Teutonic takeover of Danzig (Gdańsk)
| Teutonic takeover of Danzig (Gdańsk) | ||||||||||
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| Part of the Polish–Teutonic Wars | ||||||||||
Pomerelia (Polish Pomerania) while part of the Monastic state of the Teutonic Knights | ||||||||||
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| Belligerents | ||||||||||
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Brandenburg margraves, Swienca family | Piast dynasty | Teutonic Knights | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | ||||||||||
| Waldemar, Margrave of Brandenburg-Stendal | Władysław the Elbow-high, Duke of Poland | Heinrich von Plötzke | ||||||||
The city of Danzig (Gdańsk) was captured by the State of the Teutonic Order on 13 November 1308, resulting in a massacre of its inhabitants and marking the beginning of tensions between Poland and the Teutonic Order. Originally the knights moved into the fortress as an ally of Poland against the Margraviate of Brandenburg. However, after disputes over the control of the city between the Order and the King of Poland arose, the knights murdered a number of citizens within the city and took it as their own. Thus the event is also known as Gdańsk massacre or Gdańsk slaughter (rzeź Gdańska). Though in the past a matter of debate among historians, a consensus has been established that many people were murdered and a considerable part of the town was destroyed in the context of the takeover.
In the aftermath of the takeover, the order seized all of Pomerelia (Gdańsk Pomerania) and bought up the supposed Brandenburgian claims to the region in the Treaty of Soldin (1309). The conflict with Poland was temporarily settled in the Treaty of Kalisz (1343). The town was returned to Poland in the Second Peace of Toruń in 1466.