In 1820 Łódź was a small farming village — 800 inhabitants, dozens of houses, one water mill. One hundred years later it was a metropolis with 630,000 inhabitants, Poland's second-largest city after Warsaw, one of the world's greatest textile industry centres. Below the story of how it happened. ## 1820 — the Tsar's decree Tsar Alexander I issues a ukase on establishing factory towns in Congress Poland. Łódź is on the first list. It comes from a compact — Russia needs textiles, Łódź has water (Ner river + streams), cheap land and willing craftsmen from Germany, Bohemia and Silesia. In 1821 the first Germans arrive — Ludwik Geyer from Saxony opens the first spinning mill. ## Four cultures By 1900 Łódź was home to Poles (49%), Jews (32%), Germans (17%), Russians (2%). Each group had its own quarter, churches, schools. Piotrkowska was the main shopping street, Widzew housed the villas of German factory owners, the Old Town belonged to Jewish traders, Bałuty was the Polish working-class district. ## The industrialists A handful of men built the industrial empire: - **Karol Scheibler** (German from Rhineland) — Księży Młyn, 7,000 workers - **Izrael Poznański** (Jewish) — Manufaktura, 5,000 workers - **Ludwik Geyer** (German from Saxony) — White Factory on Piotrkowska 282 - **Juliusz Kunitzer** (German) — factories in Widzew By 1900 Łódź mills produced 30% of all textiles in the Kingdom of Poland. ## Reymont and "The Promised Land" Władysław Reymont visited Łódź in 1897 and wrote "The Promised Land" — a portrait of a ruthless city where everyone thinks only of money. For this book he received the Nobel Prize in 1924. Andrzej Wajda made a legendary film adaptation in 1975, shot in Łódź's original factories including Manufaktura. ## 1905 Revolution Łódź was a working-class city with a strong labour movement. In June 1905 the Łódź Insurrection broke out — 4 days of street fighting with Russian troops, 200 killed. One of the bloodiest workers' uprisings in Europe of that era. ## WWII — Litzmannstadt Ghetto In 1940 German forces created the Litzmannstadt Ghetto in Bałuty for Łódź Jews — 200,000 people locked in a few hundred streets. The factories worked for the Wehrmacht, but hunger, disease and deportations decimated the population. By 1944 145,000 Jews were deported to death camps. Today the Radegast station is a museum. ## PRL — Poltex era After the war the factories were nationalised. Poltex, Uniontex, Wólczanka. Łódź employed 200,000 textile workers — the most in Poland. The city was architecturally rundown but an economic powerhouse. ## PWSFTiT and the Polish New Wave In 1948 the National Higher School of Film was founded. It educated Andrzej Wajda, Krzysztof Kieślowski, Roman Polański, Krzysztof Zanussi. Łódź became Poland's film capital — a status it maintains today. ## 1990s crisis and 21st-century renaissance After 1989 the textile industry collapsed. 100,000 jobs vanished within 5 years. The city became one of Poland's poorest regions. Salvation came from post-industrial revitalisation: Manufaktura (2006), Księży Młyn (2010-2015), EC1 (2018), Off Piotrkowska (2011). Today Łódź is one of Poland's most interesting cities — tourist-friendly, artistic, academic.