Everything about Upper Silesia totally explained
» This article is about the historical region. For the former Prussian province, see Province of Upper Silesia.
Upper Silesia (; ;
Latin:
Silesia Superior; ;
Silesian:
Gůrny Ślůnsk) is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of
Silesia;
Lower Silesia is to the northwest. Throughout its history Upper Silesia has been under the control of
Poland,
Bohemia,
Austria,
Prussia, and
Germany. It is currently split between Poland (
Opole and
Silesian Voivodeships) and the
Czech Republic (
Czech Silesia, or the
Silesian-Moravian Region).
Upper Silesia is situated in the Silesian highlands, between the upper
Oder and upper
Vistula rivers. The total population of the
Upper Silesian Industry Area is 3,487,000.
Opole Silesia,
Cieszyn Silesia, and
Austrian Silesia are historical parts of Upper Silesia. The territory of Opole Silesia composes much of
Opole Voivodeship.
History
At the time of
Svatopluk I and King
Arnulf of Carinthia in the ninth century,
Silesia was a part of
Greater Moravia and after its destruction in the early tenth century it was conquered by
Bohemia. A number of earlier inhabitants of Silesia, the
Silingi, remained throughout and they concentrated around the
Zobten mountain and in a settlement named
Niempsch (derived from a Slavic name for Germans).
Upper Silesia was soon conquered by the newly installed dukes of the
Polans and for several hundred years was part of
Poland. This fell apart and at the renewal of Poland under
Casimir the Great, all of Silesia was specifically excluded as non-Polish land. In 1335 it came back under the rule of the
Kingdom of Bohemia. Many towns were destroyed by the
Mongols at the
Battle of Legnica but rebuilt. By the 1300s influx of settlers to Upper Silesia stopped, because of the plague. Latin, Czech and German language were used for towns and cities and only in the 1550s with the
Protestant Reformation did records with Polish names also appear. A large number of Silesians became
Protestants, when all of Upper Silesia belonged to the
Hohenzollerns of
Brandenburg-Ansbach. The
Roman Catholic Holy Roman Emperors of the
Habsburg dynasty reintroduced Catholicism, led by the
Jesuits.
Lower Silesia and most of Upper Silesia became part of the
Kingdom of Prussia in 1742 during the
First Silesian War. A small part remained within the Habsburg-ruled Bohemian Crown as the Duchy of Upper and Lower Silesia, colloquially called
Austrian Silesia.
In the 19th century Upper Silesia became an industrial area using its plentiful
coal and
iron ore.
In 1919 after
World War I, the eastern part, which had majority of ethnic Poles, came under Polish rule as the
Autonomous Silesian Voivodeship,, while the mostly German-speaking western part remained part of Germany as the
Province of Upper Silesia. From 1919-1921 three
Silesian Uprisings occurred among the Polish-speaking populace of Upper Silesia. In
Upper Silesia plebiscite a vote of 60 to 40 percent voted against joining to Poland, with clear lines dividing Polish and German communities. As a result the outcome of the vote served as basis for Polish-German border.
After 1945 almost all of Upper Silesia became part of
Poland. A majority of the German-speaking population was expelled in accordance with the decision of the victorious Allied powers at their 1945 meeting at
Potsdam. This expulsion program also included German speaking inhabitants of Lower Silesia, eastern Pomerania, Danzig, and East Prussia. These German expellees were transported to the present day Germany (including the former East Germany), and they were replaced with Poles, many from former Polish provinces taken over by the USSR in the east. A good many German-speaking Upper Silesians ended up being relocated in Bavaria. A small part of Upper Silesia stayed as part of
Czechoslovakia as
Czech Silesia.
The expulsions of German-speakers didn't totally eliminate the presence of a population that considered itself German. Upper Silesia in 1945 had a considerable number of Roman Catholic mixed bilingual inhabitants that spoke both German and Polish dialects, and their Polish linguistic skills were solid enough for them to be allowed to remain in the area. With the fall of communism and Poland joining the European Union, there were enough of these remaining in Upper Silesia to allow for the recognition of a German minority by the Polish government.
Major cities and towns
(All in Poland unless otherwise indicated; population figures are for 1995)
- Katowice (Kattowitz) (354,200)
- Ostrava (Mährisch Ostrau) (320,000) - Czech Republic (eastern districts, Cieszyn Silesia)
- Bytom (Beuthen) (227,600)
- Gliwice (Gleiwitz) (214,000)
- Zabrze (Hindenburg O.S.) (201,600)
- Bielsko-Biała (Bielitz) (180,307)
- Ruda Śląska (Ruda) (166,300)
- Rybnik (Rybnik) (144,300)
- Tychy (Tichau) (133,900)
- Opole (Oppeln) (130,600) - the historical capital of Upper Silesia
- Chorzów (Königshütte) (125,800)
- Jastrzębie Zdrój (Bad Königsdorff-Jastrzemb) (103,500)
- Mysłowice (Myslowitz) (80,000)
- Siemianowice Śląskie (Siemianowitz) (78,100)
- Kędzierzyn-Koźle (Kandrzin-Cosel) (70,700)
- Tarnowskie Góry (Tarnowitz) (67,200)
- Piekary Śląskie (Deutsch Piekar) (67,200)
- Żory (Sohrau) (66,300)
- Racibórz (Ratibor) (65,100)
- Opava (62,000) (Troppau) - Czech Republic
- Świętochłowice (Schwientochlowitz) (59,600)
- Wodzisław Śląski (Loslau) (50,500)
- Nysa (Neisse) (49,000)
- Mikołów (Nikolai) (38,900)
- Cieszyn (Teschen) (37,300)
- Czechowice-Dziedzice (Czechowitz-Dzieditz) (35,600)
- Pszczyna (Pleß) (34,600)
- Kluczbork (Kreuzburg) (26,900)
- Lubliniec (Lublinitz) (26,900)
- Krnov (25,400) (Jägerndorf) - Czech Republic
- Rydułtowy (Rydultau) (24,100)
- Łaziska Górne (Ober-Lazisk) (23,000)
- Bieruń (Bierun) (22,100)
- Pyskowice (Peiskretscham) (21,900)
- Strzelce Opolskie (Groß Strehlitz) (21,900)
Literature
H. Förster, B. Kortus (1989) "Social-Geographical Problems of the Cracow and Upper Silesia Agglomerations", Paderborn. (Bochumer Geographische Arbeiten No. 51)
Krzysztof Gwozdz (2000) "The Image of Upper Silesia in geography textbooks 1921-1998", in: Boleslaw Domanski (Ed.), Prace Geograficzne, No. 106, Institute of Geography of the Jagiellonian University Kraków. pp. 55-68
Rudolf Carl Virchow. "Report on the Typhus Epidemic in Upper Silesia
." (1848) Am J Public Health 2006;96 2102-2105.
Excerpted from: Virchow RC. Collected Essays on Public Health and Epidemiology. Vol 1. Rather LJ, ed. Boston, Mass: Science History Publications; 1985:204–319.Further Information
Get more info on 'Upper Silesia'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://upper_silesia.totallyexplained.com">Upper Silesia Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
