BROMBERG  , a

town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Posen, 32 M. by rail W.N.W. from the fortress of Thorn, 7 M . W. from the bank of the Vistula, and at the centre of an important network of railways, connecting it with the strategical points on the Prusso-Russian frontier . Pop . (1900) 52,082; (1905) 54,229 . Its public buildings comprise two Roman Catholic and three Protestant churches, a Jewish synagogue, a seminary, high grade schools and a theatre . The town also possesses a bronze statue of the emperor William I., a monument of the war of 187o-71, and a statue of Benkenhoff, the constructor of the.Bromberg Canal . This engineering work, constructed in 1773-1774, by command of Frederick II., connects the Brahe with the Netze, and thus establishes communication between the Vistula, the Oder and the Elbe . The principal industrial works are iron foundries and machine shops, paper factories and flour mills; the town has, moreover, an active trade in agricultural and other products . In view of its strategical position, a large garrison is concentrated in and about the town . Bromberg is mentioned as early as 1252 . It fell soon afterwards into the hands of the Poles, from whom it was taken in 1327 by the Teutonic Order, which held it till 1343, when the Poles re-captured it . Destroyed in the course of these struggles, it was restored by Casimir of Poland in 1346, and down to the close of the 16th century. it continued to be a flourishing commercial city .

It afterwards suffered so much from war and pestilence that about 1772, when the Prussians took

possession, it contained only from five to six hundred inhabitants . By the treaty of Tilsit it was transferred to the duchy of Warsaw; in 1813 it was occupied by the Russians, and in 1815 was restored to Prussia .