Ewa Gawro ń ska, Kasia Baczewska and Ada Stefa ń ska VI b

Lodz is in the centre of Poland. The symbols of the city are: coat of arms – a golden boat with oar in the red background and natiomal anthem : „Prz ąś niczka’’ by Moniuszko. In the past in this place there was a big jungle with swamps and there were a lot of rivers. The first information about Lodz settlement comes from 1332.

Lodz received its city rights on July During 15th century Lodz was an agricultural area. In 18th century craftsmen started ariving to Lodz. There were coming carpenters, blacksmiths, locksmiths, etc. Since then Lodz started to change from a very little town into a big city.

International Lodz Soon people of different nationalities started to come to Lodz. During the years 1820 – 1920 the population of Lodz grew from 767 citizens to 370, 000. There were arriving the Germans, the Jewish, the Czechs, the Russians and Polish people from the nearby villages in search for work. This is how Lodz became an international city. For this day there are still many signs of old times like: old churches, orthodox churches and cemetaries. There is the biggest Jewish cemetary in Europe.

Textile industry in Lodz The growth of the city influenced develepoment of textile industry, mainly thanks to very good geographical conditions like plenty of rivers and natural building resources. In 1839 Ludwik Geyer, one of textile industralists, brought the first steam machine to Lodz.

From that moment many big textile factories started to appear in Lodz. There were also built charecteristc houses for factory owners called palaces and houses for factory workers. Life of the workers was hard and difficult. Salaries were low and there weren’t good contury to work. There were employed women and children and they earned very low salaries. In 19th century there was an act which banned employing children under the age of 12.

Three great industrialists Ludwik Geyer - born 7January1805 in Berlin - died 21 October 1869 in Lodz Izrael Kalmanowicz Pozna ń ski - born 25 August 1833 in Aleksandrow Lodzki - died 18 April 1900 in Lodz Karol Wilhelm Scheibler - born 1 September 1820 in Monschau, died 13 April 1881 in Lodz

Today we can still admire the set of old factory buildings in a district called,,Ksi ęż y M ł yn’’. It was built by Karol Scheibler, one of the richest factory owners in Lodz. Textile factories

Another very interesting figure in the history of Lodz is Izrael Pozna ń ski. He was the owner of a real textile empire. He lived in a huge palace builit next to his factory and workers’ houses. Today in the place of his factory is a big commercial centre called „Manufaktura”.