1.
Poland
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Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe, situated between the Baltic Sea in the north and two mountain ranges in the south. Bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, the total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres, making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. With a population of over 38.5 million people, Poland is the 34th most populous country in the world, the 8th most populous country in Europe, Poland is a unitary state divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, and its capital and largest city is Warsaw. Other metropolises include Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk and Szczecin, the establishment of a Polish state can be traced back to 966, when Mieszko I, ruler of a territory roughly coextensive with that of present-day Poland, converted to Christianity. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented a 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, Poland regained its independence in 1918 at the end of World War I, reconstituting much of its historical territory as the Second Polish Republic. In September 1939, World War II started with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, followed thereafter by invasion by the Soviet Union. More than six million Polish citizens died in the war, after the war, Polands borders were shifted westwards under the terms of the Potsdam Conference. With the backing of the Soviet Union, a communist puppet government was formed, and after a referendum in 1946. During the Revolutions of 1989 Polands Communist government was overthrown and Poland adopted a new constitution establishing itself as a democracy, informally called the Third Polish Republic. Since the early 1990s, when the transition to a primarily market-based economy began, Poland has achieved a high ranking on the Human Development Index. Poland is a country, which was categorised by the World Bank as having a high-income economy. Furthermore, it is visited by approximately 16 million tourists every year, Poland is the eighth largest economy in the European Union and was the 6th fastest growing economy on the continent between 2010 and 2015. According to the Global Peace Index for 2014, Poland is ranked 19th in the list of the safest countries in the world to live in. The origin of the name Poland derives from a West Slavic tribe of Polans that inhabited the Warta River basin of the historic Greater Poland region in the 8th century, the origin of the name Polanie itself derives from the western Slavic word pole. In some foreign languages such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian and Turkish the exonym for Poland is Lechites, historians have postulated that throughout Late Antiquity, many distinct ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland. 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, the Slavic groups who would form Poland migrated to these areas in the second half of the 5th century AD. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Christianity and the authority of the Roman Church
2.
Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship
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It is situated in mid-northern Poland, on the boundary between the two historic regions from which it takes its name, Kuyavia and Pomerania. Its two chief cities, serving as the joint capitals, are Bydgoszcz and Toruń. The Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship was created on 1 January 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms adopted in 1998 and it consisted of territory from the former Bydgoszcz, Toruń and Włocławek Voivodeships. The area now known as Kuyavia-Pomerania was previously divided between the region of Kuyavia and the Polish fiefdom of Royal Prussia, of the two principal cities of todays Kuyavian-Pomeranian voivodeship, one was historically located in Kuyavia, whilst the other was an important town of Royal Prussia. The functions of capital are split between Bydgoszcz and Toruń. The Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship is bordered by five other voivodeships, the voivodeship contains 52 cities and towns. These are listed below in descending order of population, Transportation infrastructure is of importance to the voivodeships economy. Kuyavia-Pomerania is a node in the Polish transportation system. Railway lines from the South and East pass through Bydgoszcz to connect to the ports on the Baltic Sea. In addition to this, Bydgoszcz is home to the rolling stock manufacturer PESA SA, Polands largest and most modern producer of railway, all major towns of the province have municipal transportation companies operating buses, whilst Bydgoszcz, Toruń and Grudziądz also have extensive tram systems. The Kuyavian-Pomeranian voivodeships government is headed by the voivode who is appointed by the Polish Prime Minister. The voivode is then assisted in performing his duties by the voivodeships marshal, the current voivode of Kuyavia-Pomerania is Ewa Monika Mes, and the present marshal is Piotr Całbecki. The Sejmik of Kuyavia-Pomerania consists of 33 members, the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship is divided into 23 counties,4 city counties and 19 land counties. These are further divided into 144 gminas, the counties are listed in the following table. Protected areas in Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship include the nine Landscape Parks listed below
3.
Greater Poland Voivodeship
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Greater Poland Voivodeship, also known as Wielkopolska Voivodeship or Wielkopolska Province, is a voivodeship, or province, in west-central Poland. It was created on 1 January 1999 out of the former Poznań, Kalisz, Konin, Piła and Leszno Voivodeships, the province is named after the region called Greater Poland or Wielkopolska. The modern province includes most of historic region, except for some south-western parts. Greater Poland Voivodeship is second in area and third in population among Polands sixteen voivodeships, with an area of 29,826 square kilometres and its capital city is Poznań, other important cities include Kalisz, Konin, Piła, Ostrów Wielkopolski, Gniezno and Leszno. The city of Poznań has international twinning arrangements with the English county of Nottinghamshire, Greater Poland, sometimes called the cradle of Poland, formed the heart of the 10th-century early Polish state. In the testament of Bolesław III Wrymouth, which initiated the period of fragmentation of Poland, the eastern part, with Gniezno and Kalisz, was part of the Duchy of Kraków, granted to Władysław II the Exile. However, for most of the period the two parts were under a ruler, and were known as the Duchy of Greater Poland. The region came under the control of Władysław I the Elbow-High in 1314, in the reunited kingdom, and later in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the country came to be divided into administrative units called voivodeships. In the case of the Greater Poland region these were Poznań Voivodeship, the Commonwealth also had larger subdivisions known as prowincja, one of which was named Greater Poland. However, this covered an larger area than the Greater Poland region itself, also taking in Masovia. In 1768 a new Gniezno Voivodeship was formed out of the part of Kalisz Voivodeship. However more far-reaching changes would come with the Partitions of Poland, in the first partition, northern parts of Greater Poland along the Noteć were taken over by Prussia, becoming the Netze District. In the second partition the whole of Greater Poland was absorbed by Prussia and it remained so in spite of the first Greater Poland Uprising, part of the unsuccessful Kościuszko Uprising directed chiefly against Russia. More successful was the Greater Poland Uprising of 1806, which led to the regions becoming part of the Napoleonic Duchy of Warsaw, however, following the Congress of Vienna in 1815, Greater Poland was again partitioned, with the western part going to Prussia. The eastern part joined the Russian-controlled Kingdom of Poland, where it formed the Kalisz Voivodeship until 1837, within the Prussian empire, western Greater Poland became the Grand Duchy of Posen, which theoretically held some autonomy. Following an unrealized uprising in 1846, and the substantial but still unsuccessful uprising of 1848. Following the end of World War I, the Greater Poland Uprising ensured that most of the region part of the newly independent Polish state. Northern and some parts of Greater Poland remained in Germany
4.
Lubusz Voivodeship
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Lubusz Voivodeship, or Lubuskie Province, is a voivodeship in western Poland. It was created on January 1,1999, out of the former Gorzów Wielkopolski and Zielona Góra Voivodeships, the provinces name recalls the historic Lubusz Land, although parts of the voivodeship belong to the historic regions of Silesia, Greater Poland and Lusatia. Until 1945, it formed the Neumark within the Prussian Province of Brandenburg. The functions of capital are shared between two cities, Gorzów Wielkopolski and Zielona Góra. The region is flat, with many lakes and woodlands. In the south, around Zielona Góra, grapes are cultivated, Lubusz Voivodeship borders West Pomeranian Voivodeship to the north, Greater Poland Voivodeship to the east, Lower Silesian Voivodeship to the south, and Germany to the west. Part of the province was located on the western bank of the Oder River. In 1226 Lebus Land came under jurisdiction of the Holy Roman Empire. After World War II it was sometimes referred to as the first Polish province to fall to German expansionism. In 1945, the conquest of eastern Germany by the Soviet Red Army was followed by the redrawing of Polands borders, the east part of the Lubusz region was transferred to Poland, where in communist propaganda it was referred to as part of the Regained or Recovered Territories. That part of the population which had not fled west of the Oder or been killed was rapidly expelled, however, as a result of popular protests, these proposals were eventually amended to increase the number of voivodeships to 16, leading to the creation of Lubusz Voivodeship. The voivodeship contains 42 cities and towns and these are listed below in descending order of population, Lubusz Voivodeship is divided into 14 counties,2 city counties and 12 land counties. These are further divided into 83 gminas, the counties are listed in the following table. Protected areas in Lubusz Voivodeship include two National Parks and eight Landscape Parks
5.
Gwda
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The Gwda is a river in Poland, a tributary of the Noteć. It is 146 kilometers long and begins at Lake Studnica, northeast of Szczecinek and its upper course flows through many lakes. It runs through the town of Piła, downstream from road bridge in Ledyczek and upstream from Podgaje Reservoir. Downstream from dam in Tarnowka and upstream from road bridge in Krepsko, the water of the Gwda was one of the purest in Poland in 1975. However, the flows have since been degraded due to cities pumping non-processed sewage and industrial plants flushing chemicals. Point and non-point sources of pollution in the Gwda river basin in hydrological years 1992/93-1997/98 Journal of Water and Land Development, No
6.
Drawa
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The Drawa is a river and popular aquatic trail in Poland,185.9 km long. The surface of its catchment area amounts to 3296.4 km2, the Drawa begins its course at Krzywe Lake and ends it in Noteć below Krzyż Wielkopolski. The Drawa is a tributary of Noteć, the second regarding size. Its average gradient is 0, 61% and its flow rate 19 m3/s and it is the longest river in Pojezierze Drawskie. The Drawa flows across regions including Pojezierze Drawskie, Równina Drawska and partly near Pojezierze Wałeckie, the source of the Drawa is in nature reserve Dolina Pięciu Jezior. Then, the river flows across Drawski Landscape Park, Drawieński National Park, the section from Czaplinek to Noteć is called the Karol Wojtyła Silver Route. The biggest tributaries of the Drawa are the Kokna, Korytnica, Mierzęcka Struga, Płociczna, Pokrętna, Słopica, Wąsowa. The main streams of the river are the Bagnica, Drawsko, Drawka, Głęboka, Miedzniki, Moczel, Pełknica, Radówka, Sitna, Studzienica, Sucha, Szczuczna, one canal, Prostynia, flows into the Drawa. The Drawa flows through many lakes, in the upper region of the river there are Górne, Krąg, Długie, Głębokie, Małe. Further down the river, the lakes Prosino, Żerdno, Drawsko Lake, Rzepowskie, Lubie, Krosino, Wielkie, the river is also a place of living of the rare specimens – sea trout, common minnow, european bullhead and vimba vimba. The Drawa also hosts buzzards, red algae, sponges, spargania, from the 14th century, the river has been used as a navigational route. Since 1700, the Drawa has been used for drifting honey from Drawsko to Frankfurt, navigation of the river continued until World War II. In 1974, on the route was founded a nature reserve Drawa. The Drawa flows near various historical buildings, one of them is Drahimski Castle, which was turned into the museum. The castle was built in 1360 by the Order of Saint John, there are also interesting bunkers near camping in Kotlina. On Drawas route Wedels Castle, from the 14th century, can also be found, on one of the banks, Wydrzy Głaz can be found. On the section of the river from Lubie to Prostynia, rafting and canoeing are forbidden because the Drawski Training Ground is located in that area. Http, //www. mrowka. pl/drawa. html https, //web. archive. org/web/20120123053451/http, //www. kajaki-sikory. pl, 80/pl/spywy/rzekadrawa http, //www. dpn. pl/drawa Galiński Z. Przewodnik dla kajakarzy
7.
Kruszwica
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Kruszwica is a town in central Poland and is situated in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, previously in Bydgoszcz Voivodeship. It has a population of 9,412 people and this article incorporates text from The political history of Poland by Edward Henry Lewinski-Corwin, a publication now in the public domain. Owing to the frequent raids of the Norsemen, the people of this region early organized a military force of defense. The military bands and their leaders became the unifying force, and the fortified towns. The first historical town of this nature was that of Kruszwica and it soon gave place to that of Gniezno or Knezno, further west, which by its very name indicates that it was the residence of a Knez, or prince or duke. In time Poznań became the town, and the principality began to assert itself and to grow westward to the Oder, southward to the Barycza. Further east, in the forests of the course of the Vistula to the north of Pilica, lived the most savage of the Polish tribes. To the north of the Netze River between the Oder and the Baltic, lived the northernmost of the Polish tribes known as Pomorzanie, at that period the lake was a very large body of water with a level at least ten feet higher than at present. The many small lakes now existing in the region were in all probability a part of Gopło, there are many reasons to believe that such was the hydrography of the section in that remote age. There is reason to believe that five hundred years previous to this time, before the primeval forests were cut. The supposition that Gopło at the time of its highest level was connected by means of small streams with the rivers Warta, Oder. The constructive fancy of the economic historian sees flotillas of Pomeranian merchants moving to and fro from Szczecin down the Oder, here they met merchants from the east, the southeast and the southwest of Europe. The pressure from the west and north was, no doubt, an important element, zakłady Tłuszczowe Kruszwica SA manufacturing Kujawski Oil and Tina Margarine
8.
Drezdenko
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Drezdenko is a town in Poland, in Lubusz Voivodeship, in Strzelce-Drezdenko County. The area was a site of a fort of the medieval Polish state. During the reign of Bolesław III Wrymouth it was raised to the rank of a castellany and it was sold by the Brandenburgians to the Monastic Order of the Teutonic Knights in 1317, under the authority of the knights Burkhard and Heinrich von der Osten. However, in 1365 it became part of the Kingdom of Poland, during the rule of Casimir the Great, in 1455 the Knights sold it back to Brandenburg. It remained part of Brandenburg Prussia and Germany until 1945
9.
Gmina Chodecz
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Gmina Chodecz is an urban-rural gmina in Włocławek County, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, in north-central Poland. Its seat is the town of Chodecz, which lies approximately 28 kilometres south of Włocławek and 76 km south of Toruń, the gmina covers an area of 122.23 square kilometres, and as of 2006 its total population is 6,395. Gmina Chodecz is bordered by the gminas of Boniewo, Choceń, Dąbrowice, Lubień Kujawski and Przedecz
10.
Warta
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The Warta is a river in western-central Poland, a tributary of the Oder River. With a length of approximately 808 kilometres it is the countrys third-longest river, the Warta has a basin area of 54,529 square kilometers and it is navigable from Kostrzyn nad Odrą to Konin, approximately half of its length. It is connected to the Vistula by the Noteć River and the Bydgoszcz Canal near Bydgoszcz, the Greater Polish Warta Basin was the original Poland, it is said that the Polans, a West Slavic tribe, settled the Warta Basin in the 8th century. The river is mentioned in the second stanza of the Polish national anthem. Widawka Ner Wełna Noteć Liswarta Prosna Obra Postomia Rivers of Poland Geography of Poland Warta Landscape Park Ujście Warty National Park
11.
Santok
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Santok is a village in Gorzów County, Lubusz Voivodeship, in western Poland. It is the seat of the gmina called Gmina Santok and it is located at the confluence of the Noteć and Warta rivers, approximately 12 km east of Gorzów Wielkopolski. The village now has a population of 780, a first fortified settlement at the site was founded in the late 7th century. Santok is mentioned in the 12th century as barbican and key to the Polish kingdom at the border with the Duchy of Pomerania in the Gesta principum Polonorum chronicle by Gallus Anonymus. Re-established by Duke Bolesław I Chrobry in the days of the medieval Piast dynasty, Santok became an important border fortress of Greater Poland, an attack by Duke Barnim I of Pomerania in 1251 was repelled. Upon the marriage of Margrave Conrad of Brandenburg-Stendal with Constance, daughter of the deceased Duke Przemysł I of Greater Poland, in 1260, once again reconquered by the Polish duke Przemysł II, it finally was incorporated by Brandenburg upon his death in 1296. The Polish king Casimir III the Great temporarily occupied Santok from 1365, still after his death in 1370, within the Brandenburg Neumark region, the fortress lost its importance in favour of nearby Landsberg. It was devastated by Hussite troops in the course of the Polish–Teutonic War in 1433, after the 1945 Potsdam Agreement and the implementation of the Oder-Neisse line, Santok was transferred from Germany to Poland
12.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
13.
Oder
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The Oder is a river in Central Europe. It rises in the Czech Republic and flows through western Poland, the river ultimately flows into the Szczecin Lagoon north of Szczecin and then into three branches that empty into the Gulf of Pomerania of the Baltic Sea. Ptolemy knew the modern Oder as the Συήβος – a name derived from the Suebi. While he also refers to an outlet in the area as the Οὐιαδούα Ouiadoua, the name Suebos may be preserved in the modern name of the Świna river – an outlet from the Szczecin Lagoon to the Baltic. In the Old Church Slavonic language, the name of the river is Vjodr, the Oder is 854 kilometres long,112 km in the Czech Republic,742 km in Poland and is the second longest river in Poland. It drains a basin of 118,861 square kilometres,106,056 km2 of which are in Poland,7,217 km2 in the Czech Republic, channels connect it to the Havel, Spree, Vistula system and Kłodnica. It flows through Silesian, Opole, Lower Silesian, Lubusz, and West Pomeranian voivodeships of Poland, the main branch empties into the Szczecin Lagoon near Police, Poland. The Szczecin Lagoon is bordered on the north by the islands of Usedom, between these two islands, there is only a narrow channel going to the Bay of Pomerania, which forms a part of the Baltic Sea. The largest city on the Oder is Wrocław, in Lower Silesia, the Oder is navigable over a large part of its total length, as far upstream as the town of Koźle, where the river connects to the Gliwice Canal. The upstream part of the river is canalized and permits larger barges to navigate between the sites around the Wrocław area. Further downstream the river is flowing, passing the towns of Eisenhüttenstadt. Downstream of Frankfurt the river Warta forms a connection with Poznań. At Hohensaaten the Oder–Havel Canal connects with the Berlin waterways again, near its mouth the Oder reaches the city of Szczecin, a major maritime port. The river finally reaches the Baltic Sea through the Szczecin Lagoon, the river in Germania Magna was known to the Romans as the Viadrus or Viadua in Classical Latin, as it was a branch of the Amber Road from the Baltic Sea to the Roman Empire. In German language it was and is called the Oder, written in older records as Odera or Oddera in Medieval Latin documents and it was mentioned in the Dagome iudex, which described territory of the Duchy of Poland under Mieszko I of Poland ca. 990, as a part of western frontier. Before Slavs settled along its banks, Oder was an important trade route, a document of the Bishopric of Prague mentions Zlasane, Trebovyane, Poborane, and Dedositze in Silesia. In the 13th century, the first dams were built to protect agricultural lands, the Finow Canal, built for the first time in 1605, connects Oder and Havel
14.
Baltic Sea
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The Baltic Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, enclosed by Scandinavia, Finland, the Baltic countries, and the North European Plain. It includes the Gulf of Bothnia, the Bay of Bothnia, the Gulf of Finland, the Gulf of Riga, the sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 10°E to 30°E longitude. The Baltic Sea is connected by waterways to the White Sea via the White Sea Canal. Traffic history Historically, the Kingdom of Denmark collected Sound Dues from ships at the border between the ocean and the land-locked Baltic Sea and they were collected in the Øresund at Kronborg castle near Helsingør, in the Great Belt at Nyborg. In the Little Belt, the site of intake was moved to Fredericia, the narrowest part of Little Belt is the Middelfart Sund near Middelfart. Oceanography Geographers widely agree that the physical border of the Baltic is a line drawn through the southern Danish islands, Drogden-Sill. The Drogden Sill is situated north of Køge Bugt and connects Dragør in the south of Copenhagen to Malmö, it is used by the Øresund Bridge, including the Drogden Tunnel. By this definition, the Danish Straits are part of the entrance, but the Bay of Mecklenburg, another usual border is the line between Falsterbo, Sweden and Stevns Klint, Denmark, as this is the southern border of Øresund. Its also the border between the shallow southern Øresund and notably deeper water, hydrography and biology Drogden Sill sets a limit to Øresund and Darss Sill, and a limit to the Belt Sea. The shallow sills are obstacles to the flow of salt water from the Kattegat into the basins around Bornholm. The Kattegat and the southwestern Baltic Sea are well oxygenated and have a rich biology, the remainder of the Sea is brackish, poor in oxygen and in species. While Tacitus called it Mare Suebicum after the Germanic people called the Suebi, the origin of the latter name is speculative. Adam of Bremen himself compared the sea with a belt, stating that it is so named because it stretches through the land as a belt and he might also have been influenced by the name of a legendary island mentioned in the Natural History of Pliny the Elder. Pliny mentions an island named Baltia with reference to accounts of Pytheas and it is possible that Pliny refers to an island named Basilia in On the Ocean by Pytheas. Baltia also might be derived from belt and mean near belt of sea, meanwhile, others have suggested that the name of the island originates from the Proto-Indo-European root *bhel meaning white, fair. This root and its meaning were retained in both Lithuanian and Latvian. On this basis, a related hypothesis holds that the name originated from this Indo-European root via a Baltic language such as Lithuanian, yet another explanation is that the name originally meant enclosed sea, bay as opposed to open sea. Some Swedish historians believe the name derives from the god Balder of Nordic mythology, in the Middle Ages the sea was known by variety of names
15.
German language
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German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and it is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg. Major languages which are most similar to German include other members of the West Germanic language branch, such as Afrikaans, Dutch, English, Luxembourgish and it is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English. One of the languages of the world, German is the first language of about 95 million people worldwide. The German speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of publication of new books. German derives most of its vocabulary from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, a portion of German words are derived from Latin and Greek, and fewer are borrowed from French and English. With slightly different standardized variants, German is a pluricentric language, like English, German is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects, with many unique varieties existing in Europe and also other parts of the world. The history of the German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, when Martin Luther translated the Bible, he based his translation primarily on the standard bureaucratic language used in Saxony, also known as Meißner Deutsch. Copies of Luthers Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region that translated words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics initially rejected Luthers translation, and tried to create their own Catholic standard of the German language – the difference in relation to Protestant German was minimal. It was not until the middle of the 18th century that a widely accepted standard was created, until about 1800, standard German was mainly a written language, in urban northern Germany, the local Low German dialects were spoken. Standard German, which was different, was often learned as a foreign language with uncertain pronunciation. Northern German pronunciation was considered the standard in prescriptive pronunciation guides though, however, German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire and its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Some cities, such as Prague and Budapest, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain, others, such as Pozsony, were originally settled during the Habsburg period, and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest and Bratislava as well as cities like Zagreb, the most comprehensive guide to the vocabulary of the German language is found within the Deutsches Wörterbuch. This dictionary was created by the Brothers Grimm and is composed of 16 parts which were issued between 1852 and 1860, in 1872, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a standardization of the German language in its written form
16.
River
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A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of water, small rivers can be referred to using names such as stream, creek, brook, rivulet, and rill. There are no official definitions for the term river as applied to geographic features. Many names for small rivers are specific to geographic location, examples are run in parts of the United States, burn in Scotland and northeast England. Sometimes a river is defined as being larger than a creek, but not always, Rivers are part of the hydrological cycle. Potamology is the study of rivers while limnology is the study of inland waters in general. Extraterrestrial rivers of liquid hydrocarbons have recently found on Titan. Channels may indicate past rivers on other planets, specifically outflow channels on Mars and rivers are theorised to exist on planets, a river begins at a source, follows a path called a course, and ends at a mouth or mouths. The water in a river is confined to a channel. In larger rivers there is also a wider floodplain shaped by flood-waters over-topping the channel. Floodplains may be wide in relation to the size of the river channel. This distinction between river channel and floodplain can be blurred, especially in areas where the floodplain of a river channel can become greatly developed by housing. Rivers can flow down mountains, through valleys or along plains, the term upriver refers to the direction towards the source of the river, i. e. against the direction of flow. Likewise, the term describes the direction towards the mouth of the river. The term left bank refers to the bank in the direction of flow. The river channel typically contains a stream of water, but some rivers flow as several interconnecting streams of water. Extensive braided rivers are now found in only a few regions worldwide and they also occur on peneplains and some of the larger river deltas. Anastamosing rivers are similar to braided rivers and are quite rare
17.
Brda (river)
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The Brda is a river in northwestern Poland, a tributary of the Vistula. It is the countrys 15th longest river, with a length of 238 km. The Brda is part of the Odra-Vistula waterway, connecting these two rivers via the Warta and Noteć Rivers and the Bydgoszcz Canal since end of the 18th century, the waterway is navigable for modest barges but with a limited draught. With the expansion of the European Union to the East, the waterway could play an important role, currently, only limited numbers of vessels use the Brda River and the adjacent canal. It is expected that the waterway will be discovered by leisure boaters in the future, przechlewo Konarzyny Tuchola Koronowo Bydgoszcz List of rivers in Poland
18.
Vistula
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The Vistula is the longest and largest river in Poland, at 1,047 kilometres in length. The drainage basin area of the Vistula is 194,424 km2, the remainder is in Belarus, Ukraine and Slovakia. The Vistula rises at Barania Góra in the south of Poland,1,220 meters above sea level in the Silesian Beskids, where it begins with the White Little Vistula and the Black Little Vistula. It empties into the Vistula Lagoon or directly into the Gdańsk Bay of the Baltic Sea with a delta, the name was first recorded by Pomponius Mela in AD40 and by Pliny in AD77 in his Natural History. Mela names the river Vistula, Pliny uses Vistla, the root of the name Vistula is Indo-European *u̯eis- to ooze, flow slowly and is found in many European rivernames. The diminutive endings -ila, -ula, were used in many Indo-European languages, in writing about the Vistula River and its peoples, Ptolemy uses the Greek spelling Ouistoula. Other ancient sources spell it Istula, ammianus Marcellinus refers to the Bisula, note the absence of the -t-. Jordanes uses Viscla, while the Anglo-Saxon poem Widsith refers to it as the Wistla, the Vistula river basin covers 194,424 square kilometres, its average altitude rising to 270 metres above sea level. In addition, the majority of its basin is located at heights of 100 to 200 m above sea level. The highest point of the basin lies at 2,655 metres. The asymmetry of the basin is 73–27%. The most recent glaciation of the Pleistocene epoch, which ended around 10,000 BC, is called the Vistulian glaciation or Weichselian glaciation in regard to north-central Europe. The river forms a delta called the Żuławy Wiślane around the town of Biała Góra near Sztum, about 50 km from the mouth. In the city of Gdańsk the Head of the Leniwka branch separates again into the Szkarpawa branch, the so-called Dead Wisła divides again into the Przegalinie branch flowing into Gdańsk Bay. Until the 14th century the Vistula was divided into an eastern branch, the Elbląg Vistula, and the smaller western branch. Since 1371 the Vistula of Gdańsk is the main artery. After the flood in 1840 an additional branch formed called the Śmiała Wisła, in 1890 through 1895, additional waterworks were carried out up the Świbna. The history of the River Vistula and her valley spans over 2 million years, the river is connected to the geological period called the Quaternary, in which distinct cooling of the climate took place
19.
Bydgoszcz
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Bydgoszcz /ˈbɪdɡɒʃtʃ/ is a city in northern Poland, on the Brda and Vistula rivers. With a city population of 358,614, and an urban agglomeration with more than 470,000 inhabitants and it has been the seat of Bydgoszcz County and the co-capital, with Toruń, of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship since 1999. Prior to this, between 1947 and 1998, it was the capital of the Bydgoszcz Voivodeship, and before that, Bydgoszcz is part of the metroplex Bydgoszcz-Toruń, which totals over 850,000 inhabitants. Bydgoszcz is the seat of Casimir the Great University, University of Technology and Life Sciences, Bydgoszcz hosts the Pomeranian Philharmonic concert hall, the Opera Nova opera house, and the Bydgoszcz Ignacy Jan Paderewski Airport. There are also a number of other Polish place-names which make use of the goszcz suffix, the name Byd-gost contains archaic elements of the Proto-Slavonic root byd which existed as a variant of the verb to raise, and the common Slavic root Goszcz. Some people identify the name of the town as Budorgis, a name from the 2nd century which is listed next to the village Calisia on the amber route, during the early Slavic times a fishing settlement called Bydgozcya, became a stronghold on the Vistula trade routes. In the 13th century it was the site of a castellany, the city was occupied by the Teutonic Knights in 1331, and incorporated into the monastic state of the Teutonic Knights. The city was relinquished by the Knights in 1343 with their signing of the Treaty of Kalisz along with Dobrzyń, king Casimir III of Poland, granted Bydgoszcz city rights on 19 April 1346. The city increasingly saw an influx of Jews after that date, in 1555, however, due to pressure by the clergy, the Jews were expelled and came back only with the annexion to Prussia in 1772. In the 15th and 16th centuries Bydgoszcz was a significant site for wheat trading, during 1629, near the end of the Polish-Swedish War of 1626–29, the town was conquered by Swedish troops led by king Gustav II Adolph of Sweden personally. During the events of war the town suffered demolitions, the town was conquered a second and third time by Sweden in 1656 and 1657 during the Second Northern War. On the latter occasion the castle was destroyed completely and has since remained a ruin. After the war only 94 houses were inhabited,103 stood empty and 35 were burned down, also the suburbs had been damaged considerably. In 1772, in the First Partition of Poland, Bydgoszcz was acquired by the Kingdom of Prussia, renamed Bromberg, at the time, the town was seriously depressed and semi-derelict. In 1807, after the defeat of Prussia by Napoleon and the signing of the Treaty of Tilsit, with Napoleons defeat at the Battle of Nations in 1815, the town was returned to Prussia as part of the autonomous Grand Duchy of Posen. In 1871 the Province of Posen, along with the rest of the Kingdom of Prussia, in the mid-19th century, the arrival of the Prussian Eastern Railway contributed greatly to the development of Bromberg. The first stretch, from Schneidemühl to Bromberg, was opened in July 1851, the city grew from 12,900 in 1852 to 57,700 in 1910 – of whom 84 percent were Germans and 16 percent Poles. After World War I, despite Brombergs German majority, it was assigned to the recreated Polish state by the 1919 Versailles Treaty, now officially Bydgoszcz again, the city belonged to the Poznań Voivodeship
20.
Urstromtal
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Urstromtäler are an element of the glacial series. The term is German and means ancient stream valley, although often translated as glacial valley, it should not be confused with a valley carved out by a glacier. More accurately some sources call them meltwater valleys or ice-marginal valleys, important for the emergence of the Urstromtäler is the fact that the general lie of the land on the North German Plain and in Poland slopes down from south to north. Thus the ice sheet that advanced from Scandinavia flowed into a rising terrain, the meltwaters could therefore only flow for a short distance southwards over the sandurs before having to find a way to the North Sea basin that was parallel to the ice margin. At that time, the area that is now the North Sea was dry as a result of the low level of the sea, as elements of the glacial series, Urstromtäler are intermeshed with sandur areas for long stretches along their northern perimeters. It was over these outwash plains that the meltwaters poured into them, Urstromtäler are relatively uniformly composed of sands and gravels, the grain size can vary considerably, however. Fine sand dominates especially in the sections of the Urstromtal sediments. The thickness of the Urstromtal sediments also varies a great deal, Urstromtäler have a wide and very flat valley bottom that is between 1.5 and 20 kilometres wide. The valley sides, by contrast are only a few to a few metres high. The bottom and the edges of an Urstromtal may have significantly altered by younger processes. In the post-glacial period, many Urstromtäler became bogs due to their low lying situation, in Central Europe there are several Urstromtäler from various periods. The meltwaters of the three above-mentioned Weichselian Urstromtäler flowed successively through this valley towards the North Sea basin, the term Rhine Urstromtal for the Rhine valley from Düsseldorf to its mouth on the North Sea is disputed. The Rhine was certainly a route for meltwaters during the Saale glaciation, the structure of the valley is however clearly older and was formed by recent tectonics. In the Alpine glaciation zone of Central Europe the term Urstromtal is not used, in this region, the Danube and, periodically, the Rhine carried the meltwaters away. Some sections of the main valleys have been given their own names. The Lusatian Urstromtal and the Aller Urstromtal are parts of the Breslau-Magdeburg-Bremen Urstromtal, the Baruth, Berlin and Eberswalde Urstromtäler are common short names for the associated sections of the Urstromtal in Brandenburg. In addition to the main valleys there are also numerous smaller meltwater valleys. Their appearances is similar to that of the great Urstromtäler, and they are also not linked to a sandur and a terminal moraine
21.
Wetland
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A wetland is a land area that is saturated with water, either permanently or seasonally, such that it takes on the characteristics of a distinct ecosystem. The primary factor that distinguishes wetlands from other forms or water bodies is the characteristic vegetation of aquatic plants. Wetlands play a number of roles in the environment, principally water purification, flood control, carbon sink, Wetlands are also considered the most biologically diverse of all ecosystems, serving as home to a wide range of plant and animal life. Wetlands occur naturally on every continent except Antarctica, the largest including the Amazon River basin, the West Siberian Plain, the water found in wetlands can be freshwater, brackish, or saltwater. The main wetland types include swamps, marshes, bogs, and fens, and sub-types include mangrove, carr, pocosin, the UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment determined that environmental degradation is more prominent within wetland systems than any other ecosystem on Earth. International conservation efforts are being used in conjunction with the development of rapid assessment tools to people about wetland issues. Constructed wetlands can be used to treat municipal and industrial wastewater as well as stormwater runoff and they may also play a role in water-sensitive urban design. A patch of land that develops pools of water after a storm would not be considered a wetland. Wetlands have unique characteristics, they are distinguished from other water bodies or landforms based on their water level. Specifically, wetlands are characterized as having a table that stands at or near the land surface for a long enough period each year to support aquatic plants. A more concise definition is a community composed of hydric soil, Wetlands have also been described as ecotones, providing a transition between dry land and water bodies. In environmental decision-making, there are subsets of definitions that are agreed upon to make regulatory and policy decisions. A wetland is an ecosystem that arises when inundation by water produces soils dominated by anaerobic processes, There are four main kinds of wetlands – marsh, swamp, bog and fen. Some experts also recognize wet meadows and aquatic ecosystems as additional wetland types, the largest wetlands in the world include the swamp forests of the Amazon and the peatlands of Siberia. Under the Ramsar international wetland conservation treaty, wetlands are defined as follows, Article 2.1, may incorporate riparian and coastal zones adjacent to the wetlands, and islands or bodies of marine water deeper than six metres at low tide lying within the wetlands. Although the general definition given above applies around the world, each county, Wetlands generally include swamps, marshes, bogs and similar areas. This definition has been used in the enforcement of the Clean Water Act, some US states, such as Massachusetts and New York, have separate definitions that may differ from the federal governments. It is not uncommon for a wetland to be dry for long portions of the growing season, the most important factor producing wetlands is flooding
22.
Pomerania
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Pomerania is a region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Germany and Poland. The name derives from the Slavic po more, meaning by the sea, Pomerania stretches roughly from the Recknitz river in the west to the Vistula river in the east. The largest Pomeranian islands are Rügen, Usedom/Uznam and Wolin, the largest Pomeranian city is Gdańsk, or, when using a narrower definition of the region, Szczecin. Outside its urban areas, Pomerania is characterized by farmland, dotted with lakes, forests. The region was affected by post–World War I and II border and population shifts. Pomerania is the area along the Bay of Pomerania of the Baltic Sea between the rivers Recknitz in the west and Vistula in the east and it formerly reached perhaps as far south as the Noteć river, but since the 13th century its southern boundary has been placed further north. Most of the region is coastal lowland, being part of the North European Plain, but its southern, hilly parts belong to the Baltic Ridge, within this ridge, a chain of moraine-dammed lakes constitutes the Pomeranian Lake District. The soil is rather poor, sometimes sandy or marshy. The western coastline is jagged, with many peninsulas and islands enclosing numerous bays, Łebsko and several other lakes were formerly bays, but have been cut off from the sea. The easternmost coastline along the Gdańsk Bay and Vistula Lagoon, has the Hel peninsula, the Pomeranian region has the following administrative divisions, Hither Pomerania in northeastern Germany, stretching from the Recknitz river to the Oder–Neisse line. This region is part of the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The southernmost part of historical Vorpommern is now in Brandenburg, while its eastern parts are now in Poland. Vorpommern comprises the regions inhabited by Slavic tribes Rugians and Volinians, otherwise the Principality of Rügen. The West Pomeranian Voivodeship in Poland, stretching from the Oder–Neisse line to the Wieprza river, the Pomeranian Voivodeship, with similar borders to Pomerelia, stretching from the Wieprza river to the Vistula delta in the vicinity of Gdańsk. The northern half of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, comprising most of Chełmno Land, the bulk of Farther Pomerania is included within the modern West Pomeranian Voivodeship, but its easternmost parts now constitute the northwest of Pomeranian Voivodeship. Parts of Pomerania and surrounding regions have constituted a euroregion since 1995, the Pomerania euroregion comprises Hither Pomerania and Uckermark in Germany, West Pomerania in Poland, and Scania in Sweden. Pomerania was first mentioned in a document of 1046, referring to a Zemuzil dux Bomeranorum. Pomerania is mentioned repeatedly in the chronicles of Adam of Bremen, the term West Pomerania is ambiguous, since it may refer to either Hither Pomerania or to the West Pomeranian Voivodeship
23.
Piast dynasty
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The Piast dynasty was the first historical ruling dynasty of Poland. The first documented Polish monarch was Prince Mieszko I, the Piasts royal rule in Poland ended in 1370 with the death of king Casimir III the Great. Branches of the Piast dynasty continued to rule in the Duchy of Masovia, the Piasts intermarried with several noble lines of Europe, and possessed numerous titles, some within the Holy Roman Empire. However, the term Piast Dynasty was not applied until the 17th century, in a historical work the expression Piast dynasty was introduced by the Polish historian Adam Naruszewicz, it is not documented in contemporary sources. The first Piasts, probably of Polan descent, appeared around 940 in the territory of Greater Poland at the stronghold of Giecz, shortly afterwards they relocated their residence to Gniezno, where Prince Mieszko I ruled over the Civitas Schinesghe from about 960. The name Polani, from Slavic, pole, did not appear until 1015, the Piasts temporarily also ruled over Pomerania, Bohemia and the Lusatias, as well as Ruthenia, and the Hungarian Spiš region in present-day Slovakia. The ruler bore the title of a duke or a king, depending on their position of power. The Bohemian Přemyslid dynasty, the Hungarian Arpads and their Anjou successors, the Kievan Rus, later also the State of the Teutonic Order, the Piast position was decisively enfeebled by an era of fragmentation following the 1138 Testament of Bolesław III Krzywousty. Numerous dukes like Mieszko III the Old, Władysław III Spindleshanks or Leszek I the White were crowned, only to be overthrown shortly afterwards. After the Polish royal line and Piast junior branch had died out in 1370, the Masovian branch of the Piasts became extinct with the death of Duke Janusz III in 1526. The last ruling duke of the Silesian Piasts was George William of Legnica who died in 1675 and his uncle Count August of Legnica, the last male Piast, died in 1679. The last legitimate heir, Duchess Karolina of Legnica-Brieg died in 1707 and is buried in Trzebnica Abbey, nevertheless, numerous families, like the illegitimate descendants of the Silesian duke Adam Wenceslaus of Cieszyn, link their genealogy to the dynasty. About 1295, Przemysł II used a coat of arms with a white eagle – a symbol later referred to as the Piast coat of arms or as the Piast Eagle, Piast kings and rulers of Poland appear in list form in the following table. For a list of all rulers, see List of Polish monarchs
24.
Neumark
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Called the Lubusz Land while part of medieval Poland, the territory later known as the Neumark gradually became part of the German Margraviate of Brandenburg from the mid-13th century. With the rest of the Electorate of Brandenburg, it part of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701. After World War I the entirely ethnic German Neumark remained within the Free State of Prussia, after World War II the Potsdam Conference assigned the majority of the Neumark to Polish administration, and since 1945 has remained part of Poland. Polish settlers largely replaced the expelled German population, most of the Polish territory became part of the Lubusz Voivodeship, while the northern towns Choszczno, Myślibórz, and Chojna belong to the West Pomeranian Voivodeship. The Oder marked the borders of the Neumark in the west and south, in the north it bordered Pomerania, the Warta and Noteć Rivers and their swamp regions dominated the landscape of the region. In the Iron Age the Jastorf culture operated in this region, identified sometimes with Germanic, as its inhabitants moved westward, the region became depopulated during the Migration Period. After AD500 West Slavic tribes gradually repopulated the area, which became a forest borderland between Pomerania and Greater Poland, according to the Bavarian Geographers description, the Miloxi inhabited the future Neumark region, they had 47 settlements between the Oder and Poznań. The region came under the sovereignty of the first Polish state during the 10th-century rule of Mieszko I and Bolesław I, Polish rulers incorporated the future Neumark territory as the Lubusz Land and by the beginning of the 13th century the previously depopulated region had a thinly-spread population of Poles. The lords invited members of the Knights Templar and Knights Hospitaller to establish monasteries, to fortify the borderland Pomeranian and Polish dukes built castles in the north, around which settlements also grew. The Ascanian margraves of Brandenburg, starting with Albert the Bear and they had gained a foothold east of the river by 1242 and in 1252 the Margraviate of Brandenburg and the Archbishopric of Magdeburg purchased the Lubusz Land. In 1253 they founded Frankfurt an der Oder as a river-crossing, through land purchases, marriage pacts, and services to Polands Piast dynasty, the Ascanians extended their territory eastward to the Drawa River and northward to the Parsęta River. For instance, the Polish castellany of Santok, an important base, to relieve himself of the trouble of maintaining the fortress, Duke Przemysł I of Greater Poland granted the castellany to Margrave Conrad as a dowry for his daughter Konstancja. To safeguard the region Margrave John I founded the town of Landsberg an der Warthe in 1257, the Templars sold Soldin to the Ascanians in 1261, and the town began to become a center for the region. Most of the colonists who settled in Brandenburgs new eastern territory came from Magdeburg or the Altmark, unlike in the rest of Brandenburg the margraves began constructing castles in their land east of the Oder to guard against Poland. The Slavic inhabitants of the region gradually became Germanized, because the new Terra trans Oderam, or land across the Oder, formed an extension of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, it became known as the Neumark after the middle of the 15th century. With the extinction of the Ascanian line in 1320, Brandenburgs interest in the Neumark decreased, neither the margraves of the Wittelsbach nor those of the Luxembourg dynasties concerned themselves with developing their eastern-most territory further. The political vacuum allowed Poland to reassert its influence in the area, Brandenburg pawned the Neumark to the Teutonic Knights in 1402, and it passed completely under their control in 1429, although the Order neglected the region as well. This allowed the Order to retain much of its territory in the First Peace of Thorn in 1411, in 1454/1455 the Knights mismanagement led to their pawning of the Neumark back to Brandenburg, by then led by Elector Frederick II of the Hohenzollern dynasty
