Międzyrzecz

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Międzyrzecz [mʲɛnˈd͡zɨʐɛt͡ʂ] (Latin: Meserici, German: Meseritz) is a town in western Poland with 18,584 inhabitants (September 30, 2008). The capital of Międzyrzecz County, it was part of the Gorzów Wielkopolski Voivodeship from 1975–1998. Since the Local Government Reorganization Act of 1998, Międzyrzecz has been situated in the Lubusz Voivodeship. It is located between the town of Skwierzyna and the town of Świebodzin, and stands at the confluence of the rivers Obra and Paklica.

The town is situated in a particularly green part of Poland. Extensive forests and numerous lakes can be found in the vicinity.

[edit] History

The settlement on the road leading from Magdeburg to Gniezno was first mentioned in the course of the 1005 campaign of King Henry II of Germany into the Polish lands of Duke Bolesław I Chrobry. Located close to the border with the Holy Roman Empire, it remained a western outpost of the Duchy of Greater Poland established by the 1138 Testament of Bolesław III Krzywousty and was incorporated into the Poznań Voivodeship of the Polish Crown upon the coronation of King Władysław I the Elbow-high in 1320. Under the rule of his successor Casimir III the Great (1333-1370) German settlers began to migrate into the area in the course of the Ostsiedlung. Town privileges were confirmed by King Casimir IV Jagiellon in 1485.

Międzyrzecz Castle

The town remained part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth until in the Second Partition of Poland of 1793 it was annexed together with the whole region of Greater Poland by the Kingdom of Prussia. The town at first was part of the South Prussia province, was ceded to the Poznań Department of the Napoleonic Duchy of Warsaw by the 1807 Treaties of Tilsit, and according to the 1815 Congress of Vienna fell back to Prussia, administrated within the Grand Duchy of Posen. In 1818 the town became the capital of the Prussian Kreis Meseritz within the Regierungsbezirk Posen. After the failed Greater Poland Uprising of 1848, it was incorporated into the Province of Posen, which, with Prussia, became part of the unified German Empire in 1871.

After World War I, upon the Greater Poland Uprising of 1918/19 and the ruling according to the Treaty of Versailles, the town was part of the small, mostwestern part of Greater Poland which remained part of Weimar Germany and was located close to the border to the Second Polish Republic. From 1922 these lands were administrated as the Prussian Province of Posen-West Prussia with Meseritz becoming the seat of the Landeshauptmann governor, until in 1938 the province was dissolved and Meseritz was incorporated into the Province of Brandenburg. At that time the townspeople were predominantly Ethnic German^{[citation needed]} until the end of World War II, when the German population was expelled and replaced by Poles who had been expelled or left Ukraine and Lithuania. It was occupied by Red Army in 31 January 1945 and left to Poland by USSR in 15 March, 1945.

Międzyrzecz is twinned with:

Andrésy, France (since 1997) Bad Freienwalde, Germany (since 2001) Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, Germany (since 1993)	Halderberge, Netherlands (since 1988) Haren, Germany (since 1991) Vlagtwedde, Netherlands (since 1991)

MKS Orzeł Międzyrzecz (founded April 15, 1945) – men's football club (polish league level 5)
MKS Orzeł Międzyrzecz AZS-AWF (founded 1986) – men's volleyball club (polish league level 2)
MKT Tenis Club Poland-Orzeł Międzyrzecz (founded November 15, 1993) – men's and women's tennis club
MSBS Międzyrzecz – men's duplicate bridge club
UKS Kasztelan Międzyrzecz – junior's sport club
UKS Gimnazjum 1 Międzyrzecz – junior's sport club
UKS Orliki Międzyrzecz – junior's sport club
UKS Trójka Międzyrzecz – junior's sport club
UKS Dowbor Międzyrzecz – junior's sport club

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