Puck, Poland


Puck is a town in northwestern Poland with 11,350 inhabitants. It is in Gdańsk Pomerania on the south coast of the Baltic Sea and part of Kashubia with many Kashubian speakers in the town. Previously in the Gdańsk Voivodeship, Puck has been the capital of Puck County in the Pomeranian Voivodeship since 1999.

History

The settlement became a marketplace and a seaport as early as the 7th century. The name, as was common during the Middle Ages, was spelled differently: in a 1277 document Putzc, 1277 Pusecz, 1288 Puczse and Putsk, 1289 Pucz. It was part of Poland, and in 1309 it was annexed by the Teutonic Order. Puck achieved town status in 1348. The town's first hospital was founded in the 14th century. In the late 14th or early 15th century a castle was built.
In 1440 the town joined the Prussian Confederation, which opposed Teutonic rule, and upon the request of which King Casimir IV Jagiellon re-incorporated the territory to the Kingdom of Poland in 1454. The Teutonic Knights renounced any claims in a 1466 peacy treaty. It was the seat of local County Administration within the Pomeranian Voivodeship in the province of Royal Prussia in the Greater Poland Province of the Polish Crown. The starosts resided in the castle, which was later expanded, and which also housed the arsenal.
The Polish kings tried to create a fleet at Danzig, but autonomous Hanseatic Danzig would not allow them in their territory. Ships chartered by Poland had to land at Pautzke in 1567. Poland tried to establish a Polish Navy, gaining the use some harbors in Livonia and Finland, but a standing navy never materialized. King of Sigismund III Vasa also tried to establish a fleet in his attempts to wrest the crown of Sweden from King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, but Sigismund's attempts were destroyed in 1628. In 1655-1656, Puck was successfully defended during a Swedish siege in time of the Swedish invasion of Poland. The town, including the castle, was spared from serious damage, however, the hospital was destroyed. Polish King John III Sobieski funded the construction of a new hospital, completed in 1681.
in Puck in 1920
In 1772, through the First Partition of Poland, the town was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia and in 1773 became part of the newly established province of West Prussia. The Prussian administration dismantled the castle and the remains of the medieval town walls. The town, as Putzig, became part of Germany in 1871, and in 1913 it became the garrison of the first planes of German Naval aviation. After the First World War, Poland regained independence and Puck was assigned to the Second Polish Republic by the Treaty of Versailles. In 1920 Poland celebrated Poland's Wedding to the Sea in Puck. The first actual Polish Navy was founded at the end of World War I in 1918 with some French and British involvement. Puck was the only Polish harbour until Gdynia was built in the 1920s and served as the main harbour of the Polish Navy until the Second World War.

World War II

Puck was bombed by Nazi Germany at 5.20am Polish time on Friday September 1, known thereafter as Grey Friday, the first day of the invasion of Poland, which started World War II. Luftwaffe bombers dropped a projectile on the town, which also had an airbase for the Naval Air Squadron; dealing significant damage to the Polish air force units stationed there.
in 1939
During the subsequent German occupation, many Poles from the region, including officials, merchants, directors, teachers, judges, priests, notaries, railwaymen, pharmacists, blacksmiths, technicians, postmen and farmers, were imprisoned in Puck, and afterwards murdered in the Piasnica massacre as part of the Intelligenzaktion. In November 1939, the SS expelled families of Poles who were either murdered in the massacres or deported to Nazi concentration camps.
In the building of the local brewery in 1940, the Germans created a transit camp, in which racial selection of the expelled Polish inhabitants of the region was carried out. Those considered to be "racially valuable" were deported to Germanisation camps and labor camps in Germany, and the rest were expelled to the General Government. Poles expelled from Gmina Dziemiany were used as forced labour in the local factory.
Germans operated a branch of the Stutthof concentration camp in Puck in the years 1941 to 1944. After the war, in 1945, Puck was again part of the Republic of Poland.

Interesting places

Land use

Notable residents

Puck, Poland is twinned with:

  • Konz, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany
  • Stein, Bavaria, Germany

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