The current Polish city of Gdansk , by its present characteristics, could pass for being the Bilbao of Poland. It has a population of about 460,000 inhabitants (a number somewhat higher, but similar to Bilbao). It is considered the sixth largest city in the country. It is located in the north of it, enjoying sea coast and is the main port area of \u200b\u200bPoland. However, although many seem to Bilbao say that enough is enough, are not these similarities that characterize most Gdansk but the historical importance it enjoyed in the early to mid-twentieth century.
Gdansk
And it translates into German as Danzig , and until the First World War was a city that belonged to Germany. In 1920, with the end of the "Great War" and the signing of the Treaty of Versailles , and in order that Poland had an outlet to the sea (specifically the Baltic), there were two important measures. On the one hand to stop Danzig belong to Germany and should become an autonomous city (under the aegis of the newly created League of Nations) in which Poland would have certain customs and economic privileges. On the other hand, not least, we established what was called "Polish corridor" , which was removed to Germany a strip of Polish territory to give land access to the area of \u200b\u200bDanzig and therefore the sea. Thus Germany was divided into two, with separate eastern mainland by the "Polish Corridor."
Free City of Danzig and the Polish Corridor which separated Germany into two
The situation of the autonomous city and the corridor was kept on for years, until April 1939, the dawn of World War II and Nazism reaching its peak, Hitler demanded the return to Germany on Danzig's sovereignty under the pretext that the majority of its population was of Germanic origin. Also also demanded the construction of a railway and a road crossing the Polish corridor and connect the two regions of Germany. Both initiatives were rejected with the resulting anger of the Fuehrer, who would not wait long for revenge. And is that the first target attacked Nazi forces invaded Poland, and which ultimately led to the outbreak of World War II, the peninsula was Westerplatte Danzig at the hands of the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein . The city was devastated and thousands of its inhabitants died.
Years later, after the war ended with the defeat Germanic in Potsdam Conference decided that the city of Danzig (now Gdansk again), and part of eastern Germany, finally became part of Poland, forming the final figure we now know of that country.
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