Дравско-Поморское: История и судьба города

Drawsko Pomorskie (until 1948 Drawsko; Dramburg) is a town in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship, in northwestern Poland. It is the administrative seat of Drawsko County and the urban rural commune of Gmina Drawsko Pomorskie. As of December 2021, the town has a population of 11,292. 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 in Germany (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.

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.

Polish authorities began administering the town on March 6, 1945. The town became part of Poland, under a Soviet installed communist regime, which remained in power until the 1980s. The remaining German citizens were expelled in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement. 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.