Łódź (pronunciation: Missing image
Ltspkr.png
Image:Ltspkr.png

[[Media:Lodz.ogg|]]) is the second-largest city (population 776,297 in 2004) of Poland, located in the centre of the country. It is the capital of the Łódź Voivodship.

Contents

1 History

1.1 Agricultural Łódź
1.2 Industrial Łódź
1.3 After 1918
1.4 World War II
1.5 After 1945
1.6 Łódź today
1.7 Łódź for tourists
1.8 The Łódź Film School
1.9 Historical population
1.10 Famous people from Łódź

2 Economy

3 Education

4 Politics

4.1 Lódź constituency
4.2 Mayors

5 Sports

6 See also

History

Agricultural Łódź

The first written source mentioning Łódź is a document giving the village of Łodzia to the bishops of Włocławek in 1332. In 1423 king Władysław Jagiełło granted the village of Łódź with city rights. From then until the 18th century the town was but a small settlement on a trade route from Masovia to Silesia. In the 16th century the town had fewer than 800 inhabitants, mostly working on the nearby grain farms.

After the partitions of Poland Łódź came under Prussian administration and was renamed Lodsch in 1793. In 1798 the town was nationalized and lost its status as a town of the bishops of Kuyavia. In 1806 it joined the Duchy of Warsaw and in 1815 was given to the Russian-controlled Congress Poland.

Industrial Łódź

In 1820 Stanisław Staszic started a campaign of turning the small town into a modern centre of industry. A constant influx of workers, businessmen and craftsmen from all over the continent turned Łódź into the main textile producton centre of the whole Russian Empire. The first cotton mill was started in 1825, and 14 years later the first steam-powered factory in both Poland and Russia was opened.

The immigrants were coming to the Promised Land (Polish Ziemia obiecana, the term being the city's nickname) from all over Europe. Mostly from Southern Germany and Bohemia, but also from countries as far as Portugal, England, France or Ireland. However, the city's population was composed mostly of three groups that contributed the most to the city's development: Poles, Germans and Jews.

In 1850 Russia abolished a customs border between the Congress Poland and Russia proper so the industry in Łódź could develop freely with a huge Russian market at a close distance. Soon the city became the second-largest city of the Congress Poland. In 1865 the first railroad line was opened (to Koluszki) and soon the city became linked to Warsaw and Białystok. In the 1823-1873 period, the city's population doubled every ten years. The years 1870-1890 marked the period of most intense industrial development in the city's history.

Łódź soon became a major centre of the socialist movement. In 1892 a huge strike paralyzed most of the factories. During the 1905 Revolution more than 300 workers were killed by the Tsarist police. Despite the great crisis preceding World War I, the city grew constantly until 1914. In that year it was one of the most densely populated industrial cities in the world (13 280 people per sq. kilometre).

In 1915 the city came under German occupation, but in November 1918 was liberated by the local population who disarmed the German troops. In the aftermath of World War I, Łódź lost approximately 40% of its inhabitants, mostly owing to draft, diseases and the fact that after 1918 a huge part of the German population moved back to Germany.

After 1918

Polish 1931 census
City of Łódź - population (according to language criterion)

Total 604 470

Poles 315 622 (52,21%)
Jews 202 497 (33,49%)
Germans 86 351 (14,28%)

In 1922 Łódź became the capital of the Łódź Voivodship, but the period of fast growth was over. The Great Crisis and the Customs War with Germany closed western markets to Polish textiles while the Bolshevik Revolution and the Civil War in Russia put an end to the most profitable trade with the East. The city became a scene of a series of huge workers' protests and riots in the interbellum.

World War II

During the Polish September Campaign Łódź was defended by the forces of the Łódź Army of General Juliusz Rómmel. However, the city was captured by the Wehrmacht on September 8. Despite plans for the city to be made into a Polish enclave, attached to the Generalgouvernement, the Nazi givernment respected the wishes of the local governor of Reichsgau Wartheland, Arthur Karl Greiser, and the many of the ethnic Germans living in the city, and annexed it to the Reich in November 1939. The city was renamed of Litzmannstadt after the German general Karl Litzmann who was killed after capturing the city during World War I. Nevertheless, many Łódź Germans refused to sign Volksliste and become Volksdeutsche, instead being deported to the General Government. Soon a Jewish ghetto was set up in the city and was populated with more than 200 000 Jews from the Łódź area. Only approximately 900 people survived its liquidation in August 1944. Several concentration camps and death camps were set up in the city's vicinity for the non-Jewish inhabitants of the regions, among them the infamous Radogoszcz prison and the several minor camps for the Roma people and Polish children.

Until the end of the war Łódź lost approximately 420 000 of its pre-war inhabitants: 300 000 Jews and approximately 120 000 Poles. In January 1945 most of the German population fled the city for fear of the Red Army. The city also suffered tremendous losses due to German policy of requisition of all factories and machines and transporting them to Germany. Despite relatively small losses due to aerial bombardment and the fighting, Łódź had lost most of its infrastructure. The city was liberated by the Soviets on January 18, 1945.

After 1945

In early 1945 Łódź had fewer than 300 000 inhabitants. However, soon the number began to grow and the city was populated with refugees from Warsaw and territories annexed by the Soviet Union. Until 1948 the city was a de facto capital of Poland since Warsaw had been totally destroyed during and after the Warsaw uprising and most of the government and country administration resided in Łódź. There were even plans of moving the capital there permanently, but the idea was abolished and in 1948 the reconstruction of Warsaw started.

After World War II, under the Polish Communist regime, many industrialist families lost their fortunes when the authorities nationalised all private companies. The city was once again turned to a major centre of industry. After the period of economic transition in the country during the 1990s most of them were privatised again, but were in such a desolate state that few survived in the new capitalist reality.

Łódź today

The city is home to the University of Łódź (Uniwersytet Łódzki) and Technical University of Łódź (Politechnika Łódzka).

Łódź for tourists

The main attraction of Łódź is Piotrkowska Street, stretching from North to South for a little over 4 kilometers. Recently renovated, it has many beautiful buildings dating back to the XIX century, in the architectural style of the Secession. Well worth visiting from late spring to early fall, strolling from one pub to another on Piotrkowska Street allows one to immerse oneself into the friendly atmosphere of this unique Polish city.

Although Łódź does not have any hills nor any big body of water, it is still possible to get close to nature in one of the many parks lying in the city. The most notable are Łagiewniki (the bigest "park in a city" in Europe), Zdrowie, and Poniatowskiego. Łódź Zoo, and Łódź Botanical Gardens, are also nice places to spend a lazy afternoon.

Łódź has one of the best museums of modern art in Poland. The art of all important contemporary Polish artists can be found there. Even though the exhibition space is lacking (and many very impressive paintings or sculptures are hidden in the basement), there is still a lot on display to look at.

The Łódź Film School

For cinema lovers Łódź has another place worth visiting - the Łódź Film School. The school has been an important education centre for the greatest Polish film-makers and a pivotal cultural centre for the entire country. At the end of the Second World War Łódź was the only large Polish town besides Kraków that war had not destroyed, unlike Warsaw. The creation of the National Film School gave to the town a role of higher importance from a cultural point of view, which before the war had belonged exclusively to Warsaw and Kraków. Among the first students who attended the School were the directors Andrzej Munk, Andrzej Wajda, Janusz Morgenstern - who at the end of the Fifties became famous as one of the founders of the Polish Film School of cinematography, together with Jerzy Wójcik, Witold Sobocinski, Mieczyslaw Jahoda, Wieslaw Zdort and Adam Holender. Immediately after the war Jerzy Bossak, Wanda Jakubowska, Stanislaw Wohl, Antoni Bohdziewicz and Jerzy Toeplitz were the first teachers. The internationally renowned film director Roman Polanski was among the many talented students who attended the School in the 1950s.

Historical population

1793: 190
1806: 767
1830: 4,300
1850: 15,800
1880: 77,600
1905: 343,900
1925: 538,600
1990: 850,000
2003: 781,900

Famous people from Łódź

Well-known people born or working in Łódź include:

Jan Karski - Polish World War II resistance fighter
Krzysztof Kieślowski - film director (The Three Colors trilogy, The Decalogue)
Tadeusz Kotarbiński - philosopher, mathematician, and logician
Daniel Libeskind - American architect, designer of the new World Trade Center
Władysław Reymont - Nobel Prize for Literature winner in 1924
Arthur Rubinstein - classical pianist
Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski - head of the Lodz Ghetto Judenrat during Nazi rule
Andrzej Sapkowski - writer
Julian Tuwim - poet
Max Factor - make-up artist
Jerzy Kosiński - writer ("Pained Bird", "Being There")
Roman Polański - film director
Aleksander Tansman - composer
Michał Urbaniak - jazz violinist
Artur Partyka - high jumper
Zbig Rybczynski - film director

Others include:

Economy

Before 1990, Łódź's economy was focussed on the textile industry, which in the nineteenth century had developed in the city owing to the favourable chemical composition of its water. As a result, Łódź grew from a population of 13,000 in 1840 to over 500,000 in 1913. Just before World War I, Łódź was one of the most densely populated industrial cities in the world, with 13,280 people per square kilometre. The textile industry declined dramatically in 1990 and 1991, an no major textile company survives in Łódź today. However, countless small companies still provide a significant output of textiles, mostly for export to Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union.

Education

See also: Education in Łódź

Currently Łódź is home to three major state-owned universities and a number of smaller schools of higher education. The universities with the most students in Łódź are:

University of Łódź (Uniwersytet Łódzki)
Technical University of Łódź (Politechnika Łódzka)
Medical University of Łódź (Uniwersytet Medyczny w Łodzi)
National Film School in Lodz (Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Filmowa, Telewizyjna i Teatralna w Łodzi)

Politics

Lódź constituency

Members of Parliament (Sejm) elected from łódź constituency

Krzysztof Baszczyński, SLD-UP
Mirosław Drzewiecki, PO
Elżbieta Jankowska, SLD-UP
Zbigniew Kaniewski, SLD-UP
Ewa Kralkowska, SLD-UP
Urszula Krupa, LPR
Leszek Miller, SLD-UP
Alicja Murynowicz, SLD-UP
Krzysztof Rutkowski, Samoobrona
Iwona Śledzińska-Katarasińska, PO
Elżbieta Więcławska-Sauk, PiS

Mayors

Waldemar Bohdanowicz, Solidarity (November 1989 - 1990) - appointed by Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki.
Grzegorz Palka (1990-1994)
Marek Czekalski, Freedom Union (1994-1998)
Tadeusz Matusiak, SLD (1998-2001)
Krzysztof Panas, SLD (2001-2002)
Krzysztof Jagiełło, SLD (2002)
Jerzy Kropiwnicki, Christian-National Union (ZChN) (2002-)

Sports

Widzew Łódź - men football team (Polish Cup winner: 1985; Polish SuperCup winner: 1996, 1st league in 2003/2004 season; 2nd league in 2004/2005 season)
ŁKS Łódź - men football team (Polish Cup winner 1957, 2nd league in 2003/2004 and 2004/2005 seasons)
ŁKS Lotto Łódź - women basketball team, 6th place in Sharp Torell Basket Liga in 2003/2004 season
KS Społem Lodz - leading youth road and track cycling team in Poland