Middle Ages

Old castle and the town of Ełk in the 17th century

The area where the town of Ełk is located was originally inhabited by Jatvingians, a Baltic peoples, during the early middle ages. By 1281, Skomand the last leader of the pagan Jatvingians, capitulated to the crusading Teutonic Knights, who initially were invited in 1226 by Konrad I of Masovia from the Polish Piast dynasty to put an end to the constant pagan raids into his territory.

After 1323, the northern part of the region was administered by the commandery of Brandenburg, while the larger part with the later town belonged to Balga commandery. A former Old Prussian settlement, the town was first documented in 1398 around a castle built by the Teutonic Knights. The town's name has various postulated origins. Its German version Lyck is postulated to be derived from its Old Prussian name, Luks (from the word for waterlily, luka), while another theory holds that the name comes from Polish word "łęg" meaning meadow.^[2] Old Polish names of the town included Łek, Łęg and Łęk. It received its town rights in 1445.

After the outbreak of the Thirteen Years' War in 1454, the town sided with the Prussian Confederation,^[3] at whose request the Polish King Casimir IV Jagiellon announced the incorporation of the region into the Kingdom of Poland, which resulted in the town becoming part of the Polish state.^[3][4] The town was briefly captured by the Teutonic Knights in 1455, and later on, it was conquered alternately by the Poles and the Teutonic Knights.^[5] After 1466 it was a part of Poland as a fief.^[6][7]

Early modern era

In 1537, Duke Albert of Prussia donated an estate to Jan Malecki, a Polish printer from Kraków who had either fled^[8] or moved to Ducal Prussia for material reasons,^[9] to establish a printing house.^[10] After converting to Lutheranism, Malecki translated and published Martin Luther's Small Catechism in Polish^[11] In 1546 the first school for secondary education in Masuria was founded in the city, where Polish nobles from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, as well as Poles and Germans from Ducal Prussia were taught in Polish; the position of a Polish teacher remained in place until 1819.^[12] Polish pastor, translator, publisher and co-creator of the literary Polish language, Hieronim Malecki, was the school's first rector.^[13] In the mid-16th century Ełk was one of the most thriving centers of Polish-language printing. In 1639 the King of Poland Władysław IV Vasa visited the town.^[14] It remained under Polish suzerainty until 1660.^[15]

18th and 19th centuries

In 1709-10, the plague claimed 1,300 victims.^[16] In 1831, 300 people, about 10 percent of the populace, died of the cholera, in 1837 another 80 and 333 in 1852.^[17]

Old Gymnasium around 1830

In 1825, Lyck was inhabited by 1,748 Germans and 1,394 Poles.^[18] At the beginning of the 19th century, a Polish-language school was organised in the city by Tymoteusz Gizewiusz^[19] In 1820, Fryderyk Tymoteusz Krieger became the superintendent of the school and actively defended the rights of local Poles to use the Polish language. Kireger also prepared Polish educational programs, in opposition to attempts at Germanization by Prussian authorities.^[20]

In 1840, the German-language newspaper "Lycker gemeinnütziges Unterhaltungsblatt", later called "Lycker Zeitung", was founded.^[21] Between 1842 and 1845, a Polish newspaper "Przyjaciel Ludu Łecki" (Łek's Friend of the People) was printed in the city, whose aim was to resist Germanisation and cultivate Polish folk traditions as well as educate the local rural population.^[22][23]

The court building, built in 1880, nowadays an elementary school

In May 1845, a Polish resistance movement in the city was organized by Kazmierz Szulc, whose aim was to prepare local Polish youth for an uprising.^[24] During the January Uprising, weapons were smuggled through the city to the Russian Partition of Poland, and Polish insurgents fleeing the Russian Partition took refuge in the city; among others, a detachment of Colonel Józef Konstanty Ramotowski passed through it.^[25]

In 1885 the city, under its modern name Ełk, was named capital of Masuria by the Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland.^[26] In the late 19th century it was the largest town of the region (according to data from 1880 and 1890), before being surpassed by Osterode (Ostróda) (according to data from 1905 and 1925).

From 1896 to 1902, "Gazeta Ludowa", a Polish-language newspaper, heavily subsidised by banks from Greater Poland^[27][28] representing the Polish national movement in Masuria, was published in the city.^[29] It soon faced repression and discrimination from the German authorities which led to its demise;^[30] its paid circulation dropped from 357 copies in 1896 to less than 250 at the turn-of-the-century.^[31] According to German-American author, Richard Blanke, the "demise marked the end of the second major effort by Polish nationalists to establish a journalistic foothold in Masuria".^[32]

Michał Kajka monument in the Solidarity Park

In 1896, Polish and Masurian activists founded the Masurian People's Party in the city, which sought to resist efforts of German authorities at forced Germanization. The co-founder of the party was poet Michał Kajka, today honoured in Ełk with a monument in the centre of the city.^[33] From the start, the party was subject to severe repressions and attacks by Prussian authorities.^[34] In the German federal elections, the MPL received 229 votes in 1898 and 20 in 1912 in the Lyck constituency.^[35]

20th century

Ełk around 1900

In 1910, Lyck had more than 13,000 inhabitants.^[36] Mateusz Siuchniński gives the percentage of Poles in 1900 as 35.7% but warns that the numbers come from lowered German estimates.^[37] Many citizens fled during World War I, when Imperial Russian troops attacked the region, but returned after the battles of Tannenberg and the Masurian Lakes. English and Italian troops were deployed in the town after the Treaty of Versailles^[38] to supervise the East Prussian plebiscite. The plebiscite was preceded by a campaign of violence and terror by the Germans against the Poles and even against Allied soldiers. The Germans vandalized Polish information boards^[39] and held an anti-Polish rally at which they encouraged the beating of Poles and the devastation of their homes and property.^[40] In April 1920, the German Sicherheitswehr even battered Italian soldiers, two fatally.^[41][42] Voting under such conditions resulted in 8,339 votes for Germany and 8 for Poland, which just regained independence. In 1922, a Polish consular agency was opened, which was upgraded to a vice-consulate the next year.^[43]

It was in Lyck that the first-ever weekly newspaper in the Hebrew language, Ha-Magid ("the preacher") was founded in 1856 by Eliezer Lipmann Silbermann, a local rabbi. The paper was eventually moved to Berlin.^[44] In Weimar Germany anti-Semitism became prevalent, which led to persecution of the local Jewish population even before the Nazis took power. An anti-Semitic publication, Die jüdische Überlegenheit (The Jewish Supremacy) attacking the Jews circulated in 1927 at a local gathering of fascist sympathizers^[45] In 1932, the local pharmacist Leo Frankenstein was attacked; a hand grenade was thrown into his home.^[46] The wave of anti-Semitic repressions intensified after Nazis gained power in Germany in 1933 and many local merchants and intellectuals of Jewish descent were arrested.^[46] During Kristallnacht, Jewish shops and synagogue were plundered and devastated in the town.^[46] Facing these events, several Jews of Lyck decided to escape, some abroad, some to Berlin, others as far as Shanghai^[46] Of those Jews who remained, 80 were murdered in various Nazi concentration and death camps.^[46]

The city also was the site of German prison camps for Norwegian and Soviet PoWs during World War II.^[47][48] The Polish resistance was active and operated one of the region's main smuggling points for underground Polish press in the city.^[49] It was heavily damaged by bombardments. The Soviet Army approached in January 1945. The city was placed under Polish administration in April 1945 and the remaining German inhabitants were expelled in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement. It was rebuilt and its modern Polish name Ełk was confirmed as official.

Contemporary times

In 1999, Ełk was visited by Pope John Paul II. About 300,000 people attended a papal Mass.

In 2017, the anti-Muslim Ełk riots occurred after a fatal stabbing of a 21-year-old man by a Muslim kebab cook. Several hundred men surrounded the Prince Kebab restaurant,^[50][51] tossing firecrackers, stones, and Molotov cocktails at the shop.^[52] Police initially stood by and did not intervene for several hours; however, when they did intervene the crowd turned against them as well.^[52] Following the riots in Ełk, other attacks on kebab restaurants took place throughout Poland.^[52]

In 2018, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Poland's independence, a monument to Józef Piłsudski was erected in front of the town hall.^[53] The Marshal of Poland was also honored with a mural on one of the townhouses in the city center.^[54]

Number of inhabitants by year

Note that the above table is based on primary, possibly biased, sources:^{[44][55][56][57][58][59]}

Demographic changes

High schools

High school No. 1 in Ełk

• Zespół Szkół Ekonomicznych
• Zespół Szkół Mechaniczno - Elektrycznych
• Zespół Szkół nr 1
• Zespół Szkół nr 2 im. K. K. Baczyńskiego (swww)
• Zespół Szkół nr 3 im. J. H. Małeckich (www)
• I Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. S. Żeromskiego (www)
• Zespół Szkół Rolniczych im. M. Rataja
• Zespół Szkół Samorządowych
• Zespół Szkół nr.6 im. M. Rataja (www)

Twin towns and sister cities

Ełk is twinned with:^[61]

• Galatone, Italy
• Lørenskog, Norway
• Nettetal, Germany
• Alytus, Lithuania
• Orbassano, Italy

Former twin towns:

• Ozyorsk, Russian Federation
• Lida, Belarus

In March 2022, Ełk ended its partnership with the Russian city of Ozyorsk as a reaction to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.^[62]