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Lębork (; Kashubian/Pomeranian: Lãbórg) is a town on the Łeba and Okalica rivers in Middle Pomerania region, north-western Poland with some 37,000 inhabitants. Lębork is also the capital of Lębork County in Pomeranian Voivodship since 1999, previously in Słupsk Voivodship (1975-1998).
History
Lębork became a town in 1341. Together with Bytów, Lębork was the capital of a county that was included in Western Pomerania or Pomerania (depending on the time period). The population of Lębork was originally Slavic Kashubian, although after they began to fall under increasing German influence and partly converted to Lutheranism, they became known as Slovincians. In German the town became known as Lauenburg.
To gain an ally against Sweden during The Deluge, in 1657 King John II Casimir of Poland gave Lębork and Bytów to Margrave Frederick William of Brandenburg-Prussia as a hereditary fief in the Treaty of Bydgoszcz. Although Poland still retained sovereignty, Lębork was administered by Brandenburg and, after 1701, by the Kingdom of Prussia.
In 1773 after the First Partition of Poland, Polish sovereignty over Lębork was abandoned and the town was wholly incorporated in the Prussian Province of Pomerania. Lauenburg became part of the German Empire in 1871.
During World War II, Lauenburg was the location of the Nazi concentration camp Lauenburg, a subcamp of the Stutthof concentration camp. The town was ceded to Poland in 1945 and its German inhabitants were expelled and replaced with Poles.
Famous residents
- Edward Sapir - ethnologist and linguist
- Erich von dem Bach - Schutzstaffel officer
- Paul Gottlieb Nipkow - pioneer of television.
Population
1900: 10,442 inhabitants
1910: 13,916 inhabitants
1925: 17,161 inhabitants
1933: 18,962 inhabitants
1939: 19,114 inhabitants
1950: ? inhabitants
1960: 21,200 inhabitants
1970: 25,100 inhabitants
1975: 26,600 inhabitants
1980: 29,200 inhabitants
1990: 34,300 inhabitants
1995: 36,300 inhabitants
1998: 37,000 inhabitants
2000: ? inhabitants
2002: ? inhabitants
2003: ? inhabitants
2004: 35,154 inhabitants
2005: 35,000 inhabitants
See also
"Lębork"