= Szczecin =
The history if the city Szczecin can be followed back till the 8th century. The Polish city of Szczecin has a history of more than 700 years a German city.
[c] Antiquity [c]
Of the German tribes in the area of the mouth of the Oder for the time to the Migration Period only few settlement traces can be found. For the 8th century a Slavic settlement on the hill above the left bank of the mouth of the Oder in the Szczecin Haff was found. during the course of the 9th century it developed into a through palisades protected castle wall. In 967 the area together with Pomerania came under feudal obedience oth the Polish duke Miesezko I. A further century later the new Wendic village Kessing was founded below the castle, which soon became an important trade site and port. At that time the surrounding country was part of the Polish kingdom, that conquered it in 1091. With duke Boleslaw III. of Poland Pomerania was again subjugated and at the beginning of the 12th center bishop Otto of Bamberg was called to convert the pagan Wends to christiantiy. Between 1124 and 1128 he came twice the the Szczecin Haff and on his last visit he destroyed the pagan temples to erect a wooden church in their stead. During the Wendish crusade of bishop Anselm of Habelsber the castle was sieged in 1147, but its fall could be prevented by the intervention of the Camminian bishop. He argued that the the inhabitants already converted to christianity. In 1173 the Dane captured the castle, destroyed it but rebuilt it in 1190. The Dane commanded the country till 1227.
[c] Middle Ages [c]
In the meantime German settlers settled to the south and west of the Wendic village, thereby founding first the upper and later the lower town. In the upper city the Jakobi church was built from 1180 till 1187, endowed by the merchant Beringer of Bamberg. Once the dukes of the dynasty Greifen came to power in the second third of the 12th century Pomerania became more and more as independent state. Politically it reached a first climax under Barnim I. from 1226 till 1278. Barnim I. is known as founder of the city in the history books and he granted the Wendic village Kessing together with the German suburbs the "oppidum Stetin" (town ordinances and privileges) in 1243, which is a variant of the Magdeburgian town privileges. It is a fact that already 1220 for the first time a Pomeranian duke (Bogislaw II.) was entombed in the Jakobini church, proving the exceptional position of Szczecin as a center of power within Pomerania. Barnim I. supported it by duty remission, trade and fishing privileges, so that the city was economically strengthened. In addition the high court for all cities with Magdeburgian-Stettinian town privileges was established in Szczecin. The duke allowed 1245 the erection of a townhall. On top of the old castle wall the foundation for the church of Mary were laid in 1263 as a symbol for the complete integration of the three settlements. The construction of a port increased the economic boom in the city which culminated in the membership in the Hanseatic league in 1278. The split of Pomerania in 1295 which established dutchy of Pomerania-Wolgast, which cut Szczecin off of the coast, caused some economical disadvantages at first, which were most significant in the reduced leverage within the Hanseatic league.
In 1309 duke Otto I. started the construction of a palace and thereby made Szczecin official the main town in Pomerania. His successor Barnim III. got into conflict with the Szczecin citizens when he began construction of a palace on the castle place which was reserved for the citizens. Only with the treaty of 24 od August 1346 brought around an agreement and it became a solid stone building the core the the castle still standing today. In honor of the bishop Otto of Bamberg the duke founded the Otto church which was built together with the castle. On 15 of July 1345 the town acquired the right of coinage from the duke which further improve its premier position with Pomerania. Till the end of the 14th century the economy bloomed further, when due to the conflict between Poland and the Teutonic Order Poland as well as Pomerania granted extensive trading privileges in order to replace the trade monopoly Gdańsk which was controlled by the Teutonic Order.
In the 15th century Szczecin was largely branded by repeating plague epidemics; in 1451 and 1464 the Szczecin dukes Joachim the younger and Otto III. fell pray to it. The 16th century started anew with a conflict between duke and city. The introduction of new custom duties and reduction in of the coinage privileges by Bogislaw X. incensed the citizenship that much, that they arrested the duchy council. Only when Bogislaw sieged the city with troops the city council complied. Already in 1512 both parties were reconciled, so that duke Bogislaw helped out the town with the treaty of Frauenstadt of 18th April 1512, when its trade were endangered by extensive Brandenburgian privileges for Frankfurt/Oder. Due to this treaty Brandenburg hat to retract its actions.
[https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geschichte_der_Stadt_Stettin, 2015-09-16]