I visited Tczew today. Nowadays, it is a rather sleepy provincial town close to Gdansk, but it has an interesting 800-year history in which the Vistula (Wisła) river and the bridge over it play a key role.  

Tczew received city rights in the 13th century and became a significant economic and political centre strategically placed on the west bank of the Wisła. It changed hands a couple of times between the Teutonic Order and the kingdom of Poland before it finally became Polish. In the first partition of Poland in 1772 Tczew was annexed by Prussia, and it later became German as Prussia unified the German states into one empire in 1871. In the 19th century the Germans build a large steel rail bridge over the Wisła which connected Berlin to Königsberg (now: Kalinigrad) and this gave a huge boost to the city. Tczew became Polish after World War 1, but the Germans never forgot its significance. In fact, some people say that World War 2 started in Tczew, and not at Westerplatte in Gdansk.

On the 1st of September 1939 at 4:34 German bombers attacked Polish military positions in Tczew (the Westerplatte attack was at 4:45) as they anticipated that Poland would blow up the bridge. They also sent two regiments by train towards Tczew to capture the bridge. An unharmed bridge would help the German blitzkrieg a lot and ensure their supply lines, but a destroyed one would significantly slow it down. Polish railroad workers discovered the train with German soldiers, slowed down their advance and around 6am Polish sappers managed to destroy the bridge. A small victory for Poland, but after 4 weeks the Polish resistance was broken.

Nowadays the bridge remains the main symbol of Tczew and it is part of the new city logo. 

Originally posted on Instagram on October 29, 2022