History of Łódź

In the Middle Ages

Łódź as a town developed from such a small settlement. We come across the first reference about it in 1332 when the Łęczyca prince, Władysław, liberated Łódź village from burdens of the prince's law. Its residents moved their houses to the areas close to the trade route from Łęczyca to Piotrków, and in 1414 the Wrocław bishops made an attempt to establish a town out of this settlement. Granting of real and royal municipal rights to Łódź took place in 1423 and was certified by the signature of Władysław Jagiełło.

The beggining of Cotton Empire

Łódź development were connected with the 19th century and the foundation - by the authorities of the Kingdom of Poland - of the system of weaver and cloth settlements. In this way, the New Town, and later on the settlements of Łódka and Nowa Łódka came into being. At first production was based upon handicraft workshops, housed within the family abodes of the Saxon, Czech and Silesian colonists. An important fact was the foundation of the water-factory locations - the several-dozen-hectare parcels at the northern bank of the Jasień, a rivulet flowing along the southern border of Łódka. It was here that the first larger manufactures and mechanical linen-cotton mills were located.

The Land of Promise

In 1840 the number of people living in Łódź grew to 10 thousand and nobody doubted that it would not be the final number. Already in the 19th century Łódź became the second largest city in Poland, after Warsaw. At that time its population was made up of Polish, German, Jew, Russian, Czech and Silesian people. They all found this new place of living taste like "the Land of Promise". The rate of development was now measured by meters of manufactured and sold fabric as well as by the technology level in factories. It is worth reminding that in 1839, it was a Saxon factory owner, Ludwik Geyer, to put in motion the first steam machine, and since then a black cloud of smoke in the sky and a high chimney have become a characteristic symbol of the town.

After the enfranchisement reform (in 1864) peasants from the surrounding areas flowed in. It was an inexpensive labour force to be employed in continuously opening new factories. At the beginning of the 20th century the population in Łódź was approaching a number of 500 thousand citizens and was the world record of the demographic growth. An industrial town full of contrasts became an object of literary and journalistic descriptions. The best one was created by Władysław Reymont in his novel "The Land of Promise".

World War I

A dynamic development of Łódź was stopped in 1914 by war the, and as a result of purposeful devastation of machines and equipment the economic continuity of the town's development was broken for many years. For a few next years there were attempts made to remove damages and modernize as well as extend factories.

World War II

Another German occupation again wrecked achievements of the town, which already in 1939 was incorporated within the borders of the Reich. An enormous wave of the Nazi terror marked with mass graves, arrests and camps was to show Łódź Polish and Jewish citizens where their place was in the new state. In our consciousness camps in Radogoszcz for men and in Przemysłowa Street for children and young people have tragic associations. Numerous members of the Jewish community were placed in the ghetto located in the poorest areas of the city, in the Old Town, and Bałuty district. Out of 200 thousand Jewish people hardly a handful of them did survive. Numerous monuments and commemorating plates remind of these tragic years. On 19 January 1945 freedom came to Łódź, and once again a reconstruction period of the devastated industry and planned development of science and culture began…

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