Okres średniowiecza i Pomorze średniowieczne w twórczości naukowej Profesora Tadeusza Białeckiego
The middle ages and the medieval Pomerania in professor Tadeusz Biał􀃢ecki’s scientific production

Summary/Abstract: For many years of his academic career Professor Tadeusz Białecki has frequently dealt with the problems of the medieval Western Pomerania. Still as a student of the Warsaw University and shortly after graduating he investigated the subject of fortified towns (gords) in that region. Later, especially in the years 1958–1966, he wrote a few articles (published in the ‘West-Pomeranian Materials’ and in the ‘West-Pomeranian Journal’) on the medieval onomastics and settlement in the vicinity of Szczecin and Pyrzyce, and on the settlement base of Koszalin in the 13th century, when it was located. For many years Professor Białecki concentrated his attention on the history of the Western Slavdom, especially the Slavic past of Połabie, Western Pomerania and Szczecin. Another keynote (also treated in a popularising way) were the medieval monuments of Stargard and in its vicinity and the ones of Chojna, and the heraldry of West Pomeranian towns. In spite of his involvement in the investigations into the demographic changes of Western Pomerania after WW2 and into the displacement of the Germans before the 1950s, questions concerning the Middle Ages appeared from time to time in Professor Białecki’s works (especially at the end of 1980s and afterwards) in the form of articles and monographs concerning Szczecin and the changes in onomastics and demography within the Szczecin region and in other towns and in the whole area of Western Pomerania. For many years Professor Białecki’s teaching activity (first as an independent investigator at the History Institute of the Higher School of Pedagogy, and since 1985 at the Szczecin University) was connected with medieval questions. His interest in the Middle Ages and especially the history of Western Pomerania resulted in several monographs of towns or West-Pomeranian subregions (some of them written by Professor Białecki and some edited by him); in most cases they dealt with the post-war times but somehow they referred to the times of the Duchy of Pomerania. Some medieval threads may also be found in the commentaries to the Polish edition of Thomas Kantzow’s Pomerania, published together with E. Rymar and other authors. In spite of his enormous knowledge of the Middle Ages, his keen interest in that epoch, and in spite of being Professor Aleksander Gieysztor’s disciple, Tadeusz Białecki has never become a classical medievalist. Although the Middle Ages are visible in his works, they have never become the main thread of his academic production.

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