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Warmia (Template:Audio-de; Latin: Varmia; Template:Lang-pl) is a region between Pomerania and Masuria in northeastern Poland. It has also historically been known as Ermeland in English.

Together with Masuria it forms the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship. To the west of Warmia is Pomesania; to the south Chełmno Land, Sassinia, and Galindia (later called Masuria); to the east Sambia; and in the north the Vistula Bay. Warmia has been under the rule of various rulers over its history, most notably the Teutonic Knights, Poland, and the Kingdom of Prussia. The history of the region is closely connected to that of the Archbishopric of Warmia.

The area is associated with the Old Prussian tribe of Warmians (a.k.a. Warms, Varms, Varmi, Warmians, Varmians, Latvian: Vārmieši) subdued by the Teutonic Knights. According to folk etymology, the names may come from a Prussian chief called Warmo and his widow Erma.

History

The first traces of human settlement in the region come from ca. 14-15,000 years ago. They are many traces of settlements made by the Lusatian culture (13th-5th century BC), including above-ground water housings and artificially created islands.

In the early Middle Ages the area was inhabited by various Old Prussian tribes, such as the Pomesanians, Pogesanians, Warmians, Natangians, Bartians, Sambians, Nadrovians, Scalovians, Galindians, and Sassinians. Several times conquest attempts from the Polish princes of Masovia were successfully repelled by Prussians and they only began to coordinate after the 12th century with the arrival of the crusading Teutonic Order.

Teutonic Order

Because of his inability to subdue the Prussians, Konrad I of Masovia invited the Teutonic Knights to Christianize the pagan Prussians in 1226. He supplied the Teutonic Order and allow the usage of Chełmno Land as a base for the knights while they established secure borders between Masovia and the Prussians, with his assumption that conquered territories would be joined to Masovia. The Order waited until they received official authorisation by the empire, which Emperor Frederick II granted. Their actions were violations of signed treaties, and the knights were accused of forging land grants. By the end of the 13th century most of the Prussian region, including Warmia, was conquered by the Teutonic Order. The native Prussians were mostly reduced to the status of serfs and gradually Germanized. Some native Prussians, the ones who did not take on Christianity, had their equal status granted earlier, reduced to a lower status. Over several centuries the colonists, native Prussians and the immigrants gradually developed into German East Prussians. The Order received the reins of government from Frederick II in 1228. The grant was confirmed by a papal bull from Pope Gregory IX in 1234, although Poland never recognized the rights of the Order to rule Prussia.

The Bishopric of Warmia was one of four dioceses created in 1242 by the papal legate William of Modena. Between the 13th and 17th centuries Warmia as well as other parts of Prussia were colonised by Germans in the north and gave refuge to Lithuanians, Scots, Salzburgers and Poles in the south. The bishopric was exempt and was governed by a prince-bishop, confirmed by Emperor Charles IV. The Bishops of Warmia were usually Germans or Poles, although Enea Silvio Piccolomini, the later Pope Pius II, was an Italian bishop of the diocese.

After the Battle of Grunwald, Bishop Heinrich Vogelsang of Warmia surrendered to King Władysław II Jagiełło of Poland, and later with Bishop Henry of Sambia gave homage to the Polish king at Marienburg (Malbork). After the Polish army moved out of Warmia, the new Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, Heinrich von Plauen the Elder, accused the bishop of treachery and reconquered the region.

Exempt Bishopric

Warmia was under the Church jurisdiction of the Archbishopric of Riga until 1512, when Prince-Bishop Lucas Watzenrode received exempt status, placing Warmia directly under the authority of the Pope, which remained until the resolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806. The Second Treaty of Toruń (Thorn) in 1466 had removed Warmia from the control of the Teutonic Knights and placed it under the sovereignty of the Crown of Poland as part of the province of Royal Prussia, with several privileges though.

Soon after, in 1467, the Cathedral Chapter elected Nicolas von Tüngen against the wish of the Polish king. The Estates of Royal Prussia did not take the side of the Cathedral Chapter. Nicholas von Tüngen allied himself with the Teutonic Order and with King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary. The feud, known as the War of the Priests, was a low scale affair, affecting mainly Warmia. In 1478 Braniewo (Braunsberg) withstood a Polish siege which was ended in an agreement in which the Polish king recognized von Tüngen as bishop and the right of the Cathedral Chapter to elect future bishops, which however would have to be accepted by the king, and the bishop as well as Cathedral Chapter swore an oath to the Polish king. Later in the Treaty of Piotrków Trybunalski (December 7 1512), conceded to the king of Poland a limited right to determine the election of bishops by choosing four candidates from Royal Prussia .

After the Union of Lublin in 1569 Warmia was officially directly included as part of the Polish crown within the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. At the same time the territory continued to enjoy substantial autonomy, with many legal differences from neighbouring lands.

Prussia

By the First Partition of Poland in 1772, Warmia was politically reunited with the other parts of Prussia and annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia; the property of the bishop was confiscated by the Prussian state. Ignacy Krasicki, the last prince-bishop as well as a Polish writer, friend of Frederick the Great, was nominated to the Archbishopric of Gnesen (Gniezno). The Prussian census in 1772 showed a total population of 96,547, including an urban population of 24,612 in 12 towns. 17,749 houses were listed and the biggest city was Braunsberg (Braniewo).

From 1772-1945 Warmia was part of Lutheran East Prussia, with the exception that the people of Warmia remained largely Catholic. The population of northern Warmia spoke standard German (as opposed to Low German used in the rest of East Prussia), while the south was mostly populated by Polish-speaking Warmiaks. Warmia became part of the German Empire in 1871.

In 1873 the Polish language was forbidden in all schools in Warmia, including Polish schools founded in the 16th century. In 1900 Warmia's population was 240,000. After World War I, Poles were subject to persecution by the German government during the Weimar Republic. Polish children speaking their language were punished in schools and often had to wear signs with insulting names, such as "Pollack".

During the Nazi period, Poles in Warmia were subject to harsher persecution by German authorities and militias, such as attacks on schools and centers. In 1939 Germany sought to eradicate all elements of social and political life of the Polish minority in Germany by interning and murdering Polish activists and leaders (see Nazi crimes in Warmia).

Poland

After the Potsdam Conference, following World War II, Warmia was transferred to Poland. Most ethnic Germans were evacuated during the war, and most of those remaining were expelled to Germany. Only a small minority of Germans remained in what became Poland.

The governments of post-war East and West Germany accepted the incorporation of Warmia into Poland by treaties in 1950, 1970, and finally in the prelude to the German reunification in 1990. Today Warmia is part of the administrative Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship.

Major towns

• Biskupiec
• Braniewo
• Frombork
• Lidzbark Warmiński
• Olsztyn
• Reszel

Famous Warmians

• Rainer Barzel, politician
• Nicolaus Copernicus, astronomer and mathematician
• Hugo Haase, politician
• Feliks Nowowiejski, musician and composer
• Regina Protmann, canonised founder of the Catholic order Congregatio Sanctae Catharinae (CSCA)
• Georg Cardinal Sterzinsky, Cardinal-bishop
• Ernst Wiechert, writer
• Hans-Jürgen Wischnewski, politician

See also

• Archbishopric of Warmia
• Bishops of Warmia
• Nazi crimes in Warmia

References

• Template:Pl icon Erwin Kruk, "Warmia i Mazury", Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie, Wrocław 2003, ISBN 83-7384-028-1

External links

• Ermland, Heilsberg, Culm, Riesenburg, Samland bishoprics on 1615 list of Imperial Offices (Ordines Imperii)
• Template:En icon Region of Warmia
• Template:Pl icon Warmia and Masuria
• Template:De icon Catholic Ermlanders page
• ca. 1547 map of Prussia including Warmia
• 1690 map of Magnus Prussia Ducatus (with Warmia in center in green)
• Heilsberg Epicopate Warmia in Prussia map of 1755

• Regions of Poland
• Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship