The Province of Pomerania (German: Provinz Pommern) was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia from 1815 until 1945. Afterwards, its territory became part of Allied-occupied Germany and Poland.The name Pomerania comes from Slavic po more, which means Land at the Sea.The province was created from the former Prussian Province of Pomerania, which consisted of Farther Pomerania and the southern Western Pomerania, and former Swedish Pomerania. It resembled the territory of the former Duchy of Pomerania, which after the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 had been split between Brandenburg-Prussia and Sweden. Also, the districts of Schivelbein and Dramburg, formerly belonging to the Neumark, were merged into the new province.While in the Kingdom of Prussia, the province was heavily influenced by the reforms of Karl August von Hardenberg and Otto von Bismarck. The Industrial Revolution had an impact primarily on the Stettin area and the infrastructure, while most of the province retained a rural and agricultural character. From 1850, the net migration rate was negative; Pomeranians emigrated primarily to Berlin, the West German industrial regions and overseas.After World War I, democracy and the women's right to vote were introduced to the province. After Wilhelm II's abdication, it was part of the Free State of Prussia. The economic situation worsened due to the consequences of World War I and worldwide recession. As in the previous Kingdom of Prussia, Pomerania was a stronghold of the nationalist conservatives who continued in the Weimar Republic.In 1933, the Nazis established a totalitarian regime, concentrating the province's administration in the hands of their gauleiter, and implementing gleichschaltung. The German invasion of Poland in 1939 was launched in part from Pomeranian soil. Jewish and Polish populations (whose minorities lived in the region) were classified as "subhuman" by the German state during the war and subjected to repressions, slave work and executions. Opponents were arrested and executed; Jews who by 1940 had not emigrated were all deported to the Lublin reservation.Besides the air raids conducted since 1943, World War II reached the province in early 1945 with the East Pomeranian Offensive and the Battle of Berlin, both launched and won by the Soviet Union's Red Army. Insufficient evacuation left the population subject to murder, war rape, and plunder by the successors.When the war was over, the Oder-Neisse Line cut the province in two unequal parts. The smaller western part became part of the East German State of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The larger eastern part was attached to post-war Poland as Szczecin Voivodship. After the war, ethnic Germans were expelled from Poland and the area was re-settled with Poles. Currently, most of the territory of the province lies within the West Pomeranian Voivodeship, which share the same city-–now Szczecin-–as its capital.Until 1932, the province was subdivided into the government regions (Regierungsbezirk) Köslin (eastern part, Farther Pomerania), Stettin (southwestern part, Old Western Pomerania), and Stralsund (northwestern part, Neuvorpommern). The Stralsund region was merged into the Stettin region in 1932. In 1938, Grenzmark Posen-Westpreußen (southeastern part, created from the former Prussian Province Grenzmark Posen-Westpreußen) was merged into the province. The provincial capital was Stettin (now Szczecin), the Regierungsbezirk capitals were Köslin (now Koszalin), Stettin, Stralsund and Schneidemühl (now Pila), respectively.In 1905 the Province of Pomerania had 1,684,326 inhabitants, among them 1,616,550 Protestants, 50,206 Catholics, and 9,660 Jews. There lived 14,162 inhabitants (1900) the native language of whom was Polish (at the border to West Prussia), and 310 (at the Lake Leba and at the Lake Garde) whose native language was Kashubian. The area of the province amounted to 30,120 square kilometers. In 1925, the province had an area of 30,208 square kilometers, with a population of 1,878,780 inhabitants.
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