Szczecin tourist information

A stronghold of the Lusatian culture was here in the early Iron Age period. Another stronghold of the Slavic Pomeranians was built in the 8th century at the ford of the Oder River.

It was the main centre of a small Western Slavonic tribe living in the fork of the Oder river between the main branch and the Randow river. It is not certain if this tribe belonged to the Pomeranians who lived on the right bank of the Odra, or to the Polabians or Veleti who lived on the left bank of the Odra. It is also possible that Stettin was controlled in some manner by both tribes. It is very likely that Mieszko I of Poland, who conquered Pomerania in the years 967–972, also took control of Szczecin and Wolin. Piasts rule in Stettin was overthrown by pagan counter-revolution around 1005. Most of the time, the Pomeranians kept their Slavic pagan faith. Several Triglav temples existed nearby.

After the decline of Wolin in the 12th century, Szczecin became one of the most important and powerful cities of the Baltic Sea south coasts, having some 5,000 inhabitants. In a winter campaign of 1121–1122, Szczecin was subjugated by Boleslaus II of Poland, who invited German bishop Otto of Bamberg to baptize the citizens (1124). In the next years it was subjugated by the Warcislaw I, duke of Pomerania, who organized the second visit of Bishop Otto in 1128. At this time the first Christian church of St. Peter and Paul was erected.

In the second half of the 12th century, a group of German tradesmen (from various parts of the Holy Roman Empire) settled in the city around St. Jacob's church, which was founded by Beringer, a trader from Bamberg, and consecrated in 1187. For centuries the dukes, oriented towards the west, invited West and Central German settlers to colonize Pomeranian wastelands and to found villages. Duke Barnim I granted a local government charter to this community in 1237, separating the Germans from the Slavic majority community settled around St. Nikolas church (in the neighbourhoods of Chyzyn, Upper Wik, Lower Wik). Full location charter under the Magdeburg law was granted to Stettin (one Lusatian und two neigboring German settlements)in 1243 by Duke Barnim I Dobry of Pommerania.

Around that time the major ethnical group of Stettin changed from Slavic to German.

Stettin joined the German Hanseatic League in 1278. From 1309 on (under Duke Otto I) till the 1630s Stettin was the capital of the Duchy of Pomerania ruled by the Griffin dynasty, of Slavic origins, while the city and Western Pomerania became finally German.

After the extinction of the Griffin dynasty, Stettin, along with the rest of Western Pomerania, was granted to Sweden at the Peace of Westphalia (1648), despite the protests of the Elector of Brandenburg, who had a legal claim to inherit all of Pomerania. In 1720 after the Great Northern War, the Swedes were forced to cede the city to King Frederick William I of Prussia. Stettin became a major Prussian (and, after 1871 German) city. In 1939 Stettin had about 400,000 inhabitants and was Germany's third-biggest naval port (after Hamburg and Bremen) and of great importance for the supply and trade of Berlin.

In 1935 the German Wehrmacht established Stettin as the headquarters for Wehrkreis II, which controlled the military units in all of Mecklenburg and Pomerania. It was also the Area Headquarters for units stationed at Stettin I and II; Swinemünde; Greifswald; and Stralsund. Stettin was the home Station for the German 2nd Motorized Infantry Division, which took part in Invasion of Poland in 1939 cutting across the Polish Corridor. 65% of Stettin's buildings and almost all of the city centre, seaport, and industry were destroyed during the Allied air raids in 1944, and heavy fighting between the German and the Soviet Army (26 April 1945).

Stettin remained German until 1945, when the Soviet Red Army seized the city. Many of the city's inhabitants fled in fear of revenge and it was virtually deserted after being captured by Soviet army on Apr 26, 1945. Later, they returned, as it was undecided if the city would be in Poland, or in the Soviet occupation zone in Germany. In the aftermath of World War II the city became, unexpectedly and contrary to the Potsdam Conference, part of Poland due to the Polish army simply taking it. Most of Pomerania, including Stettin and the Oder mouth, was eventually given to Poland. Subsequently the remaining German population was expelled.

Polish authorities were lead by Piotr Zaremba. Many Germans had to work in the Soviet military camps that were outside Polish jurisdiction. In the 1950s most of Stettin's Germans were expelled from the city, although there was a significant German minority for the next 10 years. The number of inhabitants: 1939: 382,000 - 1945: 260,000 (German population expelled, war losses) - 1950: 180,000. In the 1950s most of Stettin's Germans were expelled from the city, although there was a significant German minority for the next 10 years.

In 1945 there was already a small Polish community consisting of the few Stettin citizens from before of WWII and the Polish enforced workers during WWII, who survived the war. Stettin was resettled with Poles, from every region of Poland mainly from the area around Poznan, where their homes had been destroyed during the German occupation and during fighting on the Eastern Front. The city was also resettled with Poles from Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union. This settlement process was coordinated by the city of Poznan and Stettin was renamed Szczecin.

Old and new settlers did a great effort to raise the Szczecin from ruins, rebuild, reconstruct and extend the city's industry, residential areas but also the cultural heritage (e.g the Pomeranian Dukes' Castle in Szczecin), and it was still harder to do this under the communist regime. Szczecin became a major industrial centre of and a principal seaport not only for Poland (especially the Silesian coal) but also for Czechoslovakia and East Germany. It witnessed anti-communist revolts in 1970 and 1980 and participated in the birth of Solidarity movement. Since 1999 Szczecin has been the capital of West Pomeranian Voivodeship.