Elbląg

Elblag is a city in northern Poland, known to German- and English-speakers until 1945 as Elbing.

Elbing was founded in 1237 by northern German traders near the Prussian trading settlement of Truso, on the ancient Amber Road, in Pomesania.

In 1241 it 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 rising (1454) of western Prussia 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.

In 1772 Elbing lost its free-city status with annexation to the kingdom of Prussia, from 1871 a part of the German Empire. Following Poland's recovery of western Prussia, Elbing became a part of East Prussia in 1920.

Nearly all of the city's German-speaking inhabitants were expelled after its occupation by the Soviet army and transfer to Poland in 1945.