia. Its name in German changed from Weyersfrey to Neustadt in Westpreußen, a name which was in use also before. The affix "in West Prussia" was added to the town's name in order to avoid confusion with a number of other towns carrying the same name. Decisive factors which boosted the development of the town in the 19th century were the 1818 establishment of Landkreis Neustadt, an administrative district, and the construction of the Danzig - Stettin railway line, to which Neustadt was connected with a train station in 1870. Neustadt became part of the German Empire in 1871 during the Prussian-led unification of Germany. During the second half of the 19th century, a significant number of Jewish families from the region began migrating to Syracuse, New York, including the renowned Shubert theatrical family. The Poles formed 59.3% of population in the district area of the city around this time. The city itself, however, was predominantly German with a Polish minority of 5 % in 1890.
In 1905 "Neustadt" had a Protestant church, two Catholic churches, a synagogue, a grammar school, a preparatory school for a training college for school teachers, a training college for evangelical school teachers, a mental asylum, a local court, a forest office, cigarette factories, sawmills, a brewery, a cattle trade and wood trade as well as grain trade. During the Partitions the German authorities led a systemic campaign of Germanization against local the Polish and Kashubian populations, which resisted by organizing the secret patriotic organization Zwiazek Filomatow, distributing the Polish newspaper Gazeta Gdanska, and by establishing various local economic initiatives.
Until 1919 Neustadt belonged to the administrative district of Regierungsbezirk Danzig in the Province of West Prussia in Germany. After World War I and the re-establishment of independent Poland, the town was integrated into the Second Polish Republic. Wejherowo was the capital of Wejherowo County in Pomeranian Voivodeship, becoming a headquarters of state administration responsible for the maritime economy.

World War II

After the invasion of Poland, which marked the beginning of World War II, Wejherowo was annexed by Nazi Germany and was administered as part of Regierungsbezirk Danzig in the province of Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia. Most of the town's Jewish community was murdered by the Nazis during the occupation, while many local Poles were also victims of the Nazi extermination policy.
The Einsatzkommando 16 and SS Wachsturmbann "Eimann" entered the county in the first half of September 1939 to commit various crimes against the population. Poles arrested both in Wejherowo and the county were imprisoned in the local prison, and afterwards transported to the nearby village of Piaśnica Wielka, which was the site of a mass murder of about 12,000 Poles in 1939. Among people murdered there were the city's mayor Teodor Roman Bolduan and the wójt of gmina Wejherowo Edward Łakomy. Numerous Poles arrested during the Intelligenzaktion in other cities of the region were also briefly held in the local prison before they were murdered in Piaśnica. Among those people were local officials, merchants, activists, teachers, priests and civilian defenders of Gdynia. Local teachers were also among Polish teachers and principals murdered in the Mauthausen concentration camp.
In March 1945 Wejherowo was captured by the Red Army. After the war, in 1945, Wejherowo was reintegrated with Poland. Its first post-war mayor was Bernard Szczęsny, who during the German occupation was part of the Polish resistance movement, was imprisoned in the Stutthof concentration camp and escaped during a death march.
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Number of inhabitants by year

Culture

The local football club is Gryf Wejherowo. It competes in the lower leagues.

Education

Notable people

Wejherowo is twinned with: