Pomerania During The Early Modern Age - Rebuilding and Inner Colonisation of Prussian Pomerania

Rebuilding and Inner Colonisation of Prussian Pomerania

After the great losses of the previous wars, Prussia began rebuilding and resettling her war-torn province in 1718. Programs were made allowing financial aid to rebuild houses, e.g. people were paid 23% of a house's cost if they build it with fire-proof material, and vacant residential areas were let for free to those willing to erect buildings, also there were cases where those building a house were granted free citizenship, were freed of garrison duties, or were given the necessary timber for free. Also, public buildings were renewed or build new by the Prussian administration.

Swamps in the Randowbruch and Uckermark regions were drained and settled with colonists from the Netherlands since 1718. In 1734, a part of this region became therefore known as "Royal Holland". Dutch colonists were also settled in other parts of Pomerania. Also, Protestants from the Catholic Salzburg region arrived Prussia via the Pomeranian ports. While most went on to settle in other parts of Prussia, some settled in Pomerania.

To improve access to the port of Stettin, the Swine river was deepened and Swinemünde was founded on the river's mouth in 1748. A similar project in Stolp failed due to monetary shortage.

Throughout the 1750s, the vast Oderbruch swamps were drained to acquire farmland.

Prussian king Frederick the Great appointed Franz Balthasar von Brenckenhoff to rebuild the war-torn Prussian share of Pomerania. Before the Seven Years' War, the Inner Colonisation of Farther Pomerania was started already by prince Moritz of Anhalt-Dessau. Brenckenhoff, after providing some humanitarian aid in 1763 (especially horses and wheat from the military and money for seed and life stock), introduced programs for financial aid, tax reduction, and low-rate credits and thus managed to have most of the destroyed farms rebuild in 1764.

In the following years, new farmland was made available by clearing woodlands and draining swamps (e.g. Thurbruch, Plönebruch, Schmolsiner Bruch) and lakes (e.g. Madüsee, Neustettiner See) as well as levee construction at some rivers (e.g. Ihna, Leba).

To compensate for the wartime population losses, new colonists were attracted. In the 1740s, colonists were invited from the Palatinate, Württemberg, Mecklenburg, and Bohemia. Most came from the Palatinate, while the Bohemians soon returned to their homeland due to housing shortages. In 1750, recruitment of settlers started in Danzig, Elbing, Warsaw, Augsburg, Frankfurt am Main, Nuremberg, Hamburg, and Brussels. Protestant craftsmen from Roman Catholic Poland settled in the towns. The colonists were freed of certain taxes and services such as military service. Between 1740 and 1784, 26,000 colonists arrived in Prussian Pomerania, and 159 new villages were founded. Most colonists originated in the Palatinate, Mecklenburg, and Poland.

In 1786, the population of Prussian Pomerania (Farther Pomerania and Western Pomerania south of the Peene river) reached 438,700.