Middle Ages , a
Gothic architecture masterpiece and
Historic Monument of Poland In 967 it became part of the emerging Polish state under the first Polish rulers from the
Piast dynasty. Stargard was first mentioned in 1124, when it was part of Poland under
Bolesław III Wrymouth. A church was founded in 1140. Stargard received
Magdeburg city rights in 1243 from
Barnim I, Duke of Pomerania. It was one of the most important towns and a major trade centre of the
Duchy of Pomerania, after it split off from Poland as a result of the 12th-century fragmentation of Poland. From 1283, the city had a port at the mouth of the
Ina River in the nowadays abandoned village of
Inoujście. In 1363 the city joined the
Hanseatic League. As a result of the ongoing fragmentation of Pomerania, in 1368 Stargard became part of the
Duchy of Słupsk (Pomerania-Stolp) and in 1377 it became the capital of a separate eponymous duchy, which in 1403 fell back to Duchy of Słupsk, a vassal state of the
Kingdom of Poland. In 1478 Stargard became part of the reunified Duchy of Pomerania. In the meantime, the trade rivalry with the nearby city of
Szczecin led to the outbreak of the Stargard-Szczecin war in 1454,
Modern period Stargard was part of the Duchy of Pomerania until its dissolution after the death of the last duke
Bogislaw XIV in 1637. and in order to hamper the attacks the Swedish commander set fire to the suburbs, causing a city fire, however, it was still captured by imperial troops. In 1636 it was recaptured by the Swedes, then it was taken and plundered by Imperial troops to fall back to the Swedes again after the
Battle of Wittstock. In 1637 it was again captured by Imperial troops and then by Sweden. In accordance to the 1648
Peace of Westphalia, in 1653 it was incorporated, together with the rest of
Farther Pomerania, into
Brandenburg-Prussia. In 1701 Stargard became part of the
Kingdom of Prussia and in 1818, after the
Napoleonic Wars, Stargard became part of the new district
Szadzko (then officially
Saatzig) within the
Province of Pomerania. During the
Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871), the Prussians established a
prisoner-of-war camp for French troops in the city. As a result of the
unification of Germany in 1871 the city became part of the
German Empire. On 1 April 1901 it became an
independent city, separate from the Saatzig District. According to the Prussian census of 1905, Stargard had a population of 26,907, of which 97% were
Germans and 3% were
Poles. During
World War I, the German administration operated a
prisoner-of-war camp in Stargard, which housed in total some 50,000 POWs, including Russian (including ethnic Poles from the
Russian Partition of Poland conscripted to the Tsarist army), French (including Algerians), Belgian, American, English, Serbian, Romanian, Portuguese, Italian and Japanese. In interwar Germany, the town was the site of a concentration camp for unwanted Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. The
Stargarder Zeitung was as a local newspaper published in Stargard. In the
March 1933 German federal election the
Nazi Party received 58.7% of the vote in the city.
World War II In 1939, during the German
invasion of Poland, which started
World War II, the Germans established the Dulag L temporary camp for
Polish (including
Kashubian)
prisoners of war and civilians near Stargard, which in October 1939 was transformed into the large
prisoner-of-war camp Stalag II-D. Then, after the
battle of France in 1940, also the
French, the Dutch and Belgians were held there, from 1941 also
Yugoslavian and
Soviet POWs, from 1942 also thousands of
Canadians captured at
Dieppe, one of whom was
Gerald MacIntosh Johnston, a Canadian actor, who was killed trying to escape, and after 1943 also
Italians. The POWs were subjected to
racial segregation, and Poles, Africans, Arabs, Jews and Soviet troops were separated from POWs of other nationalities and subjected to worse treatment.
Serbs also faced more severe treatment. Some 6,000 POWs and civilians died in the camp. There were also two subcamps of the
Ravensbrück concentration camp, one in Stargard and one in the present-day district of Kluczewo, as well as seven
forced labour camps.
Polish underground press was distributed in the city. In February 1945, one of the last German armoured offensives,
Operation Solstice, was launched from the Stargard area. The local population was evacuated by the Germans on the order of
Heinrich Himmler before the approaching Soviets in the final stages of the war. ==Landmarks and monuments==