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Gdansk[gudAnsk´] Pronunciation Key, formerly Danzig[dan´sig] Pronunciation Key, city (1993 est. pop. 466,700), capital of Pomorskie prov., N Poland, on a branch of the Vistula and on the Gulf of Gdansk. One of the chief Polish ports on the Baltic Sea, it is a leading industrial and communications center. It has important mechanical-engineering, machine-building, chemical, and metallurgical industries. Sawmilling, food processing, and light manufacturing are also important. Its once-famous state-owned shipyard was nearly closed in 1996 but was sold in 1998 and continues shipbuilding on a smaller scale. There are two port areas; one is at Nowy Port (Neufahrwasser), a northern suburb, and the other, Port Polnocny, was completed in 1975. The port cities of Gdansk and Gdynia and the nearby resort of Sopot are administered as a single city. Gdansk has numerous educational and cultural facilities. Historic landmarks include the Gothic Church of St. Mary (1343).
A Slavic settlement, Gdansk was first mentioned in 997. It soon became the capital of Pomerelia (see Pomerania). After its settlement by German merchants, it joined (13th cent.) the Hanseatic League and developed as an important Baltic trading port. In 1308 it was conquered by the Teutonic Knights and became an object of struggle between them and Poland. Pomerelia and Gdansk passed to Poland in 1466. Gdansk was granted local autonomy under the Polish crown. In 1576, Gdansk withstood a siege by Stephen BAthory and thus preserved its established privileges against domination by the Polish crown.
After the Thirty Years War the city began to decline. In the War of the Polish Succession, King Stanislaus I took refuge in Gdansk until it fell (1734) after a heroic defense. The first partition of Poland in 1772 made Gdansk a free city; the second partition (1793) gave it to Prussia.
Napoleon I restored its status as a free city (1807). Reverting to Prussia in 1814, it was fortified and, as Danzig, was the provincial capital of West Prussia until 1919, when by the Treaty of Versailles it once more became a free city with its own legislature. In order to give the newly reestablished nation of Poland a seaport, Danzig was included in the Polish customs territory and was placed under a high commissioner appointed by the League of Nations.
As the League's authority waned after 1935, Gdansk came under Nazi control. Hitler's demand (1939) for the city's return to Germany was the principal immediate excuse for the German invasion of Poland and thus of World War II. Gdansk was annexed to Germany from Sept. 1, 1939, until its fall to the Soviet army early in 1945. The Allies returned the city to Poland, which restored the name Gdansk. In 1970 workers' grievances sparked riots in Gdansk that spread to other cities and led to changes in Poland's national leadership. Further labor unrest in the Gdansk shipyard led to the formation of the Solidarity union in 1980.
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