a medieval duchy located on the Baltic Sea. It was later, until 1945, a Prussian province situated chiefly within western Pomerania.
(in Polish, Pomorze), the name Polish sources use to designate the northern part of the Polish People’s Republic, extending along the Baltic Sea. Pomerania is divided into western and eastern parts.
In the late tenth century this area, mainly populated by a group of Western Slavic tribes called Pomeranians, was incorporated into the early-feudal Polish state. Under pressure from feudal lords from Denmark, Saxony, and Brandenburg, Western Pomerania became a vassal of the Holy Roman Empire in 1181; Prince Boguslaw I received the title of duke in 1170. The territory underwent germanization, with Western Pomerania becoming known as the duchy of Pomerania (in German, Pommern). The local Slavic dynasty of princes remained in power until 1637. The 1648 Treaty of Westphalia transferred Western Pomerania and part of Eastern Pomerania to Sweden, with the remainder of the eastern territory going to the state of Brandenburg-Prussia. Brandenburg-Prussia gained control of all of Pomerania in 1679, 1720, and 1815. The region became the greater part of the Prussian province of Pomerania, which had Stettin as its administrative center.
Eastern Pomerania was conquered in 1308–09 by the Teutonic Knights but was retaken by Poland in the Thirteen Years’ War (1454–66). It was annexed by Prussia at the end of the 18th century. The Peace Treaty of Versailles (1919) returned most of Eastern Pomerania to Poland, except for Gdańsk (Danzig) and the surrounding area.
The Potsdam Conference of 1945, which restored to Poland its western territories, established the Polish-German border along the Oder and Neisse rivers.
Pomerania is administratively divided into Szczecin, Kosza-lin, and Gdańsk wojewó dztwos. The section of the former Prussian province of Pomerania west of the Oder was incorporated into the German Democratic Republic and forms the eastern part of the districts of Neubrandenburg and Rostock.