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https://www.facebook.com/pages/CEE-Packaging/135108923181666Part of a journey I made on Thursday 30 June 2011 from Rogowo near Kołobrzeg to Lębork in northern Poland. Starting off with really wonderful weather, I finished off in the rain and after that I could not be bothered to film the rest of the journey to Gdynia.
Slavic immigration reached the area in the 7th century, centered around nearby deposits of salt.
During the Ostsiedlung, a settlement was founded by German settlers some kilometers from the site of the Slavic one .On 23 May 1255 it was chartered under Lübeck law by Wartislaw III, Duke of Pomerania and more settlers arrived, attracted by the duke. The settlers received several privileges such as exemption from certain taxes and several benefits, making it difficult for the Slavic population to compete with Germans.
In 1361, Kolberg joined the Hanseatic League.
In the 15th century the city traded with Scotland, Amsterdam and Scandinavia. Beer, salt, honey, wool and flour were exported, while merchants imported textiles from England, southern fruits, and cod liver oil. In the 16th century, the city reached 5,000 inhabitants.
During the Thirty Years' War, Kolberg was occupied by imperial forces from 1627 to 1630, and thereafter by Swedish forces
Kolberg with most of Farther Pomerania was granted to Brandenburg-Prussia in the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia and, since the Treaty of Stettin (1653) was part of the Province of Pomerania, becoming part of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701. In 1761, the town was captured after three subsequent sieges by the Russian commander Peter Rumyantsev during the Seven Years' War. At the end of the war, however, Kolberg was returned to Prussia.
During Napoleon's invasion of Prussia during the War of the Fourth Coalition, the town was besieged by the Grande Armée from mid-March to 2 July 1807 along with Polish forces made from insurgents against Prussian rule. A street named after the commander leading Polish soldiers is located today in the city. The city's defence, led by then Lieutenant-Colonel August von Gneisenau, held out until the war was ended by the Treaty of Tilsit. Kolberg became part of the Prussian Province of Pomerania in 1815 after the final defeat of Napoleon.
Between 1924 and 1935 the American-German painter Lyonel Feininger, a tutor at the Staatliches Bauhaus, visited Kolberg repeatedly and painted the cathedral and environs of the town.
In 1933 elections the Nazi Party and German nationalist party DNVP enjoyed support of majority of the population, with 9.842 votes for Nazis and 2.763 for DNVP (together 12.605) out of 19.607 cast votes.
In 1944 during the city was designated a "stronghold" (Festung) — Festung Kolberg. The 1807 siege was used shortly before the end of the war by Joseph Goebbels for the last Nazi propaganda film, Kolberg. It was meant to inspire the Germans with its depiction of the heroic Prussian defence during the Napoleonic Wars. Tremendous resources were devoted to filming this epic, even diverting tens of thousands of troops from the front lines to have them serve as extras in battle scenes. Ironically, the film was released in the final few weeks of Nazi Germany's existence, when most of the country's cinemas were already destroyed.
On 10 February 1945 German torpedo-boat T-196 brought to Kolberg about 300 survivors of the General von Steuben, which had been sunk by Soviet submarine S-13. As the Red Army advanced on Kolberg, most of the inhabitants and tens of thousands of refugees from surrounding areas (about 70,000 were trapped in the Kolberg Pocket), as well as 40,000 German soldiers, were evacuated from the besieged city by German naval forces in Operation Hannibal. Only about two-thousand soldiers were left on 17 March to cover last sea transports.
Between 4 March and 18 March 1945, there were major battles between the Soviet and Polish forces and the German army. Because of a lack of anti-tank weapons, German battleships used their guns to support the defenders of Kolberg until nearly all of the soldiers and civilians had been evacuated.
On 18 March, the Polish Army re-enacted Poland's Wedding to the Sea ceremony, which had been celebrated for the first time in 1920 by General Józef Haller. Kołobrzeg became part of Poland.
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