Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Kulm

KULM (in Polish, Chelmo), chief town of a circle in the government district of Marienwerder, Prussia, is situated on the high banks of the Vistula, about 24 miles north-west of Thorn. It is regularly built, and contains an old-fashioned town-house, a gymnasium, a high school, and a cadets’ institution founded in 1775 by Frederick II. It carries on trade in grain and has some shipping. The population in 1875 was 9628.

Kulm gives name to the oldest bishopric in Prussia, although the bishop resides at Pelplin. It was taken about 1220 by Duke Conrad of Masovia. Frederick II. pledged it in 1226 to the Teutonic Order, from whom it passed by the second peace of Thorn in 1466 to Poland; and it was annexed to Prussia in 1772. It joined the Hanseatic League, and used to carry on very extensive manufactures of cloth. The battle of Kulm, won August 30, 1813, over the French by the Prussians and Russians, took place at the village of Kulm in Bohemia, about 3 miles north-east of Teplitz.