Poznań was the cradle of the Greater Poland Uprising, which broke out here on 27 December 1918. In the autumn of 1939 the city was incorporated into the Reich as the capital of the Wartheland, ruled by Arthur Greiser; tens of thousands of its inhabitants were deported, and the Germans set up a concentration camp in Fort VII. From 24 January to 23 February 1945 the battle for the city, declared a fortress, went on; about 55 per cent of its buildings were destroyed or badly damaged.
1918
- 27 December 1918EventThe Greater Poland Uprising beginsOn 27 December 1918, a day after Paderewski arrived, shots rang out by the Hotel Bazar in Poznań. By night Poles held the station, post office and some forts.
- 27 December 1918 – 16 February 1919BattleThe Greater Poland Uprising27 December 1918 – 16 February 1919. Poles of the Prussian Province of Posen took up arms, seized most of Greater Poland and created an army of their own.
1939
1945
- 12 January – 3 February 1945BattleVistula–Oder offensiveBetween 12 January and 3 February 1945 Zhukov's and Konev's fronts drove from the Vistula to the Oder, smashed Army Group A and took Warsaw, Kraków and Łódź.
- 24 January 1945EventThe Battle of Poznań beginsOn 24 January 1945 the 1st Belorussian Front cut off Poznań, declared a fortress. The battle for the city ended only on 23 February at the Citadel.
- 24 January – 23 February 1945BattleBattle of PoznańFrom 24 January to 23 February 1945 the Red Army besieged and took Festung Posen. The fighting destroyed about 55% of Poznań; the Citadel fell last.
- 23 February 1945EventThe end of the Battle of PoznańOn 23 February 1945 the Citadel, the last pocket of Festung Posen, surrendered. Its commandant Gonell took his own life; Mattern gave up what was left.
People
Born or died here
- Arthur GreiserPresident of the Senate of the Free City of Danzig (1934–1939), Gauleiter and Reich Governor of the Reichsgau Wartheland (1939–1945)
- Erich LudendorffFirst Quartermaster General of the German Army (1916–1918), participant in the Munich Putsch (1923), member of the Reichstag (1924–1928)
- Hans KrügerHead of the Security Police and SD outpost in Stanisławów (1941–1942), head of the SD in Chalon-sur-Saône (1943–1944), SS-Hauptsturmführer
- Józef Dowbor-MuśnickiCommander of the I Polish Corps in Russia (1917–1918), Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Armed Forces in the former Prussian partition (1919), Lieutenant General (generał broni)
- Paul von HindenburgChief of the General Staff of the Field Army (1916–1919), field marshal, Reich President (1925–1934)
- Wernher von BraunTechnical director of the Peenemünde centre (1937–1945), SS-Sturmbannführer (1943), Director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (1960–1970)