When Danzig Became Gdańsk: What Happens to a City When Its Demographics Change Completely

History Unplugged Podcast

History Unplugged

Society & Culture, History

4.2 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 19 March 2019

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What happens to a city when its demographics change completely in the space of a few years? To explore this question, we will take a look at the case of Danzig (modern-day Gdańsk) in northern Poland. The city's population was almost entirely German from its origin in the Middle Ages to World War 2. After the war, the population became Polish. To explore this question we will zoom out and look at these big issues: 1) The centuries-long eastern movement of Germans, who spread throughout central and Eastern Europe; 2) The establishment of the Free City of Danzig by Napoleon in 1807 after he dissolved the Holy Roman Empire; 3) Why Hitler wanted to capture Danzig immediately after invading Poland in 1939, even though it held no strategic value; 4) The expulsion of Danzig's German population after World War Two and how the city transformed with the importing of Polish residents, who renamed it Gdańsk. This episode is based on a question from listener Melissa, who wanted me to talk about the history of the city/city-state of Danzig before, during, and after World War II.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the History Unplugged Podcast.
0:05.4	The unscripted show that celebrates unsung heroes, Mythbust's historical lies, and rediscoveres
0:11.9	the forgotten stories that changed our world.
0:15.5	I'm your host, Scott Rank.
0:18.8	Hey everyone, welcome to today's episode.
0:23.0	We're going to be tackling a big topic that has to do with population movement, but
0:28.4	more specifically, what happens to a place when the people who've lived there for decades
0:33.9	or centuries leave and then other people come in, and what does that mean for that place?
0:39.0	Before I get metaphysical, what happens to the soul of that place?
0:43.0	Is there any continuity in a place when the people who live there are no longer there?
0:47.4	Specifically, I'm answering a question from listener Melissa who asks me about the history
0:52.6	behind the city or city state of Danzig, which is in today's Poland, before, during,
0:58.7	and after World War II.
1:00.9	If you're a aficionado of World War II, you probably know about Danzig because it was
1:05.0	a major point of contention for Nazi Germany.
1:07.7	It had a German population, but was not part of Germany due to World War I's Treaty
1:12.9	of Versailles, and the German army mobilized and quickly captured Danzig and was one of
1:18.8	the early goals and the war aims of the Nazi government.
1:22.6	But I'm not going to get into all that stuff.
1:24.2	I'm not going to go through a traditional narrative about Danzig and the role played in World
1:28.4	War II.
1:29.4	Instead, I'm going to describe the German population of Danzig and why there were populations
	...

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