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Neumark (region)
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The Neumark , also known as the New March or East Brandenburg , was a region of the Prussian province of Brandenburg, Germany, located east of the Oder River.
Known as the Lubusz Land while part of medieval Poland, the territory later known as the Neumark was acquired by the German Margraviate of Brandenburg during the High Middle Ages.
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The Neumark , also known as the New March or East Brandenburg , was a region of the Prussian province of Brandenburg, Germany, located east of the Oder River.
Known as the Lubusz Land while part of medieval Poland, the territory later known as the Neumark was acquired by the German Margraviate of Brandenburg during the High Middle Ages. As Brandenburg-Küstrin, the Neumark was an independent state of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation from 1535-1571, after which it was restored to the Electors of Brandenburg. It became part of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701 and part of the German Empire in 1871. After World War I the entirely ethnic German Neumark remained inside the new Weimar Republic of Germany.
The majority of the Neumark was placed under Polish administration in 1945 after World War II; its expelled German population was replaced largely with Poles. Most of the Polish territory is part of Lubusz Voivodeship, while the northern towns Choszczno (Arnswalde), Myslibórz (Soldin), and Chojna (Königsberg in der Neumark) are in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship. Some territory near Cottbus, administratively part of Regierungsbezirk Frankfurt (Oder) (coterminous with the Neumark) after the Congress of Vienna, remains in Germany.
Location
The Neumark was bordered in the west and the south by the Oder, in the north by Pomerania, and in the east by Poland (later by Provinz Posen). The Warta and Notec Rivers and their swamp regions also dominated the landscape of the region. At the time of the Neumark's greatest territorial extent (at the end of the 17th century), the region included the districts and towns of Königsberg in der Neumark (Chojna), Soldin (Myslibórz), Landsberg an der Warthe (Gorzów), Friedeberg (Strzelce), Arnswalde (Choszczno), Dramburg (Drawsko), Schivelbein (Swidwin), Sternberg, and Crossen an der Oder (Krosno).
History
Archeology
In the Bronze Age the area which became the Neumark was included within the Lusatian culture. In the Iron Age it was included within the Jastorf culture, identified sometimes with Germanic or Celtic tribes.
As its inhabitants moved westward, the region became depopulated during the Migration Period. After 500 AD the area was gradually repopulated by West Slavic tribes and was known as a forest borderland between Pomerania and Great Poland. According to the Bavarian Geographer's description, the future Neumark region was inhabited by the Miloxi, who had 47 settlements between the Oder and Poznan.
Middle Ages
The region came under the sovereignty of the first Polish state during the 10th century rule of Mieszko I and Boleslaw I, Dukes of the Polans. The later Neumark territory was incorporated as the Lubusz Land and was thinly populated with Poles by the beginning of the 13th century.
The Ascanian Margraves of Brandenburg, starting with Albert the Bear, aspired to extend their dominion east of the Oder. They had gained a foothold east of the river by 1242 and in 1252 the Margraviate of Brandenburg and the Archbishopric of Magdeburg purchased the Lubusz Land. In 1253 they founded Frankfurt an der Oder as a river crossing and staging point for further expansion easward. Through land purchases, marriage pacts, and services to Poland's Piast dynasty, the Ascanians extended their territory eastward to the Drawa River and northward to the Parseta River. For instance, the Polish castellany of Zantoch, an important base and crossing point over the Warta near its junction with the Notec, was sought by Pomerania. To relieve himself of the trouble of maintaining the fortress, Duke Przemysl I of Greater Poland granted the castellany to Margrave Conrad as a dowry for his daughter Konstancja. To safeguard the region Margrave John I founded the town of Landsberg an der Warthe in 1257. The Templars sold Soldin to the Ascanians in 1261, and the town began to become a center for the region.
Beginning in the 1230s, Low German-speaking colonists from the Holy Roman Empire began settling north and south of the Warta and Notec Rivers upon the initiative of Pomeranian and Polish lords (see Ostsiedlung). The lords invited members of the Knights Templar and Knights Hospitaller to establish monasteries, in whose surroundings settlements began to develop. To fortify the borderland Pomeranian and Polish dukes built castles in the north, around which settlements also grew.
Most of the colonists who settled in Brandenburg's new eastern territory came from Magdeburg or the Altmark ("Old March"). Unlike in the rest of Brandenburg where the Ascanians settled knights in open villages, the margraves began constructing castles in their land east of the Oder to guard against Poland. The Slavic inhabitants of the region were gradually Germanized. Because the new Terra trans Oderam, or "land across the Oder", was an extension of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, it became known as the Neumark ("New March") after the middle of the 15th century.
With the extinction of the Ascanian line in 1320 Brandenburg's interest in the Neumark decreased. Neither the margraves of the Wittelsbach (1323-1373) or Luxembourg dynasties concerned themselves with developing their eastern-most territory further. The political vacuum allowed Poland to reassert its influence in the area, while robber barons terrorized the populace.
Teutonic Knights
The Neumark was pawned to the Teutonic Knights in 1402 and passed completely to their control in 1429, although the Order neglected the region as well. After the Teutonic Knights' defeat in the Battle of Grunwald (Tannenberg) in 1410, the future Grand Master Michael Küchmeister von Sternberg used the Neumark as a staging ground for an army of German and Hungarian mercenaries which he later used against the forces of King Wladyslaw II Jagiello of Poland, allowing the Order to retain much of its territory in the First Peace of Thorn in 1411.
The Knights' mismanagement led to their pawning of the Neumark back to Brandenburg in 1454/1455, by then led by Elector Frederick II of the Hohenzollern dynasty. After Frederick completed the reacquisition of Neumark in 1463 for 40,000 guilder, the region belonged to Brandenburg for the following centuries, with the exception of the time between 1535-1571. Frederick II wrote for his successors "that the said land, the New Mark, shall belong to German territory and to the worshipful Electorate of the Mark of Brandenburg, with which it was incorporated at the institution of the Electorate, and shall so remain, and shall never pass to those who speak not the German tongue".
Brandenburg-Küstrin
After the death of Elector Joachim I Nestor in 1535, Brandenburg's territory west of the Oder (the Kurmark) went to his older son Joachim II, while the Neumark went to his younger son John, Margrave of Brandenburg-Küstrin. John began ruling the Neumark as an independent entity and consolidating the land. An enthusiastic supporter of the Protestant Reformation, John succeeded in converting the Neumark to Lutheranism and confiscating church property. He lived frugally and acquired wealth for his treasury through usury and hiring out mercenary companies.
The division of Brandenburg resulted in trade wars between the brothers, as Crossen and Landsberg competed with the Kurmark's Frankfurt for mercantile primacy. The two margraves eventually compromised to the economic expense of Stettin. The brothers also reconciled out of concern for their territories during the Schmalkaldic War.
In 1548 John's administration was moved from Soldin to Küstrin. With the death of both brothers within ten days of each other in 1571, the Neumark became reunited with the Kurmark under Joachim II's son, John George.
Brandenburg-Prussia
In 1618 East Brandenburg became part of Brandenburg-Prussia after the electors' inheritance of the Duchy of Prussia. During the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), the Neumark was ravaged by both Swedish and Imperial troops who plundered and burnt the land, while plague epidemics in 1626 and 1631 killed much of the populace. While occupied by Swedish troops the region had to contribute 60,000 talers and 10,000 Wispel of rye.
Kingdom of Prussia
After the creation of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701, the situation in the Neumark began to improve. King Frederick I initiated new waves of colonization. Many of the new settlers were French Hugenots forced to flee from religious persecution in France. The textile industry also began to develop in the Neumark. The Seven Years' War caused the region to regress in its development, as high contributions were exacted from the population for the war effort and the Neumark was the setting for battles such as at Kunersdorf. Under King Frederick II, increased land reclamation and economic consolidation resulted from the drainage of the Warta and Notec areas.
The reorganization of Prussia after the territorial changes resulting from the Vienna Congress in 1815 changed the political makeup of the Neumark. The districts of Dramburg and Schivelbein and the northern part of Landkreis Arnswalde with the town of Nörenberg were reassigned to the Province of Pomerania. The Neumark's remaining territory was incorporated into the newly created Regierungsbezirk Frankfurt (Oder) of the Province of Brandenburg.
Germany
With the creation of the Prussian-led German Empire in 1871, the Neumark became part of a unified German state with the rest of Brandenburg. In the Weimar Republic's National Assembly of 1 November 1919, the majority of the region voted for the Social Democratic Party of Germany. The Neumark populace mostly voted for the German National People's Party in the elections for the German Reichstag on 20 May 1928, with a small island of SDP voters. In the Reichstag vote of December 1924 1,900 votes were cast for the Polish Peasant Party out of a population of 570,000. In 1925 the Neumark had 3,500 Polish-speakers. In the Reichstag vote of 6 November 1932, the Nazi Party won the election in the region.
When the province of Posen-West Prussia was dissolved in 1938, the Neumark was expanded to include the districts of Schwerin (now Skwierzyna) and Meseritz (now Miedzyrzecz), although the districts of Arnswalde and Friedeberg were reassigned to Pomerania. According to the 1939 census, the Neumark had a population of 645,000 residents, including 3,000 non-Germans. The dialect spoken in much of the territory was Neumärkisch, a variation of the East Low German dialect Brandenburgisch.
Infrastructure before 1945
The Neumark region was always marked by its agriculture and forestry. The medium-sized towns were mostly Ackerbürgerstädte, or farmer-citizen-towns. The textile industry became prominent in the 19th century. With the construction of modern roadways, the Fernverkehrstraße 1 (an arterial road from Berlin to Königsberg), and the Preußische Ostbahn ("Prussian Eastern Railroad"), the Neumark also began to develop industrially. Such development was primarily geared toward agricultural needs and was concentrated near the cities of Landsberg and Küstrin, and the Neumark did not become nearly as industrialized or densely-populated as other German areas such as the Ruhr Area, Saxony, or Upper Silesia.
World War II
Near the end of World War II, the Soviet Red Army reached the Neumark at the end of January 1945. Because the Red Army had advanced so quickly, the civilian population of the region suffered greatly from warfare and occupying troops because they had not prepared to flee in time. More than 40,000 Neumarkers were killed in action as soldiers.
As the Neumark lay east of the Oder-Neisse line which formed the new border between Allied-controlled Germany and Poland, the region was put under Polish administration after the Potsdam Conference. Germans remaining in the region were expelled and their land and possessions confiscated in accordance with the Polish government's Bierut Decree of March 1946. A small part of the German population, mostly technicians for the water supply companies, were retained and used for compulsory labour; they were allowed to emigrate to Germany in the 1950s. Older estimates indicated that of the pre-war population of 645,000, only 5,000 of the inhabitants from 1939 remained in the province in 1950.'. According to the Centre Against Expulsions, 40,000 Neumarkers were killed in action as soldiers, 395,000 fled to West or East Germany by 1950, and 208,000 died, disappeared, or were murdered during the course of flight or expulsion by Polish and Soviet troops.
Poland
The Oder-Neisse line delimiting Germany and Poland split several localities of the region into divided cities:
To replace the expelled German population, the former Neumark was resettled, with about 66% of the new population Poles from central Poland and about 33% Poles and Ukrainians from Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union. From 1975-1998 the former Neumark territory was divided between the Voivodeships of Gorzów and Zielona Góra with a small section around Chojna in Szczecin Voivodeship. Since the reorganization of Polish voivodeships on 1 January 1999, almost all of the former Neumark region lies within Lubusz Voivodeship.
See also
External links
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