Lodz
Lodz (in Polish Łódź) is the second largest city (population 850,000 in 2002) of Poland, located in the centre of the country.The city, founded in 1423, came under Prussian rule under the name Lodsch in 1793 after the partitions of Poland. It came under Russian rule in 1815.
Lodz became a part of the newly independent Polish state in 1918. During World War II, the German occupiers renamed the city Litzmannstadt.
In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the city functioned as a major industrial centre. A number of German craftsmen and business owners founded factories and companies in Lodz. The provincial city of Lodz issued dual-language documents, for example, a weaver-craftsmen guild document of 1842 states: Urzad Starszych Zgromadnemia haendor w Miecicie Lodzi... and Das Aeltesten Amt des Webergewerbe in der Provincial Stadt Lodz...
After World War II, under the Polish Communist regime, many industrialist families lost their fortunes when the authorities nationalised the companies. After the period of economic transition in the coutry during the 1990s most of them were privatised again, but were in such a desolate state that few survived in the new capitalist reality.
The city is home to the University of Lodz (Uniwersytet Łódzki).
