Puck, Poland - History

History

The settlement became a marketplace and a seaport as early as the 7th century. The name, as was common during the Middle Ages, was spelled differently: Pauzigk, Pautzke (in a 1277 document Putzc, 1277 Pusecz, 1288 Puczse and Putsk, 1289 Pucz, see historical maps below) . In 1309 it came under the rule of the Teutonic Order as part of Pomerelia. Puck achieved town status in 1348. Together with the rest of Royal Prussia it joined Poland in 1454 (1466) and was the place of the local County Administration (Starostwo). Since the Polish kings tried to create a fleet at Danzig, but independent Hanseatic Danzig would not allow them in their territory, some ships chartered by Poland had to land at Pautzke (Puck) in 1567. Poland tried to establish a Polish Navy, got to use some harbors in Livonia and Finland, but a standing navy never materialize. Swedish-Lithuanian Vasa King of Poland-Lithuania Sigismund III again tried to establish a fleet in his attempts to wrest the crown of Sweden from King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, but Sigismund's attempts at creating a fleet were destroyed in 1628.

The first actual Polish Navy was founded at the end of World War I in 1918 with some French and British involvement.

In 1772, through the Partitions of Poland, the western Prussian town was incorporated into the Kingdom of Prussia. After the First World War I, Puck was assigned to the Second Polish Republic by the Treaty of Versailles. In 1920 Poland celebrated Poland's Wedding to the Sea in Puck. Puck was the only Polish harbour until Gdynia was built in the 1920s and the main war harbour of the Polish Navy until the Second World War.

Puck was bombed by Nazi Germany at 5.20am Polish time on Friday September 1st, known therein as Grey Friday when a German bomber dropped a projectile on the town which also had an airbase.

The British and French declaration of war came two days later. That week TIME magazine in New York put a black and white picture of the Polish commander in chief, Smidgly-Rydz on its cover.

After Poland was occupied by Nazi Germany in 1939, a branch of the Stutthof concentration camp existed in Puck in the years 1941 to 1944. After 1945 Puck became part of the People's Republic of Poland.