Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and most populous city of Denmark. As of July 2018, the city has a population of 777,218, it forms the core of the wider urban area of the Copenhagen metropolitan area. Copenhagen is situated on the eastern coast of the island of Zealand; the Øresund Bridge connects the two cities by road. A Viking fishing village established in the 10th century in the vicinity of what is now Gammel Strand, Copenhagen became the capital of Denmark in the early 15th century. Beginning in the 17th century it consolidated its position as a regional centre of power with its institutions and armed forces. After suffering from the effects of plague and fire in the 18th century, the city underwent a period of redevelopment; this included construction of the prestigious district of Frederiksstaden and founding of such cultural institutions as the Royal Theatre and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. After further disasters in the early 19th century when Horatio Nelson attacked the Dano-Norwegian fleet and bombarded the city, rebuilding during the Danish Golden Age brought a Neoclassical look to Copenhagen's architecture.
Following the Second World War, the Finger Plan fostered the development of housing and businesses along the five urban railway routes stretching out from the city centre. Since the turn of the 21st century, Copenhagen has seen strong urban and cultural development, facilitated by investment in its institutions and infrastructure; the city is the cultural and governmental centre of Denmark. Copenhagen's economy has seen rapid developments in the service sector through initiatives in information technology and clean technology. Since the completion of the Øresund Bridge, Copenhagen has become integrated with the Swedish province of Scania and its largest city, Malmö, forming the Øresund Region. With a number of bridges connecting the various districts, the cityscape is characterised by parks and waterfronts. Copenhagen's landmarks such as Tivoli Gardens, The Little Mermaid statue, the Amalienborg and Christiansborg palaces, Rosenborg Castle Gardens, Frederik's Church, many museums and nightclubs are significant tourist attractions.
The largest lake of Denmark, Arresø, lies around 27 miles northwest of the City Hall Square. Copenhagen is home to the University of Copenhagen, the Technical University of Denmark, Copenhagen Business School and the IT University of Copenhagen; the University of Copenhagen, founded in 1479, is the oldest university in Denmark. Copenhagen is home to the FC Brøndby football clubs; the annual Copenhagen Marathon was established in 1980. Copenhagen is one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in the world; the Copenhagen Metro launched in 2002 serves central Copenhagen while the Copenhagen S-train, the Lokaltog and the Coast Line network serves and connects central Copenhagen to outlying boroughs. To relieve traffic congestion, the Fehmarn Belt Fixed Link road and rail construction is planned, because the narrow 9-9.5 mile isthmus between Roskilde Fjord and Køge Bugt forms a traffic bottleneck. The Copenhagen-Ringsted Line will relieve traffic congestion in the corridor between Roskilde and Copenhagen.
Serving two million passengers a month, Copenhagen Airport, Kastrup, is the busiest airport in the Nordic countries. Copenhagen's name reflects its origin as a place of commerce; the original designation in Old Norse, from which Danish descends, was Kaupmannahǫfn, meaning "merchants' harbour". By the time Old Danish was spoken, the capital was called Køpmannæhafn, with the current name deriving from centuries of subsequent regular sound change. An exact English equivalent would be "chapman's haven". However, the English term for the city was adapted from Kopenhagen. Although the earliest historical records of Copenhagen are from the end of the 12th century, recent archaeological finds in connection with work on the city's metropolitan rail system revealed the remains of a large merchant's mansion near today's Kongens Nytorv from c. 1020. Excavations in Pilestræde have led to the discovery of a well from the late 12th century; the remains of an ancient church, with graves dating to the 11th century, have been unearthed near where Strøget meets Rådhuspladsen.
These finds indicate. Substantial discoveries of flint tools in the area provide evidence of human settlements dating to the Stone Age. Many historians believe the town dates to the late Viking Age, was founded by Sweyn I Forkbeard; the natural harbour and good herring stocks seem to have attracted fishermen and merchants to the area on a seasonal basis from the 11th century and more permanently in the 13th century. The first habitations were centred on Gammel Strand in the 11thcentury or earlier; the earliest written mention of the town was in the 12th century when Saxo Grammaticus in Gesta Danorum referred to it as Portus
Łódź
Łódź is the third-largest city in Poland and a former industrial hub. Located in the central part of the country, it has a population of 687,702, it is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, is 120 kilometres south-west of Warsaw. The city's coat of arms is an example of canting, as it depicts a boat, which alludes to the city's name. Łódź was once a small settlement that first appeared in written records in around 1332. In the early 15th century it was granted city rights, but remained a rather small and insubstantial town, it was the property of Kuyavian bishops and clergy until the end of the 18th century, when Łódź was annexed by Prussia as a result of the second partition of Poland. Following the collapse of the independent Duchy of Warsaw, the city became part of Congress Poland, a client state of the Russian Empire, it was that Łódź experienced rapid growth in the cloth industry and in population due to the inflow of migrants, most notably Germans and Jews. Since the industrialization of the area, the city has struggled with many difficulties such as multinationalism and social inequality, which were vividly documented in the novel The Promised Land written by Polish Nobel Prize-winning author Władysław Reymont.
The contrasts reflected on the architecture of the city, where luxurious mansions coexisted with redbrick factories and old tenement houses. After Poland regained its independence in 1918, Łódź grew to be one of the largest Polish cities and one of the most multicultural and industrial centers in Europe; the interbellum period saw rapid development in healthcare. After the invasion of Poland in 1939, the German Army captured the city and renamed it Litzmannstadt in honour of the German general Karl Litzmann, victorious near the area during World War I; the city's large Jewish population was forced into a walled zone known as the Łódź Ghetto, from which they were sent to German concentration and extermination camps. Following the occupation of the city by the Soviet Army, Łódź, which sustained insignificant damage during the war, became part of the newly established Polish People's Republic. After years of prosperity during the socialist era, Łódź experienced decline after the fall of communism throughout Central and Eastern Europe.
The city is internationally known for its National Film School, a cradle for the most renowned Polish actors and directors, including Andrzej Wajda and Roman Polanski, in 2017 was inducted into the UNESCO Creative Cities Network and named UNESCO City of Film. Łódź first appears in the written record in a 1332 document giving the village of Łodzia to the bishops of Włocławek. In 1423 King Władysław II Jagiełło granted city rights to the village of Łódź. From until the 18th century the town remained a small settlement on a trade route between the provinces of Masovia and Silesia. In the 16th century the town had fewer than 800 inhabitants working on the surrounding grain farms. With the second partition of Poland in 1793, Łódź became part of the Kingdom of Prussia's province of South Prussia, was known in German as Lodsch. In 1798 the Prussians nationalised the town, it lost its status as a town of the bishops of Kuyavia. In 1806 Łódź joined the Napoleonic Duchy of Warsaw and in 1810 it had 190 inhabitants.
After the 1815 Congress of Vienna treaty it became part of the Congress Kingdom of Poland, a client state of the Russian Empire. In the 1815 treaty, it was planned to renew the dilapidated town and with the 1816 decree by the Czar a number of German immigrants received territory deeds for them to clear the land and to build factories and housing. In 1820 Stanisław Staszic aided in changing the small town into a modern industrial centre; the immigrants came to the Promised Land from all over Europe. They arrived from Saxony and Bohemia, but from countries as far away as Portugal, England and Ireland; the first cotton mill opened in 1825, 14 years the first steam-powered factory in both Poland and the Russian Empire commenced operations. In 1839, over 78% of the population was German, German schools and churches were established. A constant influx of workers and craftsmen from all over Europe transformed Łódź into the main textile production centre of the mighty Russian Empire spanning from East-Central Europe all the way to Alaska.
Three groups dominated the city's population and contributed the most to the city's development: Poles and Jews, who started to arrive from 1848. Many of the Łódź craftspeople were weavers from Lower Silesia. In 1850, Russia abolished the customs barrier between Congress Poland and Russia proper and therefore industry in Łódź could now develop with a huge Russian market not far away; the city became the second-largest city of Congress Poland. In 1865 the first railroad line opened, soon the city had rail links with Warsaw and Białystok. One of the most important industrialists of Łódź was Karl Wilhelm Scheibler. In 1852 he came to Łódź and with Julius Schwarz together started buying property and building several factories. Scheibler bought out Schwarz's share and thus became sole owner of a large business. After he died in 1881 his widow and other members of the family decided to pay homage to his memory by erecting a chapel, intended as a mausoleum with family crypt, in the Lutheran part of the Łódź cemetery on ulica Ogrodowa.
Between 1823 and 1873, the city's population doubled every ten years. The years 1870–1890 marked the pe
Poland
Poland the Republic of Poland, is a country located in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, covering an area of 312,696 square kilometres, has a temperate seasonal climate. With a population of 38.5 million people, Poland is the sixth most populous member state of the European Union. Poland's capital and largest metropolis is Warsaw. Other major cities include Kraków, Łódź, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk, Szczecin. Poland is bordered by the Baltic Sea, Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast and Lithuania to the north and Ukraine to the east and Czech Republic, to the south, Germany to the west; the establishment of the Polish state can be traced back to AD 966, when Mieszko I, ruler of the realm coextensive with the territory of present-day Poland, converted to Christianity. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, in 1569 it cemented its longstanding political association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin; this union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th century Europe, with a uniquely liberal political system which adopted Europe's first written national constitution, the Constitution of 3 May 1791.
More than a century after the Partitions of Poland at the end of the 18th century, Poland regained its independence in 1918 with the Treaty of Versailles. In September 1939, World War II started with the invasion of Poland by Germany, followed by the Soviet Union invading Poland in accordance with the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. More than six million Polish citizens, including 90% of the country's Jews, perished in the war. In 1947, the Polish People's Republic was established as a satellite state under Soviet influence. In the aftermath of the Revolutions of 1989, most notably through the emergence of the Solidarity movement, Poland reestablished itself as a presidential democratic republic. Poland is regional power, it has the fifth largest economy by GDP in the European Union and one of the most dynamic economies in the world achieving a high rank on the Human Development Index. Additionally, the Polish Stock Exchange in Warsaw is the largest and most important in Central Europe. Poland is a developed country, which maintains a high-income economy along with high standards of living, life quality, safety and economic freedom.
Having a developed school educational system, the country provides free university education, state-funded social security, a universal health care system for all citizens. Poland has 15 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Poland is a member state of the European Union, the Schengen Area, the United Nations, NATO, the OECD, the Three Seas Initiative, the Visegrád Group; the origin of the name "Poland" derives from the West Slavic tribe of Polans that inhabited the Warta river basin of the historic Greater Poland region starting in the 6th century. The origin of the name "Polanie" itself derives from the early Slavic word "pole". In some languages, such as Hungarian, Lithuanian and Turkish, the exonym for Poland is Lechites, which derives from the name of a semi-legendary ruler of Polans, Lech I. Early Bronze Age in Poland begun around 2400 BC, while the Iron Age commenced in 750 BC. During this time, the Lusatian culture, spanning both the Bronze and Iron Ages, became prominent; the most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement, dating from the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age, around 700 BC.
Throughout the Antiquity period, many distinct ancient ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland in an era that dates from about 400 BC to 500 AD. These groups are identified as Celtic, Slavic and Germanic tribes. Recent archeological findings in the Kujawy region, confirmed the presence of the Roman Legions on the territory of Poland; these were most expeditionary missions sent out to protect the amber trade. The exact time and routes of the original migration and settlement of Slavic peoples lacks written records and can only be defined as fragmented; the Slavic tribes who would form Poland migrated to these areas in the second half of the 5th century AD. Up until the creation of Mieszko's state and his subsequent conversion to Christianity in 966 AD, the main religion of Slavic tribes that inhabited the geographical area of present-day Poland was Slavic paganism. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Christianity and the religious authority of the Roman Church.
However, the transition from paganism was not a smooth and instantaneous process for the rest of the population as evident from the pagan reaction of the 1030s. Poland began to form into a recognizable unitary and territorial entity around the middle of the 10th century under the Piast dynasty. Poland's first documented ruler, Mieszko I, accepted Christianity with the Baptism of Poland in 966, as the new official religion of his subjects; the bulk of the population converted in the course of the next few centuries. In 1000, Boleslaw the Brave, continuing the policy of his father Mieszko, held a Congress of Gniezno and created the metropolis of Gniezno and the dioceses of Kraków, Kołobrzeg, Wrocław. However, the pagan unrest led to the transfer of the capital to Kraków in 1038 by Casimir I the Restorer. In 1109, Prince Bolesław III Wrymouth defeated the King of Germany Henry V at the Battle of Hundsfeld, stopping the Ge
Marek Belka
Marek Marian Belka is a Polish politician and professor of Economics, a former Prime Minister and Finance Minister of Poland, former Director of the International Monetary Fund's European Department and former Head of Narodowy Bank Polski. Belka graduated from the Socio-Economic Department of the University of Łódź in 1972 and studied on scholarships at Columbia University, University of Chicago and London School of Economics, he holds an M. A. in economics of foreign trade and a PhD in economics from the University of Łódź. He became a professor in 1994. From 1990 until 1996 Belka worked as consultant for the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Poland and the World Bank, he served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance in 1997 and from 2001 to 2002. He served as Adviser to the three successive Prime Ministers of Albania – Fatos Nano, Pandeli Majko and Ilir Meta – from 1997 to 2001. Belka worked as an advisor to JP Morgan for Central and Eastern Europe from 2002 to 2003. In 2003 he was responsible for economic policy in the interim Coalition Provisional Authority of Iraq.
Belka was designated Prime Minister of Poland by President Aleksander Kwaśniewski on 29 March 2004 and sworn into office the next 2 May. He failed to receive the required parliamentary support on 14 May, but on 11 June he was designated again. On 24 June he managed to receive enough support in the Sejm – the Lower House of Polish Parliament – winning a vote of confidence by a majority of 235 votes to 215. Belka joined the new liberal Democratic Party - demokraci.pl in May 2005, but failed to win a seat in Łódź in the 2005 elections. In 2005, he was a candidate for the post of OECD Secretary General, but lost to José Ángel Gurría. From 2006 to 2008, Belka served as Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Europe. In 2007, Belka was proposed by Poland as managing director of the International Monetary Fund, but the European Union decided to advance former French minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn's candidacy. On 15 July 2008, Strauss-Kahn named Belka as Director of the IMF's European Department, a position Belka took up on 1 November 2008.
In this capacity, he led the fund's response to the global economic crisis in Europe. On 27 May 2010 Belka was nominated as the next President of the National Bank of Poland by Acting President Bronisław Komorowski. On 10 June 2010, he was approved by the Parliament as Head of National Bank of Poland. In June 2014, the Polish magazine Wprost published a series of transcripts of secret recordings involving senior Polish government officials, including one in which Belka discussed the forthcoming 2015 election with the interior minister Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz. Belka said; the secret recordings were believed to have been made in one or more restaurants in the capital and thought to date back as far as Summer 2013. In 2016, news media reported that Belka was considering taking up the role of the head of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. European Investment Bank, Member of the Appointment Advisory Committee Echo Polska Properties, Independent Member of the Board of Directors Trilateral Commission, Member of the European Group European Bank Coordination Initiative, Chairman of the Steering Committee European Systemic Risk Board, Member of the Steering Committee Joint World Bank-IMF Development Committee, Chairman Polish-American Freedom Foundation, Member of the Board of Directors Belka received an Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 2006.
Belka is an Honorary Member of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation. In October 2013 he was elected into the Polish Economy Hall of Fame. Belka has two children; the family lives in Łódź. Marsh, David, "Poles won’t reject euro, but won’t rush to join", MarketWatch, 22 October 2012
Mieczysław Rakowski
Mieczysław Rakowski was a Polish communist politician and journalist, Prime Minister of Poland from 1988 to 1989. He served as the seventh and final First Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party from 1989 to 1990. Rakowski served as an officer in the Polish People's Army from 1945 to 1949, he began his political career in 1946 as a member of the Polish Workers' Party, from 1948 to 1990 he was a member of the communist Polish United Workers' Party, serving on its Central Committee from 1975 to 1990. He received a doctorate in history from Warsaw's Institute for Social Sciences in 1956. Rakowski served as the second-to-last communist Prime Minister of Poland from September 1988 to August 1989, he was the last First Secretary of the PZPR from July 1989 to January 1990. However, he was not, unlike his predecessors, the de facto leader of the country. Rakowski was known as one of the founders and, from 1958 to 1982, first deputy and chief editor of the weekly newspaper Polityka, one of the most influential publications at the time.
Today some people still remember him as a editor rather than a politician. Rakowski was involved in the Communist government during suppression of the Solidarity movement, he played a part in the Polish transformation from state socialism to market capitalism, as his Communist-led government was forced to reform and he was one of the key players in the Polish Round Table Agreements. Prior to becoming Prime Minister, he had been divorced from the violinist Wanda Wiłkomirska, with whom he had two sons, he died on 8 November 2008 from cancer in Warsaw at the age of 81. Gallery of photos Memories about Rakowski Obituary of Rakowski in The Economist
Jacek Kuroń
Jacek Jan Kuroń was one of the democratic leaders of opposition in the People's Republic of Poland. He was known as the "godfather of the Polish opposition," not unlike Václav Havel in Czechoslovakia. Kuroń was a prominent Polish social and political figure responsible for theorizing the movement that broke the back of communism, an ideology he tried to reform; as an educator and historian, he first postulated the concept of a de-centered movement that would question the totalitarian system and its personality cult. Kuroń started out as an activist of the Polish Scouting Association trying to educate young people that would take charge of the future. After the changes in independent Poland, he ran for president supported by the likes of Jan Karski and served twice as Minister of Labour and Social Policy. Kuroń was the father of chef Maciej Kuroń. Kuroń was born in Lwów, into a family that supported the Polish Socialist Party. In 1949, he became a member of the Communist Association of the Polish Youth.
From 1952, he worked as a full-time employee in the capital scout section affiliated with the Association of the Polish Youth. The same year, he joined the Polish United Workers' Party, he engaged in social movements making attempts to introduce more rights for the workers. After the political transformation and introduction of democracy to Poland, Kuroń became a Minister of Labor and Social Policy. After a long illness, Kuroń died in 2004, his funeral was held on 26 June 2004. He was buried in the Avenue of the Meritious in the Powązki Cemetery in Warsaw; the ceremony was attended by close friends, Polish youth and children. Although Kuroń was an atheist, representatives of all major religious communities came to display their respect to the renowned humanitarian. In 1955 a Discussion Club Krzywe Koło was established. Jacek Kuroń and Karol Modzelewski were among the most prominent members of the club. In 1957 Kuroń graduated from the Faculty of History at the University of Warsaw. In 1964, together with Karol Modzelewski, he wrote The Open Letter to the Party.
In this letter he criticized bureaucratic class. He suggested replacing the existing system with workers' democracy, including organizing a referendum according to which major decisions concerning a distribution of national income would be made; the immediate aim was to have a consent of all workers to make decisions on economic plans. Kuroń's critique was related to the ideas of Marxism and Trotskyism. In 1965, he was sentenced to three years in prison for writing The Open Letter to the Party. Kuroń defiantly sang "The Internationale" in court. Imprisoned in Wronki Prison, he was released in 1967, soon arrested again. In 1968 Kuroń was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for organizing student strikes during March Events. In 1975, he helped to organize a protest against the passage of amendments to the Constitution of the People's Republic of Poland. Following a government crackdown on strikes, the jailing of striking workers, in June 1976, Kuroń co-founded with Antoni Macierewicz KOR, a worker's defense committee and civil organization that helped pave the way for Solidarność.
The Coastal Free Trade Union WZZ, the cradle of Solidarity, was established on April 29, 1978 after Krzysztof Wyszkowski convinced Kuron that workers needed their own voice. During the strikes of July and August 1980, Kuroń organized an information network for workers across the country. Soon after the Gdansk shipyard occupation began in August 1980, Kuron was imprisoned again, but released with other dissidents, including Adam Michnik, before the signing of the Gdansk agreement of 31 August 1980, conceding the right to form independent unions. In September 1980, he became an adviser for the Founding Committee of the Solidarność. By this time he had changed from the ideas in "An Open Letter to the Party" of revolution and worker's organization taking over society to one of'self limiting revolution.' On 13 December 1981 the Martial Law was introduced in Poland, his activities were curtailed. In 1982, accused of attempts to destroy the political system, Kuroń was arrested. Two years he was pardoned and released from prison.
As a member of the opposition Kuroń used pseudonyms – Maciej Gajka and Elżbieta Grażyna Borucka, or EGB. By 1988 the authorities began serious talks with the opposition. Polish Round Table Talks took place in Warsaw, Poland from 6 February to 4 April 1989; the opposition representation included Jacek Kuroń. The election of 4 June 1989 brought a landslide victory to Solidarność: 99% of the seats in the Senate and allowable maximum number of seats in Sejm; the 65-35 division was soon abolished as well, which allowed the first free Sejm elections. In 1989-1990 and 1992-1993 Kuroń was a Minister of Social Policy. From 1989 to 2001 he was a member of the Polish Parliament, he belonged to the following parties: Citizen Parliamentary Club, Union of Democracy, Union of Freedom. In the 1995 elections Kuroń ran for the office of president of the Republic of Poland. With support of 9.2%, Kuroń came third. Kuroń's work was recognized not only in Poland but in a number of other European countries. In 1998 he was awarded a Polish Order of the White Eagle, French Legion of Honour, German Federal Cross of Merit, Ukrainian Order of Yaroslav the Wise, Lithuanian Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas.
On the 4 April 2001 Kuroń became the 645th Knight of the Order of Smile. Thi
Żyrardów
Żyrardów is a town and former industrial hub in central Poland with 41,400 inhabitants. It is the capital of Żyrardów County situated in the Masovian Voivodeship. Żyrardów a textile settlement, was named after French engineer and inventor Philippe de Girard, who worked in the area. Founded by the Łubieński brothers as a textile factory in 1833. One of directors of the factory was French inventor Philippe de Girard; the town developed during the 19th century into a significant textile mill town in Poland. In honour of Girard, Ruda Guzowska was renamed Żyrardów, a toponym derived of the polonised spelling of Girard's name. On September 13, 1939 Germany captured the town. In 1941 they transported Jews into Warsaw ghetto; the town museum is nowadays located in the former palace of owner of factory K. Dittrich. A sign near the entrance to the town states that it was the only city in Europe set up for a factory; the town was named one of Poland's official national Historic Monuments, as designated January 17, 2012.
Its listing is maintained by the National Heritage Board of Poland. Most of Żyrardów's monuments are located in the manufacturing area which dates from the 19th and early 20th centuries, it is believed that Żyrardów's textile settlement is the only whole urban industrial 19th-century complex to be preserved in Europe. Szkoła Mistrzostwa Sportowego w Kolarstwie Wyższa Szkoła Rozwoju Lokalnego Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. Stefana Żeromskiego Zespół Szkół Publicznych nr. 7 im. Henryka Sienkiewicza w Żyrardowie Since 1923 in Żyrardów a football club named Żyrardowianka Żyrardów, which in 2015/2016 was part of IV League of polish football. Feliks Lubienski, landowner who gave the estate and his blessing to his sons to build the first textile factory Henryk Łubieński and industrialist, son of Felix. Feliks Sobański, philanthropist who donated land for the church Paweł Hulka-Laskowski, a writer and social activist Former Prime Minister Leszek Miller, started his professional life as electrician in a local textile factory Żyrardów is twinned with: Tangshan, China Delchevo, North Macedonia Lourmarin, France Siero, Spain Official Site of Żyrardów A web page of the history of Żyrardów Current Population Memorial Book of Zyrardow and Viskit Jewish Community in Żyrardów on Virtual Shtetl
listen); born 3 July 1946) is a Polish left-wing politician who served as Prime Minister of Poland from 2001 to 2004. He is now a Member of the European Parliament. Miller was the leader of the Democratic Left Alliance from 1999 to 2004 and again from 2011 to 2016.
