Swedish Pomerania - Territorial Changes During The Great Northern War

Territorial Changes During The Great Northern War

The first years of the Great Northern War did not affect Pomerania. Even when Danish, Russian, and Polish forces had crossed the borders in 1714, the Kingdom of Prussia first appeared as a hesitant mediator before turning into an aggressor. King Charles XII of Sweden in the Battle of Stralsund led the defence of Pomerania for an entire year, November 1714 to December 1715, before fleeing to Lund. The Danes seized Rügen and Western Pomerania north of the Peene River (the former Danish Principality of Rugia that later would become known as New Western Pomerania or Neuvorpommern), while the Western Pomeranian areas south of the river (later termed Old Western Pomerania or Altvorpommern) were taken by Prussia.

Danish Pomerania was since April 1716 governed by a governmental commission seated in Stralsund, consisting of five members. In contrast to the Swedish administration, the commission exerted both judiciary and executive power. Denmark thereby drew from the experiences in Danish-occupied Bremen-Verden (1712–1715), the setting of the Danish chancellery, and the contemporary Danish absolutism under king Frederik IV of Denmark-Norway. The commission consisted of landdrost von Platen, later von Kötzschau, councellors Heinrich Bernhard von Kampferbeck, J. B. Hohenmühle and Peter von Thienen, and chancellor secretary August J. von John. In 1720, von Kampferbeck died and was replaced by Andreas Boye.

By the Treaty of Frederiksborg, 3 June 1720, Denmark was obliged to hand back control over the occupied territory to Sweden, but in the Treaty of Stockholm, on 21 January the same year, Prussia had been allowed to retain its conquest, including Stettin. By this, Sweden ceded the parts east of the Oder River that had been won in 1648 as well as Western Pomerania south of the Peene and the islands of Wolin and Usedom to Brandenburg-Prussia.

Denmark returned her Pomeranian territories to Swedish administration on 17 January 1721. The administrative records from the Danish period were transferred to Copenhagen and are available at the Danish National Archives (rigsarkivet).