Gdańsk in the context of Unification of Germany

Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at 1.86 million residents within a greater metropolitan area of 3.27 million residents, which makes Warsaw the 6th most-populous city in the European Union. The city area measures 517 km (200 sq mi) and comprises 18 districts, while the metropolitan area covers 6,100 km (2,355 sq mi). Warsaw is classified as an alpha global city, a major political, economic and cultural hub, and the country's seat of government. It is also the capital of the Masovian Voivodeship.

Warsaw traces its origins to a small fishing town in Masovia. The city rose to prominence in the late 16th century, when Sigismund III decided to move the Polish capital and his royal court from Kraków. Warsaw surpassed Gdańsk as Poland's most populous city by the 18th century. It served as the capital of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth until 1795, and subsequently as the seat of Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. The 19th century and its Industrial Revolution brought a demographic boom, which made it one of the largest and most densely populated cities in Europe. Known then for its elegant architecture and boulevards, Warsaw was bombed and besieged at the start of World War II in 1939. Much of the historic city was destroyed and its diverse population decimated by the Ghetto Uprising in 1943, the general Warsaw Uprising in 1944, and systematic razing.

Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, and borders Lithuania and Russia to the northeast; Belarus and Ukraine to the east; Slovakia and the Czech Republic to the south; and Germany to the west. The territory has a varied landscape, diverse ecosystems, and a temperate climate. Poland is composed of sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 million people, and the fifth largest EU country by land area, covering 312,696 km (120,733 sq mi). The capital and largest city is Warsaw; other major cities include Kraków, Wrocław, Łódź, Poznań, and Gdańsk.

Prehistoric human activity on Polish soil dates to the Lower Paleolithic, with continuous settlement since the end of the Last Glacial Period. Culturally diverse throughout late antiquity, in the early medieval period the region became inhabited by the West Slavic tribal Polans, who gave Poland its name. The process of establishing statehood coincided with the conversion of a pagan ruler of the Polans to Christianity in 966. Under the auspices of the Roman Catholic Church, the dominion became part of the Western world. In 1025, the Kingdom of Poland emerged, and in 1569 it cemented its long-standing association with Lithuania, forming the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. At the time, the Commonwealth was one of Europe's great powers, with an elective monarchy and a uniquely liberal political system. It adopted Europe's first modern constitution in 1791.

Solidarity (Polish: „Solidarność”, pronounced [sɔliˈdarnɔɕt͡ɕ] ), full name Independent Self-Governing Trade Union "Solidarity" (Niezależny Samorządny Związek Zawodowy „Solidarność” [ɲɛzaˈlɛʐnɨ samɔˈʐɔndnɨ ˈzvjɔ̃zɛɡ zavɔˈdɔvɨ sɔliˈdarnɔɕt͡ɕ], abbreviated NSZZ „Solidarność”), is a Polish trade union founded in August 1980 at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, Poland. Subsequently, it was the first independent trade union in a Warsaw Pact country to be recognised by the state.

The union's membership peaked at 10 million in September 1981, representing one-third of the country's working-age population. In 1983 Solidarity's leader Lech Wałęsa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and the union is widely recognized as having played a central role in the end of communist rule in Poland. This led to the appointment of the first noncommunist Prime Minister since the 1940s.

The Vistula (/ˈvɪstjʊlə/; Polish: Wisła [ˈviswa] ) is the longest river in Poland and the ninth-longest in Europe, at 1,047 kilometres (651 miles) in length. Its drainage basin, extending into three other countries apart from Poland, covers 193,960 km (74,890 sq mi), of which 168,868 km (65,200 sq mi) is in Poland.

The Vistula rises at Barania Góra in the south of Poland, 1,220 meters (4,000 ft) above sea level in the Silesian Beskids (western part of Carpathian Mountains), where it begins with the White Little Vistula (Biała Wisełka) and the Black Little Vistula (Czarna Wisełka). It flows through Poland's largest cities, including Kraków, Sandomierz, Warsaw, Płock, Włocławek, Toruń, Bydgoszcz, Świecie, Grudziądz, Tczew and Gdańsk. It empties into the Vistula Lagoon (Zalew Wiślany) or directly into the Gdańsk Bay of the Baltic Sea with a delta of six main branches (Leniwka, Przekop, Śmiała Wisła, Martwa Wisła, Nogat and Szkarpawa).

A pulsar clock is an extremely accurate clock which functions by measuring radio pulses emitted by pulsars. Currently, only one such clock exists and is located in a church in Gdańsk, with a repeater in the building of the European Parliament in Brussels.

Westerplatte (Polish pronunciation: [vɛstɛrˈplatɛ], [ˈvɛstɛrplatɛ], German pronunciation: [ˈvɛstɐplatə]) is a peninsula in Gdańsk, Poland, located on the Baltic Sea coast mouth of the Dead Vistula (one of the Vistula delta estuaries), in the Gdańsk harbour channel. From 1926 to 1939, it was the location of a Polish Military Transit Depot (WST), sanctioned within the territory of the Free City of Danzig (now Gdańsk).

The first shots of the Second World War were fired at the Battle of Westerplatte which began at 0450hrs on the 1 September, 1939. The fighting started when the German WWI battleship SMS Schleswig-Holstein began shelling the Polish ammunition depot on Westerplatte. After a siege that lasted a week, the Polish garrison surrender to German forces that were part of invasion of Poland.

A courtesy title is a title that does not have legal significance but is rather used by custom or courtesy, particularly, in the context of nobility, the titles used by children of members of the nobility (cf. substantive title).

In some contexts, courtesy title is used to mean the more general concept of a title or honorific such as Mr., Mrs., Ms., Miss, Madam, Sir for those who not been awarded a knighthood or a baronetcy, as well as Dr. for physicians who have not actually achieved a doctorate.

A horse-drawn vehicle is a piece of equipment pulled by one or more horses. These vehicles typically have two or four wheels and were used to carry passengers or a load. They were once common worldwide; while they have mostly been replaced by automobiles and other forms of self-propelled transport, some are still in use today.

The Gdańsk University of Technology (Gdańsk Tech, formerly GUT; Polish: Politechnika Gdańska) is a public research university in Gdańsk, Poland. Founded in 1904 and re-established in 1945, it is the oldest university of technology in modern-day Poland. It is consistently ranked among the leading universities in the country.

The university comprises eight academic faculties that provide higher education in 40 fields of study across 14 scientific disciplines. Its campus, located in the Wrzeszcz borough of Gdańsk, covers an area of 80 hectares (200 acres). As of 2023, the university had 15,622 students, including 11,490 undergraduates, 3,644 postgraduates and 488 doctoral students.

The City Guard (Polish: Straż miejska Polish pronunciation: [ˈstraʂ ˈmjɛjska]) is the name given to the separate municipal police forces funded, directed and administered by some of the gmina (municipalities) of Poland. They operate in conjunction with the Policja, the Polish national police.

The present arrangement for municipal police in Poland was created after the fall of Communism, partly to provide a 'counterweight' to a national police force, and partly to ensure that the needs of local communities were not neglected with such a centralized agency.

In the history of Poland, a royal city or royal town (Polish: miasto królewskie) was an urban settlement within the crown lands (Polish: królewszczyzna).

The most influential royal cities enjoyed voting rights during the free election period in Poland (1572–1791). These cities were Gdańsk, Warsaw, Kraków, Poznań, Lwów, Wilno, Toruń, Lublin, Kamieniec and Elbląg. Other important royal cities included Gniezno (ecclesiastical capital of Poland and former capital of early medieval Poland), Płock (former capital of medieval Poland), Piotrków (second most important political center of Poland in the early and mid-16th century as the main location of the Sejm, and then the main Crown Tribunal location alongside Lublin, thus one of the two judiciary capitals of Poland), Grodno (de facto capital of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 1580s and then the general sejm location alongside Warsaw), Bydgoszcz and Kalisz (temporary locations of the Crown Tribunal), and Sandomierz, Przemyśl, Kazimierz.

Gdańsk Bay or the Gulf of Gdańsk is a southeastern bay of the Baltic Sea. It is named after the adjacent port city of Gdańsk in Poland.

This is a list of major cities and towns around the Baltic Sea, as well as some notable cities/towns with a small population. The census for Copenhagen, Helsinki and Stockholm includes the urban area.

The names used for some major European cities differ in different European and sometimes non-European languages. In some countries where there are two or more languages spoken, such as Belgium or Switzerland, dual forms may be used within the city itself, for example on signage. This is also the case in Ireland, despite a low level of actual usage of the Irish language. In other cases where a regional language is officially recognised, that form of the name may be used in the region, but not nationally. Examples include the Welsh language in Wales in the United Kingdom, and regional languages in parts of Italy and Spain.

There is a slow trend to return to the local name, which has been going on for a long time. In English Livorno is now used, the old English form of Leghorn having become antiquated at least a century ago. In some cases, such as the replacement of Danzig with Gdańsk, the official name has been changed more recently. Since 1995, the government of Ukraine has encouraged the use of Kyiv rather than Kiev.

Mieczysław Zygmunt Jagielski (12 January 1924 – 27 February 1997) was a Polish politician and economist. During the times of the People's Republic of Poland he was the last leading politician from the former eastern regions of pre-Second World War Poland.

Jagielski became a communist deputy to the legislative body of Poland, the Sejm, in 1957, and he would continue to serve in that capacity for seven consecutive terms until 1985. In 1959, he was posted to be a member of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party and appointed to be the Minister of Agriculture. After he left his position as Minister of Agriculture in 1970, Jagielski became a Deputy Prime Minister, and the next year, a member of the Politburo of the Polish United Workers' Party. In August 1980, Jagielski represented the government during talks with strikers in the city of Gdańsk. He negotiated the agreement which recognized Solidarity, a Polish trade union, as the first officially recognized independent trade union within the Eastern Bloc. Between August 1980 and August 1981, Jagielski continued to interact with representatives of Polish workers, though his health was declining during this period. In late July 1981, Jagielski was fired from the Deputy Premiership, reportedly because he failed to produce a recovery program for the economic crisis Poland was experiencing at that time. The same year, he left his membership of the Political Bureau of the Polish United Workers Party and the Central Committee. He died in Warsaw, Poland from a heart attack at the age of 73.

The Gdańsk Shipyard (Polish: Stocznia Gdańska, formerly Lenin Shipyard) is a large Polish shipyard, located in the city of Gdańsk, northern Poland. The yard gained international fame when Polish trade union Solidarity (Solidarność) was founded there in September 1980. It is situated on the western side of Martwa Wisła and on Ostrów Island.