Elbląg

Elblag is currently a city in northern Poland. Elbing near the Prussian trading settlement of Truso, in Pomesania on the ancient Amber Road, was one of the first cities founded in 1237 by northern German traders . It is situated near the Baltic Sea in land described in 98 AD in Tacitus' Germania. In 1228 the emperor Frederick II granted the government of Prussia to the Teutonic Knights under direct authority by the pope.

In 1241 Elbing received city rights modelled on those of Lübeck, unlike many other cities in east-central Europe, which received Magdeburg rights. A vocabulary was written in Elbing around 1350 in the Baltic Old Prussian language.

Elbing, Danzig (now Gdansk) and Thorn (now Torun) were leading cities in the Hanseatic League, and in the Prussian Confederation which led the successful uprising of western Prussia in 1454 against the rule of the Teutonic Order, the beginning of the Thirteen Years War. Elbing came under Polish sovereignty with the Second Treaty of Thorn (1466).

In 1535 the first Protestant Gymnasium was established in Elbing. Famous inhabitants of the city included Hans von Bodeck.

From 1579 Elbing had close trade relations with England, to which the city accorded free trade. Many English and Scots merchants settled in Elbing, remaining after occupation by Sweden and rivalry from nearby Danzig interrupted trading links.

By 1618 Elbing left the Hanseatic League due to its close business dealings with England. The English and Scottish immigrants remained and took on Elbing citizenship. The Scottish Reformed Church and the "Brotherhood of Scottish Nation in Elbing" founded in 1692 were some of their organizations. Their family graves with names Ramsey, Slocume etc could until 1945 still be found at the Saint Mary church in the old section (Altstadt)Elbing.

In 1700/1 Elbing lost its free-city status with annexation to the kingdom of Prussia.

In 1755 Elbing mathematician and mapmaker Johann Friedrich Endersch completed a beautiful map called :Tabula Geographica Episcopatum Warmiensem In Prussia Exhibens. This imperial map shows the city and district of Elbing west of Warmia (German Ermeland). J. F. Endersch also made a copper etching depicting the galiot Die Stadt Elbing, or The City of Elbing, a sailing ship constructed in Elbing in 1738.

After the break-up of the Holy Roman Empire by Napoleon in 1806 Elbing along with Prussia became a part of the 1871 German Empire. With the forcible sectioning of Prussia after WW I, by creation of the Polish Corridor, Elbing became a part of the German province of East Prussia in 1920 , officially called freestate Prussia.

Nearly all of the city's German inhabitants were expelled after its military occupation by the Soviet army and transfer to Poland in 1945. The city returned to it's Polish name: Elblag.

Outside link to Endersch map of 1755 [[1]]: for Elbing click on second down from top left section of map