Commission for the Determination of Place Names
Encyclopedia
The Commission for the Determination of Place Names was a commission of the Polish
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 Department of Public Administration, founded in January 1946. Its mission was the establishment of toponyms for places, villages, towns and cities in the former eastern territories of Germany (then known in Poland as the Regained Territories).

Territory and population

According to the decisions of the Potsdam Conference
Potsdam Conference
The Potsdam Conference was held at Cecilienhof, the home of Crown Prince Wilhelm Hohenzollern, in Potsdam, occupied Germany, from 16 July to 2 August 1945. Participants were the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States...

 most of the former German territories east of the Oder-Neisse line
Oder-Neisse line
The Oder–Neisse line is the border between Germany and Poland which was drawn in the aftermath of World War II. The line is formed primarily by the Oder and Lusatian Neisse rivers, and meets the Baltic Sea west of the seaport cities of Szczecin and Świnoujście...

 were placed under Polish administration, most of the remaining German population was expelled. Some of those territories had historical ties with Poland, dating to the medieval fragmentation of Poland (see Duchy of Silesia
Duchy of Silesia
The Duchy of Silesia with its capital at Wrocław was a medieval duchy located in the historic Silesian region of Poland. Soon after it was formed under the Piast dynasty in 1138, it fragmented into various Duchies of Silesia. In 1327 the remaining Duchy of Wrocław as well as most other duchies...

), but were also populated by German-speaking inhabitants
Ostsiedlung
Ostsiedlung , also called German eastward expansion, was the medieval eastward migration and settlement of Germans from modern day western and central Germany into less-populated regions and countries of eastern Central Europe and Eastern Europe. The affected area roughly stretched from Slovenia...

 for many centuries.

According to the 1939 German census, the territories were inhabited by 8,855,000 people, including a Polish minority in the territories' easternmost parts. The Polish minority included Masurs in Masuria
Masuria
Masuria is an area in northeastern Poland famous for its 2,000 lakes. Geographically, Masuria is part of two adjacent lakeland districts, the Masurian Lake District and the Iława Lake District...

 (former southern East Prussia
East Prussia
East Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia. The capital city was Königsberg.East Prussia...

), Kashubians
Kashubians
Kashubians/Kaszubians , also called Kashubs, Kashubes, Kaszubians, Kassubians or Cassubians, are a West Slavic ethnic group in Pomerelia, north-central Poland. Their settlement area is referred to as Kashubia ....

 and Slovincians in Pomerania
Pomerania
Pomerania is a historical region on the south shore of the Baltic Sea. Divided between Germany and Poland, it stretches roughly from the Recknitz River near Stralsund in the West, via the Oder River delta near Szczecin, to the mouth of the Vistula River near Gdańsk in the East...

, and Silesians
Silesians
Silesians , are the inhabitants of Silesia in Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic. A small diaspora community also exists in Karnes County, Texas in the USA....

 in Upper Silesia
Upper Silesia
Upper Silesia is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia. Since the 9th century, Upper Silesia has been part of Greater Moravia, the Duchy of Bohemia, the Piast Kingdom of Poland, again of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown and the Holy Roman Empire, as well as of...

 - these groups were referred to as "autochthons" after the war, and used to prove a "Polishness" of the territories. While the German census placed the number of Polish-speakers and bilinguals below 700,000 people, Polish demographers have estimated that the actual number of Poles in the former German East was between 1.2 and 1.3 million. In the 1.2 million figure, approximately 850,000 were estimated for the Upper Silesia
Upper Silesia
Upper Silesia is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia. Since the 9th century, Upper Silesia has been part of Greater Moravia, the Duchy of Bohemia, the Piast Kingdom of Poland, again of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown and the Holy Roman Empire, as well as of...

n regions, 350,000 for southern East Prussia
East Prussia
East Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia. The capital city was Königsberg.East Prussia...

 (Masuria
Masuria
Masuria is an area in northeastern Poland famous for its 2,000 lakes. Geographically, Masuria is part of two adjacent lakeland districts, the Masurian Lake District and the Iława Lake District...

) and 50,000 for the rest of the territories.

While the Germans were interned and expelled, close to 5 million settlers were either attracted or forced to settle the areas between 1945 and 1950. An additional 1,104,000 people had declared Polish nationality and were allowed to stay (851,000 of those in Upper Silesia
Upper Silesia
Upper Silesia is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia. Since the 9th century, Upper Silesia has been part of Greater Moravia, the Duchy of Bohemia, the Piast Kingdom of Poland, again of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown and the Holy Roman Empire, as well as of...

), bringing up the number of Poles to 5,894,600 as of 1950. The Polish government aimed to retain as many "autochthons" as possible for propaganda purposes, as their presence on former German soil was used to indicate the intrinsic "Polishness" of the area and justify its incorporation into the Polish state as "recovered" territories.

The Polish authorities often referred to the medieval Polish state to emphasize the validity of the Polish historical claim to these lands and began to call the area the Recovered Territories
Recovered Territories
Recovered or Regained Territories was an official term used by the People's Republic of Poland to describe those parts of pre-war Germany that became part of Poland after World War II...

. The arriving Polish administration and settlers faced the problem of a consistent and unambiguous usage of toponyms.

Former toponyms

When the area was settled by Germans during the medieval Ostsiedlung
Ostsiedlung
Ostsiedlung , also called German eastward expansion, was the medieval eastward migration and settlement of Germans from modern day western and central Germany into less-populated regions and countries of eastern Central Europe and Eastern Europe. The affected area roughly stretched from Slovenia...

, they either introduced new German toponyms or adopted pre-existing ones, which were of Baltic or West Slavic
West Slavs
The West Slavs are Slavic peoples speaking West Slavic languages. They include Poles , Czechs, Slovaks, Lusatian Sorbs and the historical Polabians. The northern or Lechitic group includes, along with Polish, the extinct Polabian and Pomeranian languages...

 origin—Baltic Old Prussian
Old Prussians
The Old Prussians or Baltic Prussians were an ethnic group, autochthonous Baltic tribes that inhabited Prussia, the lands of the southeastern Baltic Sea in the area around the Vistula and Curonian Lagoons...

 and Slavic Pomeranian
Pomeranian language
The Pomeranian language is a group of dialects from the Lechitic cluster of the West Slavic languages. In medieval contexts, it refers to the dialects spoken by the Slavic Pomeranians...

 in the North, and Slavic Silesian and Slavic Polish
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...

 in the South. In bi- and multi-lingual areas such as Upper Silesia
Upper Silesia
Upper Silesia is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia. Since the 9th century, Upper Silesia has been part of Greater Moravia, the Duchy of Bohemia, the Piast Kingdom of Poland, again of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown and the Holy Roman Empire, as well as of...

, German and Slavic (including Polish) variants often existed for the same toponym, derived either from a Slavic root (e.g., Opole
Opole
Opole is a city in southern Poland on the Oder River . It has a population of 125,992 and is the capital of the Upper Silesia, Opole Voivodeship and, also the seat of Opole County...

—Oppeln) or a German root (e.g., Reichenbach—Rychbach).

Beginning with the 19th-century Kulturkampf
Kulturkampf
The German term refers to German policies in relation to secularity and the influence of the Roman Catholic Church, enacted from 1871 to 1878 by the Prime Minister of Prussia, Otto von Bismarck. The Kulturkampf did not extend to the other German states such as Bavaria...

, many toponyms with Slavic roots were renamed to sound more German. In 1938, many place names of Slavic or Old Prussian origin in East Prussia
East Prussia
East Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia. The capital city was Königsberg.East Prussia...

 and Silesia
Silesia
Silesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with smaller parts also in the Czech Republic, and Germany.Silesia is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. Silesia's largest city and historical capital is Wrocław...

 were renamed to purely "German" toponyms by the Nazi-German
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

 administration. These renamings intensified during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, when Nazi Germany sought to eradicate Polish culture
Polish culture during World War II
Polish culture during World War II was suppressed by the occupying powers of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, both of whom were hostile to Poland's people and cultural heritage. Policies aimed at cultural genocide resulted in the deaths of thousands of scholars and artists, and the theft and...

.

Early Renaming in 1945

Initially there were several ways of naming like continuing to use the German names, pronouncing and spelling the German names in a more Polish way (Zechow→Czechów
Czechów, Lubusz Voivodeship
Czechów is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Santok, within Gorzów County, Lubusz Voivodeship, in western Poland. It lies approximately west of Santok and south-east of Gorzów Wielkopolski....

, Boyadel→Bojadła, Poberow→Pobierowo
Pobierowo
Pobierowo is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Rewal, within Gryfice County, West Pomeranian Voivodeship, in north-western Poland. It lies approximately south-west of Rewal, north-west of Gryfice, and north of the regional capital Szczecin.Before 1945 the area was part of Germany...

, Grabow→Grabowo
Grabowo, Gryfino County
Grabowo is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Chojna, within Gryfino County, West Pomeranian Voivodeship, in north-western Poland, close to the German border. It lies approximately north-west of Chojna, south of Gryfino, and south of the regional capital Szczecin.Before 1945 the...

); a literal translation of the German names (Eichberg→Dębogóra
Debogóra, West Pomeranian Voivodeship
Dębogóra is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Widuchowa, within Gryfino County, West Pomeranian Voivodeship, in north-western Poland, close to the German border. It lies approximately north-east of Widuchowa, south of Gryfino, and south of the regional capital Szczecin.Before...

 (oak mountain), Grünwalde→Zielenica (Green wood), Linde→Lipka
Lipka, Lubusz Voivodeship
Lipka is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Kolsko, within Nowa Sól County, Lubusz Voivodeship, in western Poland. It lies approximately north-east of Nowa Sól and east of Zielona Góra.-References:...

 (linden); giving names according to the places topographical characters (Górki
Górki, Gorzów County
Górki is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Santok, within Gorzów County, Lubusz Voivodeship, in western Poland. It lies approximately west of Santok and east of Gorzów Wielkopolski....

→mountainous); giving names honouring a local person or event (e.g. Sensburg→Mrągowo, to commemorate Christoph Mrongovius
Christoph Mrongovius
Christoph Coelestin Mrongovius was a Protestant pastor, writer, philosopher, distinguished linguist, and translator.-Biography:...

, Lötzen→Giżycko, to commemorate Gustaw Gizewiusz
Gustaw Gizewiusz
Gustaw Herman Marcin Gizewiusz, or Gustav Gisevius was a Polish political figure, folklorist, and translator. He was married to a Mazur Polish woman, who encouraged him to become a political figure...

, Rastenburg→Kętrzyn, to commemorate Wojciech Kętrzyński
Wojciech Ketrzynski
thumb|Kętrzyński-Monument in [[Kętrzyn]].Wojciech Kętrzyński , born Adalbert von Winkler, was a historian and the director of the Ossolineum Library in Lwów, Austrian partition of Poland. He focused on Polish history in a time when no independent Polish state existed...

) or adopting the name of the settler's homeland. Another purpose was to restore a historical Polish (or Slavic) name that dated to pre-Germanization times.

Spared from the expulsion of Germans from Poland were about 900,000 Masurians and Silesians
Silesians
Silesians , are the inhabitants of Silesia in Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic. A small diaspora community also exists in Karnes County, Texas in the USA....

, usually speaking Polish
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...

 and Silesian dialects mixed with German loanwords. Accordingly these groups had their own, traditional Masurian
Masurian language
Masurian was a dialect group of the Polish language, spoken by Masurians in a part of East Prussia that belongs to today's Poland. Masurians are regarded as being descendants of Masovians....

 or Silesian names for various toponyms (e.g. Johannisburg→Jańsbork, Rastenburg→Rastembork, Lötzen→Lec, Liegnitz→Lignica). Often however these names didn't comply with the maxims of the Committee and were usually not considered. Hence the decisions of the Committee were not always accepted by the local population, which sometimes protested against the new names with boycotts and even demolition of road signs. The locals rated the actions of the Committee rather as Polonisation against their will. In other cases the arriving Polish settlers requested not to use the Committee's suggestion but e.g. to name a village after the settler's first born child (Stefanówka for Nieder Giersdorf/Miłochów).

In many cases a single place had three or even four names and even administrative districts (Voivodships) like the area of the former Free City of Danzig
Free City of Danzig
The Free City of Danzig was a semi-autonomous city-state that existed between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig and surrounding areas....

 had four different names: morskie, kaszubskie, gdańskie and wiślane.

Sometimes even different administrative branches like the municipal office, the local office and the railway administration used different names, e.g. modern Dzierżoniów
Dzierzoniów
Dzierżoniów is a town in southwestern Poland. It is situated in Lower Silesian Voivodeship...

 in Lower Silesia
Lower Silesia
Lower Silesia ; is the northwestern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia; Upper Silesia is to the southeast.Throughout its history Lower Silesia has been under the control of the medieval Kingdom of Poland, the Kingdom of Bohemia and the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy from 1526...

 was called Rychbach, Reichenbach and Drobniszew at the same time. This problem was later solved by naming the town in memory of Jan Dzierzon
Jan Dzierzon
Johann Dzierzon, in Polish Jan Dzierżon or Dzierżoń , also John Dzierzon , was a pioneering apiarist who discovered the phenomenon of parthenogenesis in bees and designed the first successful movable-frame beehive.Dzierzon came from a Polish family in Silesia...

.

1945 conference

In early April 1945, the Regional Bureau of the National Railway Administration in Poznań
Poznan
Poznań is a city on the Warta river in west-central Poland, with a population of 556,022 in June 2009. It is among the oldest cities in Poland, and was one of the most important centres in the early Polish state, whose first rulers were buried at Poznań's cathedral. It is sometimes claimed to be...

 founded a commission for the standardization of place names along the Oder River. This initiative was supported by the Western Institute
Western Institute
The Western Institute in Poznań is a scientific research society focusing on the Western provinces of Poland - Kresy Zachodnie , history, economy and politics of Germany, and the Polish-German relations in history and today.Established by...

 and Poznań University, which in July 1945 published a bilingual Słowniczek nazw miejscowych (Small Dictionary of Place Names).

Again on the initiative of the Regional Railway Administration in Poznań, the first Onomastic Conference was organized at Szczecin and held on 11–13 September 1945, attended by 37 representatives of Poznań University, the Western Institute, the Baltic Institute
Baltic Institute
The Baltic Institute in Gdańsk is a scientific society researching the topics of the Baltic Sea countries, maritime economic issues, and Polish-German and Polish-Scandinavian relations.- History :...

 in Gdańsk
Gdansk
Gdańsk is a Polish city on the Baltic coast, at the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay , in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the...

 (which had just moved there from Toruń
Torun
Toruń is an ancient city in northern Poland, on the Vistula River. Its population is more than 205,934 as of June 2009. Toruń is one of the oldest cities in Poland. The medieval old town of Toruń is the birthplace of the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus....

) and the administrations of Szczecin
Szczecin
Szczecin , is the capital city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in Poland. It is the country's seventh-largest city and the largest seaport in Poland on the Baltic Sea. As of June 2009 the population was 406,427....

, Poznań and Gdańsk, as well as members of information and propaganda institutions and the postal service.

The Conference achieved a general consensus for a systematic method of considering place names:
  • To be used as a principal source was Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich (Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland and of Other Slavic Countries), which had been published in the late nineteenth century.
  • If a name had several forms in medieval sources, the one that was nearest to the contemporary written Polish should be adopted.
  • Translation of German names into Polish should be avoided.
  • With ancient names, the first two declension
    Declension
    In linguistics, declension is the inflection of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and articles to indicate number , case , and gender...

     case
    Grammatical case
    In grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun is an inflectional form that indicates its grammatical function in a phrase, clause, or sentence. For example, a pronoun may play the role of subject , of direct object , or of possessor...

    s and the adjectival
    Adjectival
    Adjectival may refer to:* Adjective, a part of speech that modifies a noun or a pronoun* Adjectival noun or sometimes "adjectival", a noun that functions as an adjective, especially in Japanese grammar...

     form should be provided in the interest of correct usage.
  • In cases when there were only German names, Slavic names in the neighboring area could be adopted. If there were no nearby Slavic names, the name of the new settlers' former native area could be adopted, with a slight modification.

The Commission

Pursuant to this, in January 1946 a Commission for the Determination of Place Names (Komisja Ustalania Nazw Miejscowości) was founded as a commission of the Department of Public Administration. It comprised a chair and 6 commission members, including three scholars and three officials of the Departments of Transportation, Posts and Defense.
The first chairman was the geographer and former director of the Baltic Institute
Baltic Institute
The Baltic Institute in Gdańsk is a scientific society researching the topics of the Baltic Sea countries, maritime economic issues, and Polish-German and Polish-Scandinavian relations.- History :...

, Stanisław Srokowski
Stanisław Srokowski
Stanisław Srokowski was a Polish geographer and diplomat.Srokowski joined the Polish diplomatic service in 1920 and became the Polish Consul at Odessa and Königsberg...

. The other commission members were the linguists Kazimierz Nitsch, Mikołaj Rudnicki
Mikołaj Rudnicki
Mikołaj Rudnicki - was a Polish linguist. He finished his studies in Kraków. In 1911 he became a docent in Indoeuropean linguistics....

, Stanisław Rospond and Witold Tszycki; a specialist in toponyms; and the historian Władysław Semkowicz.

The Commission coordinated the work of local institutions such as the Western Institute in Poznań, the Silesian Institute
Silesian Institute in Katowice
The Silesian Institute in Katowice was a regional scientific organization collecting local information about Polish region of Silesia, working in Katowice in years 1934-1939 and 1945-1949, and during the Nazi occupation of Poland, during World War II as an underground movement in Warsaw, Kraków...

 in Katowice
Katowice
Katowice is a city in Silesia in southern Poland, on the Kłodnica and Rawa rivers . Katowice is located in the Silesian Highlands, about north of the Silesian Beskids and about southeast of the Sudetes Mountains.It is the central district of the Upper Silesian Metropolis, with a population of 2...

, and the Baltic Institute in Gdańsk
Gdansk
Gdańsk is a Polish city on the Baltic coast, at the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay , in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the...

. Three regional subcommissions were founded, each responsible for a given area:
  • Kraków Commission I: responsible for Silesia
    Silesia
    Silesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with smaller parts also in the Czech Republic, and Germany.Silesia is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. Silesia's largest city and historical capital is Wrocław...

    ;
  • Kraków Commission II: responsible for the former East Prussia
    East Prussia
    East Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia. The capital city was Königsberg.East Prussia...

     and Free City of Danzig
    Free City of Danzig
    The Free City of Danzig was a semi-autonomous city-state that existed between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig and surrounding areas....

    ; and the
  • Poznań Commission: responsible for the former Farther Pomerania
    Farther Pomerania
    Farther Pomerania, Further Pomerania, Transpomerania or Eastern Pomerania , which before the German-Polish border shift of 1945 comprised the eastern part of the Duchy, later Province of Pomerania, roughly stretching from the Oder River in the West to Pomerelia in the East...

     and Neumark
    Neumark
    Neumark comprised a region of the Prussian province of Brandenburg, Germany.Neumark may also refer to:* Neumark, Thuringia* Neumark, Saxony* Neumark * Nowe Miasto Lubawskie or Neumark, a town in Poland, situated at river Drwęca...

    .


The subcommissions prepared recommendations for the Commission, which ultimately endorsed up to 98 per cent of
their proposals, which were often based on prewar publications of the Western Institute, such as Stanisław Kozierowski
Stanisław Kozierowski
Stanisław Kozierowski was a Polish Catholic priest and historian.-Biography:Kozierowski was born in Tremessen...

's Atlas nazw geograficznych Słowiańszczyzny Zachodniej (Atlas of Geographical Names of Western Slavdom).

Following approval by the Commission, a place name had to be accepted by the Departments of Public Administration and of the Recovered Territories
Recovered Territories
Recovered or Regained Territories was an official term used by the People's Republic of Poland to describe those parts of pre-war Germany that became part of Poland after World War II...

, and finally was published in the Monitor Polski
Monitor Polski
Monitor Polski is a publication of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland. It publishes legal acts in Polish law that are not a source of new laws, and various public decisions that are required to be made public...

(Polish Monitor).

The Commission's first conference took place on 2–4 March 1946. It decided the names of voivodships and 220 cities, counties, transportation crossroads, and towns with populations over 5,000.

The second conference, on 1–3 June 1946, dealt with towns with populations between 1,000 and 5,000; and the third, on 26 September 8 October 1946 decided the names of villages with a population between 500 and 1,000. By the end of 1946, the Commission had adopted about 4,400 place names; and by June 1947, nearly all names of stations and settlements with a population of
over 500. By the end of 1950, a total of 32,138 place names had been determined by the Commission.

After the Commission's chairman, Stanisław Srokowski, died in 1950, the village of Drengfurt
Srokowo
Srokowo , is a village in Kętrzyn County, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, in northern Poland, close to the border with the Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia. It is the seat of the gmina called Gmina Srokowo...

, which had initially been renamed "Dryfort", was changed to "Srokowo
Srokowo
Srokowo , is a village in Kętrzyn County, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, in northern Poland, close to the border with the Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia. It is the seat of the gmina called Gmina Srokowo...

".

At present

Currently there are two commissions in Poland, tasked with standardization of toponyms: Komisja Nazw Miejscowości i Obiektów Fizjograficznych (the Commission for Names of Places and Physiographic Objects) and Komisja Standaryzacji Nazw Geograficznych (the Commission for Standardization of Geographic Names).

See also

  • Territorial changes of Poland
    Territorial changes of Poland
    Poland is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

  • List of towns in Farther Pomerania
  • Prontuario dei nomi locali dell'Alto Adige
    Prontuario dei nomi locali dell'Alto Adige
    The Prontuario dei nomi locali dell'Alto Adige is a list of Italianized toponyms for mostly German place names in South Tyrol which was published in 1916 by the Royal Italian Geographic Society...

  • Former toponyms in Greece

External links

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