Pomerania During The High Middle Ages

Pomerania during the High Middle Ages covers the History of Pomerania in the 12th and 13th centuries.

The early 12th century Obodrite, Polish, Saxon, and Danish conquests resulted in vassalage and Christianization of the formerly pagan and independent Pomeranian tribes. Local dynasties ruled the Principality of Rügen (House of Wizlaw), the Duchy of Pomerania (House of Pomerania, "Griffins"), the Lands of Schlawe and Stolp (Ratiboride branch of the Griffins), and the duchies in Pomerelia (Samborides).

The dukes of Pomerania expanded their realm into Circipania and Uckermark to the southwest, and competed with the Kingdom of Poland and the Margraviate of Brandenburg for territory and formal overlordship over their duchies. Pomerania-Demmin lost most of its territory and was integrated into Pomerania-Stettin in the mid-13th century. When the Ratiborides died out in 1223, competition arose for the Lands of Schlawe and Stolp, which changed hands numerous times.

Starting in the High Middle Ages, a large influx of German settlers and the introduction of German law, custom, and Low German language gradually turned most of the area into a German one (Ostsiedlung). The Wends, who during the Early Middle Ages had belonged to the Slavic Rani, Lutician and Pomeranian tribes, were assimilated by the German Pomeranians.

The Germanisation was not complete, however, and in particular Kashubians, descendants of Slavic Pomeranians, dominated many rural areas in Pomerelia. With the arrival of German colonists and Germanization the local population was pushed away by the newcomers from both central and local administration.

Some publications claim that most of the present-day towns were founded during the Ostsiedlung. Others insist that urban development was already in progress before the Ostsiedlung and theories that urban development was brought to areas such as Pomerania, Mecklenburg or Poland by Germans are now discarded.

The conversion of Pomerania to Christianity was achieved primarily by the missionary efforts of Absalon and Otto von Bamberg, by the foundation of numerous monasteries, and through the Christian clergy and settlers. A Pomeranian diocese was set up in Wolin, the see was later moved to Cammin (Kammin, Kamień Pomorski).