Medieval Poland Resurrection Church From the 7th century onwards
Slavic tribes settled along the shores of the Drawa River, where they erected a fortress a few kilometers north of
Lake Lubie. In the 10th century the region was under the sovereignty of the
Piast duke
Mieszko I of Poland; however, the sparsely inhabited border area during the
fragmentation of Poland was also claimed by the
Dukes of Pomerania, and later also by the mighty
Ascanian margraves
John I and
Otto III.
New March At that time, the fortress of Drawsko had been held by Duke
Przemysł I of Greater Poland, but after his death the settlement was also acquired by the
Margraves of Brandenburg. They invited
Premonstratensian monks from Belbuck (Białoboki) Abbey near
Trzebiatów to found a monastery in their new territory. These plans failed, however, as the desired location was too far from Belbuck and the monks saw the wilderness as unsuitable. The Brandenburg margraves planned to expand upon a settlement already developing near the fortress of Drawsko. The
Uckermark knights Arnold, Konrad and Johann von Goltz were granted the right to develop the settlement into a town mentioned as
Drawenborch. It grew after the arrival of
German colonists, allowing the margraves to grant it
Magdeburg town rights in 1297. When the Ascanian dynasty became extinct in 1320, the colonisation efforts in the Neumark region abated. Nevertheless, to promote the further development of the newly established town of Dramburg, the
Wittelsbach margrave
Louis I of Brandenburg released the town from all duties from 1338 until 1350, when he ceded the town as a fief to the noble
Wedell family. On 13 February 1368, Dramburg was the setting of a peace treaty between Elector
Otto VII of Brandenburg and King
Casimir III of Poland, whereby Otto returned the town of
Wałcz to Poland. The influx of colonists began to cease, although by the end of the 14th century the Dramburg
Neustadt ("new town") had developed on the southern shore of the Drawa. From 1373 the New March was part of the
Lands of the Bohemian (Czech) Crown under the
House of Luxembourg. The decay of the region continued: held by
Jobst of Moravia since 1388, it was pawned by his cousin
Sigismund to the
Teutonic Knights in 1402, despite an agreement with Poland, based on which Poland was to buy and re-incorporate the territory. The Teutonic Knights also neglected the region, which furthermore was devastated by
Hussite forces in 1433. In 1454 the Knights sold the New March to the
Hohenzollern elector
Frederick II of Brandenburg, in order to raise funds for
war with Poland. From that time on, the Hohenzollerns retained the region; the red eagle of the town's coat of arms was taken from the
coat of arms of Brandenburg. In 1537 the former
Franciscan friar
Faustinus Schliepe introduced
Lutheranism to Dramburg during the
Protestant Reformation. From 1540 the town was administered by the
Order of St. John (until 1808). A great fire destroyed a wide section of Dramburg in 1620, leaving only five houses unscathed, while five years later numerous citizens died from plague. In 1638 during the
Thirty Years' War, the
Swedish colonel Beer plundered and pillaged Dramburg. Despite that setback, the town's economic advantages allowed it to recuperate quickly. Dramburg had
staple rights, giving it the privilege to force merchants traveling on the Drawa to offer their wares, such as
Kołobrzeg (Kolberg) salt, for sale at Dramburg's markets. Wool-weaving and shoe-making were also important craft industries since the Middle Ages.
Province of Pomerania Dramburg became part of the
Kingdom of Prussia in 1701. With the reorganization of the
Prussian provinces in 1815 following the
Napoleonic Wars, Dramburg left the Neumark region and in 1818 became the seat of
Landkreis Dramburg in the
Regierungsbezirk of
Köslin within the Prussian
Province of Pomerania. Dramburg became part of the
German Empire after the 1871
unification of Germany. In 1877 the Pommersche Zentralbahn (Pomeranian Central Railway) became connected to the town, which was also connected in 1896 to the Saatziger Kleinbahnnetz (Szadzko District railroad network). Dramburg's access to the railroads led to the establishment of wood and textile industries. This led the Pommersche
Saatzucht Gesellschaft based in Stettin (
Szczecin) to use the Dramburg region as a testing area for its
plant breeding experiments. After
Poland regained its independence and reincorporated many areas previously annexed by the Germans (but not Drawsko/Dramburg), following the 1919
Treaty of Versailles after
World War I, many Germans from the former
Province of Posen immigrated to Dramburg, expanding settlement in the south of the town. When the province of
Posen-West Prussia was disbanded in 1938, Dramburg became part of
Regierungsbezirk Schneidemühl (Piła). At the start of
World War II, the German
4th Army invaded Poland from the town, and the
Einsatzgruppe IV followed to commit
atrocities against the Poles in various cities and towns, including
Chojnice,
Bydgoszcz,
Białystok and
Warsaw. During the war, the
SS established a large training school for motorcyclists and mechanics in the town. In the course of the
Vistula–Oder Offensive, on March 4, 1945 the
Red Army and the
Polish First Army captured the town, whose center was largely destroyed during the
fighting.
Post-war Poland Polish authorities began administering the town on March 6, 1945. The town became again part of Poland, although with a Soviet-installed
communist regime, which remained in power until the 1980s. The remaining German citizens were
expelled. The town, initially named Drawsko, was renamed Drawsko Pomorskie by adding the adjective
Pomorskie (meaning
Pomeranian or
in Pomerania) in 1948 to distinguish it from other Polish settlements of the same name. It was the administrative seat of a
powiat until 1975. After the Local Government Reorganization Act of 1998, Drawsko became a county seat again in 1999. ==Population==