Police, West Pomeranian Voivodeship


Police is a town in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship, northwestern Poland. It is the capital of Police County. It is one of the biggest towns of the Szczecin agglomeration.
The town is situated on the Oder River and its estuary, south of the Szczecin Lagoon and the Bay of Pomerania. The centre of Police Town is situated about north of the centre of Szczecin.
The name of the town comes from the Slavic pole, which means "".

History

The settlement was first mentioned in 1243. Pomeranian duke Barnim of Pomerania granted Magdeburg law to the town in 1260. At the end of the 13th century, the town had become a fief of a local dynasty of knights, the Drake family. In 1321, with the death of Otto Drake, the town became a dependency of nearby Stettin, hindering its growth until the mid-18th century.
Nearby Jasienica Abbey, now within the Police city limits, was secularized during the Protestant Reformation, which was adapted in the Duchy of Pomerania in 1534. After its secularization, the abbey became a ducal domain, and was the site of the treaty that for the first time partitioned the duchy into a western and eastern part in 1569.
From the Treaty of Stettin until the Treaty of Stockholm, Pölitz was part of Swedish Pomerania, and of Prussian Pomerania thereafter. In 1808, Pölitz became independent from Stettin again. In 1815, Pölitz became part of the restructured Province of Pomerania, administered within Landkreis Randow county. In 1939, this county was dissolved and Pölitz was made part of Groß-Stettin.

Nazi synthetic fuel factory

In 1937, the synthetic fuel plant Hydrierwerke Pölitz AG was founded by IG Farben, Rhenania-Ossag, and Deutsch-Amerikanische Petroleum Gesellschaft which by 1943 was producing 15% of Nazi Germany's synthetic fuels, 577,000 tons. The plant derived its workforce from an adjacent system of camps plus a ship moored on the Oder River serving as a camp. In addition, a subcamp of the Stutthof concentration camp was located in Pölitz.
During World War II, the plant made Pölitz a nine-time bombing target of the Allied Oil Campaign from late April 1943 onward, leading to 70% of the town being destroyed.

Post–World War II

The city with the plant was captured by the Soviet Union’s Red Army during the Battle of Berlin on 26 April 1945. While most of the former German territory east of the Oder-Neisse line became Polish, Pölitz, situated on the western bank of the Oder, remained a Soviet-administered exclave: Marshal Zhukov decreed the establishment of a Soviet county with Pölitz, Ziegenort, Jasenitz, Messenthin and Scholwin. 25,000 German workers had to disassemble the plant before it was sent to the USSR.
Gradually, the area without the plant was given to Poland: Mścięcino on 7 September 1946, and Police with Jasienica on 19 September. On 25 February 1947 the plant also passed to Polish control. Polish settlers, partially expellees from the east of former Poland, arrived in the region to replace the German population that had fled or were forcibly expelled. They were joined by refugees from Greece and Yugoslav Macedonia in 1953.
The ruins of the plant still remain standing, though they are not secured and are dangerous to visit.
A large chemical plant was built in the town in 1969 and has grown since to become one of the largest in Poland. It produces mostly titanium dioxide pigments and nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers.
Police was in the Szczecin Voivodeship from 1946 to 1998. Since 1999 the town has been part of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship.

Districts

Notable buildings from the pre-WW2 era:
The tourist and cultural information office is localised in The Gothic Chapel in Bolesław Chrobry Square in The Old Town of Police

Geography and nature

Police is situated on the Oder River and an estuary of the Oder River - Roztoka Odrzańska, south of the Lagoon of Szczecin and the Bay of Pomerania. The centre of Police Town is situated about north of the centre of Szczecin. Police is at located in the Ueckermünder Heide with the Świdwie Nature Reserve around Lake Świdwie near Tanowo and Dobra.
A kayak route follows the Gunica River from Węgornik through Tanowo, Tatynia and Wieńkowo to Police-Jasienica. At the Szczecin Lagoon is a small yacht marina on the mouth of the Łarpia River - 'Olimpia'. The ruins of the synthetic petrol plant are now a habitat of bats.

Population

Major roads under state control connect Police to Trzebież and Nowe Warpno, No. 114; to Tanowo, No. 114; and to Szczecin over Przęsocin.
Main streets in Police include: ul. Tanowska, ul. Bankowa, ul. Grunwaldzka, ul. Kościuszki, ul. Jasienicka, ul. Dworcowa, ul. Piastów, ul. Wojska Polskiego, ul. Asfaltowa, ul. Cisowa, ul. Piłsudskiego, and ul. Wyszyńskiego.
A clinic hospital in Police is a part of The Pomeranian Medical University.

Notable residents

The sister cities of Police are: