Gniezno

Gniezno (German: Gnesen) is considered the most ancient town in Poland. It lies in the province of Poznan (Posen) on the railway from the city of Posen to Thorn. From 1793 until 1919 this province was part of Prussia. In 1904 the town's population was 21,700. In 1982 the population was estimated to be 63,500.

Archaelogical evidence indicates a Slav settlement here since the eighth century, which Polish nationalists claim belonged to the Polanie tribe of West Slavs. This seems unlikely as there were other migrating Slavs in this region then and the first mention of Poles anywhere comes in the tenth century. In 1000 Gniezno became the first Roman Catholic archdiocese in Poland; it received the Magdeburg town privileges in 1240. It survived the wars with the Teutonic Knights in the fourteenth century, and the Swedish wars in the seventeenth century, in which century it was, however, struck by the Black Plague.

The town has at least ten churches of note, including the cathedral said to have been founded as a church in the 9th (but more likely the 10th) century, but dating in its present form mainly from 1760-90, with fine bronze doors of the 12th century and the tomb of the Bohemian St.Adalbert, Bishop of Prague, a missionary to the Hungarians and the Poles, who was martyred in 997 AD in his efforts to convert the Baltic Prussians to Christianity. Monarchs of Poland were crowned in this cathedral down to 1230.

Heinz Reinefarth (1903-1979), SS-Gruppenführer and Lieutenant-General of the Waffen-SS, and Police Leader, was born in Gnesen. After completing his studies at the Gymnasium there in 1922, he studied law at the University of Jena. After WWII he was elected to the Landtag (Parliament) of Schleswig-Holstein.

Sources

• Baedeker, Karl, Northern Germany, 14th revised edition, Leipzig & London, 1904, p.182.
• The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th edition, 'Micropaedia', Chicago, USA., vol.5, 1990, p.314.