The history of Poles in Königsberg (Polish: Królewiec) goes back to the 14th century. In the struggles between the Kingdom of Poland and the Teutonic Order, the city was briefly part of the Polish state, and after the Second Peace of Toruń, 1466, it was considered a part of Poland as a fief held by the Teutonic Order and the secular Duchy of Prussia, as the capital of both entities. During the Protestant Reformation Königsberg became the center of Polish Lutheranism and partially for this reason, a birthplace of Polish printing and one of the epicenters of vernacular Polish literature. Polish intellectuals and scholars played a major role in the founding of the University of Königsberg (Albertina) and served as both faculty and administrators. At peak, in the 17th-19th centuries, Polish church services were held during the same period in six churches: four Lutheran, one Catholic, and one Reformed.
Over the course of the 19th century the Polish population in Königsberg declined, due to assimilation and Germanization, although the publication of Polish language works in the city continued until 1931.
Background In 1255 the Teutonic Knights, during the Prussian Crusade, captured the Baltic Prussian fortress of Tuwangste on the Pregel (Pregola) river. On its site they expanded the existing fortifications into what later became known as the Königsberg Castle. The new fort was named in honor of king Ottokar II of Bohemia (König is the German word for king). Subsequently, towards the end of the thirteenth century, the towns of Altstadt (Old Town, Stare Miasto), Löbenicht (Lipnik) and Kneiphof (Knipawa) arose around the castle and these would eventually together form the town of Konigsberg. The initial settlements were populated mostly by immigrants from the Hanseatic city of Lübeck (Liubice) as well as local Sambian converts to Christianity. They were served by the newly built St. Michael's Church in what later would become known as the Steindamm (Polish: Kamienna Grobla, literally: "stone dam", "stone levee") neighborhood. Although the church, along with a good portion of the town, was destroyed during the Great Prussian Uprising (1260-1274), it was rebuilt during the first half of the fourteenth century and eventually came to play an important role in the Polish cultural life of the city.
Polish name of the city The first recorded name of the castle is castrum de Coningsberg in Zambia. The Polish chronicler Jan Długosz, writing in the 15th century referred to the city's battle standard captured by the Poles at the Battle of Grunwald (1410) by both the German name Kunigsperk and the Polish version Crolowgrod, which given the Polish orthography of the time, has been transliterated as Krolowgrod. Król is the Polish word for king and gród is similar to the German ending "berg". Krolowgrod by the 16th century became the standard Polish name Królewiec.
Polish settlement in the city up to the Protestant Reformation
Polish migrants from Masuria began moving to Königsberg during the fourteenth century, settling particularly in the Knipawa portion of the town, and, along with Lithuanians and Kurlandians, were soon granted the ability to acquire burgher rights. Unlike the local Old Prussians, Poles along with Germans, were allowed membership in the local trade guilds. By the beginning of the fifteenth century, according to the German historian Bernhard Stade, a large portion of the city's population was fluent in Polish, mostly for economic reasons.
By 1436 one of the largest streets in the city was named Polnische Gasse (Polish Street) and a tower near the Cathedral bridge was referred to as Polnische Turm (Polish Tower). Until the first half of the sixteenth century however, most of the Polish inhabitants were part of the lower, poorer, class of the city. This began to change, particularly with the Protestant Reformation, so that by the 1520s Polish individuals show up among master artisans and intellectuals.
According to historian Janusz Jasiński, based on estimates obtained from the records of St. Michael's Church, during the 1530s Lutheran Poles constituted about one quarter of the city population. This does not include Polish Catholics or Calvinists who did not have centralized places of worship until the seventeenth century, hence records that far back for these two groups are not available.
Political connections with Poland While Königsberg began as a fortress of the Teutonic Knights, the growing town soon found itself in conflict with the Order. The main cause of the discontent were the economic policies of the Knights which were perceived as detrimental to trade and growth, although ethnic and national identity also played a role. Specifically, the German Knights came to be perceived to be an outside force, ruling over a newly developed, organic Prussian identity which emerged from the merger of native elements - Poles, Old Prussians and Pomeranians - and migrants to the region.
In the Battle of Grunwald of 1410, the banners of the Königsberg Commandery and the Old Town were taken by the Poles and displayed in the Wawel Cathedral. In the case of a complete Polish-Lithuanian victory, King Władysław II Jagiełło planned to incorporate the city into Lithuania, rather than Poland, within the Polish-Lithuanian union. During the Polish–Teutonic War of 1414, as the Polish-Lithuanian army was only a dozen or so kilometers from the city, houses in Löbenicht () began to be demolished to secure the Old Town.
The tensions led Königsberg to co-establish the Prussian Confederation, formed in Kwidzyn in 1440, which opposed the Teutonic Order and sought help and protection from Poland. On February 4, 1454, the Secret Committee of the Prussian Confederation, representing the cities, towns and nobility in the Teutonic State, repudiated their allegiance to the Knights, and asked King of Poland Casimir IV Jagiellon to incorporate the region, incl. Königsberg, to the Kingdom of Poland. The Teutonic Order's garrison in Königsberg Castle surrendered to the city's burghers. Casimir IV Jagiellon affirmed the Confederation's plea for protection and on March 6 issued an edict in Kraków which officially incorporated Königsberg, as well as other parts of Prussia, into the Polish Kingdom. The local mayor pledged allegiance to the Polish King during the incorporation in Kraków. King Casimir IV authorized the city to mint Polish coins, and abolished the Pfundzoll, one of the taxes imposed by the Teutonic Knights in order to finance their wars against Poland and Lithuania. The city, known in Polish as Królewiec, became the seat of the short-lived Królewiec Voivodeship and Casimir IV named Ścibor Bażynski as the first wojewoda (Polish governor) of the province. The official act of incorporation was signed on April 15, signed by representatives of Knipawa and Old Town. This marked the beginning of the Thirteen Years' War (1454–1466) between Poland and the Prussian cities on one side, and the Teutonic Knights on the other. On June 19, 1454, a public ceremony was held in the city, during which the mayors of the Old Town, Knipawa and Lipnik, officially recognized Polish rule and paid homage to Poland.
However, after the Polish defeat at Battle of Chojnice in September 1454, attitudes in parts of the city began to change and in 1455 Old Town and Lipnik rebelled against the pro-Polish factions and repudiated the agreement, with Knipawa remaining as the only portion of the town loyal to the Polish crown. In 1465, there was another anti-Teutonic rebellion in the city, but it was suppressed and six townspeople were executed.
In the last phase of the war, the Order began running out of finances, and after a string of victories by the Polish commander Piotr Dunin agreed to the Second Peace of Toruń (1466). In 1466, the city pressed for the Teutonic Knights to accept Polish peace terms, and the mayors of the Old Town and Knipawa took part in the peace negotiations. The seals of all three towns were attached to the documents of the peace treaty. As a result, the part of the Knight's state was reincorporated into Poland as the province of Royal (or "Polish") Prussia, while the eastern portion also became a part of "one and indivisible" Kingdom of Poland, as a fief held by the Teutonic Order (until 1525), and by secular Ducal Prussia afterwards, until 1657, with Königsberg (Królewiec) as the capital.
In 1478, the city came into conflict with Grand Master of the Teutonic Order Martin Truchseß von Wetzhausen, who wanted to cut ties with Poland, and pressured him to pay homage to King Casimir IV Jagiellon. On several occasions the city got into disputes with the Prussian Dukes and sought intervention and confirmation of its rights from the Polish authorities. Polish Kings Sigismund II Augustus in 1552, Sigismund III Vasa in 1589 were hosted by the city very grandly. In 1566, the city's rights were extended and the Prussian dukes were not allowed to interfere in the city's internal affairs by the Polish Royal Commissioners. In 1635, Polish King Władysław IV Vasa granted the city the right to organize its military defense against a possible Swedish attack in exchange for exemption from paying taxes to Prussian dukes. King Władysław IV was hosted in the city very grandly during his visits in 1635 and 1636. He appointed Jerzy Ossoliński as the Polish governor of the duchy in 1636. Ossoliński resided in the city and completed the fortification of the city against a potential Swedish attack.
After Sweden's invasion of Poland in 1655, the city willingly passed new taxes to finance the fight against the invaders. Frederick William's support for Sweden against Poland was met with opposition from the city, which stopped paying taxes and demanded the expulsion of the Brandenburg troops. Since 1657, the city strongly opposed the rule of Elector Frederick William, and opted to remain part of the Kingdom of Poland. In 1662, the city sent a letter to the Polish King John II Casimir Vasa opposing the rule of Elector Frederick William, and a confederation was formed in the city to maintain Poland's sovereignty over the city and region. The Elector and his army, however, entered the city and abducted and imprisoned the leader of the city's anti-Elector opposition Hieronymus Roth. In 1663, the city burghers, forced by Frederick William, swore an oath of allegiance to him, however, in the same ceremony they still also pledged allegiance to Poland.
During the Swedish invasion of Poland of 1701–1706, the city became a refuge for several Polish bishops, senators, nobles, and Jesuits from Braniewo.
From 1734, during the War of the Polish Succession, Polish King Stanisław Leszczyński stayed in the city, and several prominent Polish officials, including Franciszek Maksymilian Ossoliński, and voivodes Antoni Michał Potocki, Piotr Jan Czapski and Andrzej Morsztyn, formed an informal political committee in support of Leszczyński there in 1734. After the arrival of more Leszczyński's supporters in 1735, the city was the main center of authority and court of King Stanisław Leszczyński.Ciesielski, p. 110 After his defeat in the war, Leszczyński signed an act of renunciation of the Polish crown in the city on January 26, 1736, and then left the city for France on March 27, 1736.Ciesielski, p. 113
In the 1750s, an unusual opportunity potentially arose for the city to return to Poland. In 1756 Russia decided to go to war with the Kingdom of Prussia and annex the territory and city, which was then to be offered to Poland as part of a territorial exchange desired by Russia,Ciesielski, p. 118 however, ultimately Russia only occupied the city for four years during the Seven Years' War before withdrawing in 1762 and did not make Poland an offer of territorial exchange.
Center of Polish Lutheranism and printing