WROCłAW

'Wrocław' (; ; ; or ''Vratislavia'') is the capital of the historical region of Lower Silesia in southwestern Poland, situated on the Oder () River. It is the principal city of the Lower Silesia region and the administrative seat of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship (since 1999), previously of Wrocław Voivodeship. The city is also a separate urban-county. After Warsaw, Wrocław is the second largest financial center in Poland. Presently, its population is estimated to be 635,200.

Contents

Etymology

History

Feudal period

Modern history

20th-century events

Population

Main sights

Prominent residents

Nobel laureates

Education

Economy and transport

Major corporations

Government and politics

Boroughs

Municipal politics

Professional sports

Men's sports

Women's sports

Twin towns & Partnerships

See also

References

Footnotes

External links

Etymology

The city was first recorded in the year 1000 by Thietmar's chronicle: ''Johannes Wrotizlaensis'', bishop of Wrotizla, a newly established diocese, is mentioned, as was later the city itself (as ''Wortizlawa''). The first municipal seal says: ''Sigillum civitatis Wracislavie'', and a simplified city name is given in 1175 as ''in Wrezlawe'', which developed into Prezla, Bresla(u=w).
Early records show that the medieval city name was ''Wrocisław'' in Polish and ''Vratislav'' in Czech, meaning Wrocisław/Vratislav's town. The Polish name was later phonetically simplified from ''Wrocisław'' to ''Wrotsław'' to ''Wrocław'', a name which has been used since the 12th century. The Czech spelling was used in Latin documents as ''Wratislavia'' or ''Vratislavia'', while the Polish pronunciation was also influential in the spelling ''Wracislavia''. At that time, ''Prezla'' was used in Middle High German, which became ''Preßlau''. The Latin name Wratislavia and the Early New High German (and later New High German) form of the name—''Breslau''—was used as the official name by Austria, Prussia, and Germany.
The city is traditionally believed to be named after a person called Wrocisław/Vratislav, often believed to be Duke Vratislav I of Bohemia. It is also possible that the city was named after the tribal duke of the Silesians, or after an early owner of the city called Vratislav. There is also another story which holds that the city was named after a Polish duke named Wrócisław, whose name means "he will return famous" in the old Polish language (in the Czech too).
The name of the city today may be an issue among German and Polish nationalists, although the city's municipal website uses ''Breslau'' for the German-language version of the site.[1]
Name variations used in other languages:

★

★

★

★

★ or ''Vroclav''

★ (''Vrotslai'')

★ (''Vrotslav'')

★ (''Vrotslav''); also Бреславль (''Breslavl'')

★ (''Vrotslav'')

★ (''Vrotslav'')

History

Feudal period

A stronghold situated at a long-existing trading place, later to become the site of Wroclaw, was part of Greater Moravia, then Bohemia. The city was first recorded in the 10th century as ''Vratislavia'', possibly derived from the name of the Bohemian duke Vratislav I, who died in 921.
The history of the city of Wroclaw begins at the end of the 10th century. At this time the city bears the name of Vratislavia and is limited to Ostrów Tumski (the Cathedral Island). In the year 1000 king Boleslaw I of Poland establishes the first bishopric of Silesia. The city quickly becomes a commercial center and expands rapidly to the neighbouring Wyspa Piaskowa (Sand Island), and then to the left bank of the Odra river. In 1163 it becomes the capital of the duchy of Silesia.
By 1139 two more settlements are founded. One belongs to Governor Piotr Włostowic (a.k.a Piotr Włast Dunin, Piotr Włost, Peter Wlast; ca. 1080–1153) and is situated near his residence on the Olbina, and the St. Vincent's Benedictine Abbey.
The other settlement is founded on the left bank of the Oder River, near the present seat of the university. At the time it is the trade route that leads from Leipzig and Liegnitz (Polish: ''Legnica''), and then follows through Opole, and Kraków to Kievan Rus'.
Following the period of Slavic rule, Emperor Barbarossa gains control of the territory, and forms up two duchies (1157, 1163) in Silesia. The Silesian dukes take their land as fiefs from the Holy Roman Empire.
Mongol raids begin and the city is devastated in 1241. The rebuilding was characterised by expanding the boundaries to the area around the Market Square (Rynek). At that time many Germans settle down to join and reinforce the thinned out population. Soon the name Breslau appears for the first time in written records. The rebuilt town is given Magdeburg rights in 1262. Trade is booming which results in the fact that at the end of the 13th century Wroclaw joins the Hanseatic League. However, the Polish Piast dynasty remains in control of Silesia.


In 1289-1292 the Přemyslid King of Bohemia, Wenceslaus II, became Duke of Silesia, then also King of Poland. With John of Luxemburg and his son, Emperor Charles IV (and king of Bohemia), Silesia was united with Bohemia, but retained its separate ''Ius indigenatus''.
The first illustration of the city was published in the ''Nuremberg Chronicle (Schedelsche Weltchronik)'' in 1493.
Documents of that time refer to the town by many variants of the name, including ''Bresslau'', ''Presslau'', ''Breslau'' and ''Wratislaw''.
During much of the Middle Ages Wroclaw was ruled by its dukes of the Silesian Piast dynasty. Although the city was not part of its principality, the Bishop of Breslau was a prince-bishop since Bishop Preczlaus of Pogarell (1341-1376) bought the Duchy of Grottkau from Duke Boleslaw of Brieg and added it to the episcopal territory of Neisse, after which the Bishops of Breslau had the titles of Prince of Neisse and Duke of Grottkau, and took precedence over the other Silesian rulers.
In 1335, it was incorporated with almost the entirety of Silesia into the Kingdom of Bohemia and was part of it until the 1740s; from 1526, it was ruled by the Empire's Habsburg dynasty. By this time the inhabitants, although of mixed Silesian, Bohemian, Moravian, and often of Polish ancestry, had become mainly linguistically and culturally German. Conrad Celtes travelled through Breslau in 1490 on his way from Krakow to Prague. His descriptions appear in Hartmann Schedel’s ''Nuremberg Chronicle'':

''Presslau, da Schlesia ein Provinz teutscher Land mit der Oder befeuchtigt, ist ... an beiden Gestanden teutsch Volk habend. Doch ist ... die polnisch Zung in mererm Geprauch.'' (Breslau, as Silesia is a German region moistened by the Oder, has ... German population on both of the river’s shores. However ... Polish language is frequently used.)

The overwhelming majority of the population became lutheran during the Protestant Reformation as did most of Lower Silesia, but they were forcibly suppressed during the Catholic Reformation by Austrian and Polish Jesuits working with the support of the Habsburg rulers.
After the death of the last Silesian Piast ruler, Georg Wihelm of Liegnitz Brieg in 1675, the Habsburg Monarchy of Austria inherited the city of Breslau. They resorted to forceful conversion of the city back to Catholicism. During the War of the Austrian Succession in the 1740s, most of Silesia was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia's claims were derived from the agreement, rejected by the Habsburgs, between the Silesian Piast rulers of the duchy and the Hohenzollerns who secured the Prussian succession after the extinction of the Piasts.

Modern history

After the demise of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, Prussia became a member of the German Confederation, and in 1811 the Schlesische Friedrich-Wilhelm-Universität (Breslau University) was re-established. In 1813 King Frederick William III of Prussia gave his ''An mein Volk'' ("To my people") speech at Breslau as a signal that Prussia would join the Russian Empire in fighting Napoleon during the Napoleonic Wars. When the Prussian-led German Empire was created in 1871 during the process of Germany's unification, Breslau became the empire's sixth-largest city and a major industrial centre, notably of linen and cotton manufacture; its population more than tripled to over half a million between 1860 and 1910. In August 1920, during the Korfanty uprisings in Upper Silesia, Germans devastated Breslau's Polish School and burned its Polish Library, and in 1923 the city was a scene of antisemitic riots.^[1]
Breslau's municipal boundaries were greatly extended between 1925 and 1930 by incorporating villages at the city's periphery. Breslauers honoured Adolf Hitler with the title of honorary citizen of the city. In 1933 the Gestapo started actions against Polish and Jewish students^[2] (who were issued special segregationist ID documents), Communists, Social Democrats, trade unionists, and other people deemed threats to the state. People were even arrested and beaten for using Polish in public.^[3] In 1938 the Polish cultural centre (the Polish House) in Breslau was destroyed by the police^[2], and many of the city's 10,000 Jews were deported to concentration camps; those who remained were killed during the Nazi genocide of World War II. Most of the Polish elites also left during 1920s and 1930s, and Polish leaders who remained were sent to German concentration camps.^[2] By 1939 the city, as a German city until 1945, was naturally almost entirely Germanised; in other words, ethnically cleansed.^[6]
As the Soviet Red Army approached the city in February 1945, Breslau was declared a ''Festung'' (fortress) by the fanatical Nazi Gauleiter Karl Hanke, and concentration camp prisoners were forced to help civilian workers build fortifications.
In one area, the population was ordered to construct a military airfield intended for use in resupplying the fortress, and a modern residential district, along the Kaiserstraße (now Plac Grunwaldzki)—was razed. The authorities threatened to shoot as a deserter anyone who refused to do their assigned work, and one eyewitness estimated that some 13,000 died under enemy fire on the airfield alone. In the end, one of the few planes to use it was that of the fleeing Gauleiter Hanke.^[7]
When it was almost too late, Hanke finally lifted a ban on the evacuation of women and children, but during his poorly organised evacuation in early March, around 18,000 froze to death, mostly children and babies, in icy snowstorms and -20°C weather. Some 200,000 civilians—less than a third of the pre-war population—remained in the city, because the railway connections to the west were damaged or overloaded.
By the end of the Battle of Breslau, two-thirds of the city had been destroyed and 40,000 Breslauers and forced labourers lay dead in the ruins of their homes and factories. After a siege of nearly three months, the strategically unimportant "Fortress Breslau" surrendered on May 7 1945. It was the last major city in historical Eastern Germany to fall.
As almost all Lower Silesia, post-war Breslau too came under Polish administration under the terms of the Potsdam Conference. After mass rapes of the female German population by the Red Army soldiers most remaining German inhabitants were expelled to one of the post-war German states between 1945 and 1949, and many of those not directly evacuated left later due to repression by Polish and Soviet communists or poverty. However, as with other Lower Silesian cities, a considerable German presence remained in Wrocław until the late 1950s; the city's last German school closed in 1963.
Wrocław was resettled by Poles either from small towns and villages of central Poland or from Polish lands annexed by the Soviet Union in the east. Many of them had come from Lwów (now Lviv, Ukraine), Stanisławów (now Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine), Wilno (now Vilnius, Lithuania), and Grodno (now Hrodna, Belarus).
Gradually the old city was restored to its earlier beauty, and nearly all the monumental buildings were restored^[8]. Wrocław is now a unique European city in present-day Poland, with its architecture under Bohemian, Austrian, and Prussian influence. Wrocław's Gothic style is originally Silesian; its Baroque style owes much to court builders of Habsburg Austria (Fischer von Erlach, Christoph Tausch). Wrocław still has a number of buildings by eminent German modernist architects, such as Hans Poelzig and Max Berg, the famous Jahrhunderthalle (Hala Stulecia (Centennial Hall)) by Berg (1911–1913) being the most important.
In July 1997, the city suffered from a flood of the Oder River, the worst flooding in post-war Poland. Nearly the entire city stood under water, leaving only a small region unaffected. In 2005, Wrocław was hit by a storm that felled a number of trees and killed three people. The storm was local and did not affect any other major cities.
Some matches of the 2012 UEFA European Football Championships in Poland and Ukraine are scheduled to take place in Wrocław.

20th-century events

External links with photo galleries, mostly in Polish

★ 1903 - 1903 great flood of Oder river

★ 1907 - "All-German Singing Meeting, 1907"

★ 1913 - "100th Anniversary of Leipzig greater Battle Exhibition, 1913"

★ 1937 - "All-German Singing Meeting"

★ 1938 - "All-German Festival of Sports & Gymnastics" (Internet Explorer only)

★ 1945 - Festung Breslau (Wrocław Fortress) siege by Soviet Army - photo gallery

★ 1948 - "Retrieved Country Exhibition" - Polish claim on renamed Breslau, defending expulsion and annexation

★ 1997 - 1997 great flood of Oder River - photo gallery

Population

Year	Inhabitants
1800	64,500
1831	89,500
1850	114,000
1852	121,100
1880	272,900
1900	422,700
1910	510,000
1925	555,200
1933	625,198
1939	629,565
1946	171,000[9]
1956	400,000
1960	431,800
1967	487,700
1970	526,000
1975	579,900
1980	617,700
1990	640,577
1999	650,000
2003	638,000

Main sights

★ Hala Ludowa ("Peoples' Hall") by Max Berg — a World Heritage Site

★ Ostrów Tumski ("Cathedral Island", )

★ Racławice Panorama

★ Plac Grunwaldzki ("Grunwaldzki Square")

★ St. Elisabeth's Church

★ Wrocław Palace

Prominent residents

''Including some who were not born in Wrocław/Breslau''




★ Alois Alzheimer — discoverer of Alzheimer's Disease.

★ Adolf Anderssen — 19th-century chess master.

★ Max Berg — architect, designer of ''Hala Stulecia''.

★ Dietrich Bonhoeffer — Lutheran clergyman, religious leader in the resistance movement against Nazism.

★ August Borsig (
★ 1804) — entrepreneur.

★ Jan Borysewicz — Polish guitar player, composer, leader of the Lady Pank rock band .

★ Ernst Cassirer, philosopher.

★ Johann Dzierzon (1811-1906), apiarist.

★ Otfrid Förster (
★ 1873) — neuro-surgeon.

★ Waldemar Fydrych, alias "Major" — artist, founder of the Orange Alternative happening movement.

★ Jerzy Grotowski — theatre director and theatrical avant-garde figure.

★ Mirosław Hermaszewski — cosmonaut.

★ Ludwik Hirszfeld — microbiologist, co-discover of the inheritance of the BO blood type.

★ Marek Hłasko — writer.

★ Karl Eduard von Holtei (1798-1880) — poet and actor.

★ Vernon Ingram — biologist.

★ Lech Janerka - singer, musician and composer

★ Alfred Kerr - theatre critic and essayist

★ Gerhard Kittel - New Testament scholar and philologist

★ Gustav Robert Kirchhoff - physicist

★ Otto Klemperer (
★ 1885) - conductor

★ Carl Ferdinand Langhans - architect

★ Ferdinand Lassalle - socialist politician and reformer

★ Carl Friedrich Lessing (
★ 1808) - artist

★ Rudolf Meidner - Swedish economist and socialist theorist

★ Joachim Meisner - Cardinal priest and archbishop of Cologne

★ Adolph von Menzel - artist

★ Edda Moser (
★ 1938) - German soprano opera singer

★ Manfred von Richthofen - WWI flying ace

★ Tadeusz Różewicz - poet and writer

★ Wanda Rutkiewicz - female mountaineer

★ Julius von Sachs - botanist

★ Johann Gottfried Scheibel - (
★ 1783) - theological professor and dissenter to the Prussian Union

★ Friedrich Schleiermacher - theologian and philosopher

★ Andrzej Sekula - cinematographer and film director

★ Angelus Silesius - 17th century religious poet

★ Fritz Stern - historian

★ Edith Stein - philosopher and Roman Catholic martyr

★ Hugo Steinhaus - mathematician

★ Michel Thomas - war hero and language teacher

★ Christian Wolff - philosopher

★ Michał Witkowski - writer

Nobel laureates

''listed by year of award''

★ Theodor Mommsen (1902)

★ Philipp Lenard (1905)

★ Eduard Buchner (1907)

★ Paul Ehrlich (1908)

★ Gerhart Hauptmann (1912)

★ Fritz Haber (1918)

★ Friedrich Bergius (1931)

★ Otto Stern (1943)

★ Max Born (1954)

★ Reinhard Selten (1994)

Education

Today's Wrocław has ten state-run universities, including:

★ Wrocław University (''Uniwersytet Wrocławski'') - over 47,000 students

★ Wrocław University of Technology (''Politechnika Wrocławska'') - over 40,000 students

★ Wrocław Medical University (''Wrocławska Akademia Medyczna'')

★ University School of Physical Education. (''Akademia Wychowania Fizycznego''),

★ Wrocław University of Economics (''Akademia Ekonomiczna im. Oskara Langego'') - over 18,000 students

★ Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences (''Uniwersytet Przyrodniczy we Wrocławiu'') - over 13,000 students

★ Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław (''Akademia Sztuk Pięknych we Wrocławiu'')

★ The Karol Lipiński University of Music (''Akademia Muzyczna im. Karola Lipińskiego'')

★ University School of Theatre (''Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Teatralna'')

★ The Tadeusz Kościuszko Land Forces Military Academy (''Wyższa Szkoła Oficerska Wojsk Lądowych'')
as well as numerous private institutions of higher education

Economy and transport

Wrocław's major industries were traditionally the manufacture of railroad cars and electronics. The city is served by Wrocław International Airport and a river port.

Major corporations

★ Volvo Polska sp. z o.o., Wrocław

★ WABCO Polska, Wrocław

★ Siemens, Wrocław

★ Hewlett Packard, Wrocław

★ Grupa Lukas, Wrocław

★ AB SA, Wrocław

★ Polifarb Cieszyn-Wrocław SA, Wrocław

★ KOGENERACJA S.A., Wrocław

★ Impel SA, Wrocław

★ Europejski Fundusz Leasingowy SA, Wrocław

★ Telefonia Dialog SA, Wrocław

★ TietoEnator, Wrocław

★ Wrozamet SA, Wrocław

★ American Restaurants sp. z o.o., Wrocław

★ Hutmen SA, Wrocław

★ MPEC Wrocław SA, Wrocław

★ SAP Polska

★ Hologram Industries Polska

★ Zender sp. z o.o., Wrocław

★ MSI (Micro Star International) Polska Sp. z o. o.

Government and politics

Boroughs

Wrocław comprises five boroughs (''dzielnice''):

★ Fabryczna ("Industrial")

★ Krzyki ("Shouts")

★ Psie Pole ("Dog Field")

★ Stare Miasto ("Old Town")

★ Śródmieście ("City Center")

Municipal politics

Professional sports

The Wrocław area has many popular professional sports teams. The most popular sport today is probably basketball, thanks to Śląsk Wrocław, the award-winning men's basketball team (former Polish champions, 2nd-place in 2004).

Men's sports

★ ASCO Śląsk Wrocław - (previous names:ASCO Śląsk Wrocław, Bergson Śląsk Wrocław, Era Śląsk Wrocław, Deichmann Śląsk Wrocław, Idea Śląsk Wrocław, Zepter Idea Śląsk Wrocław, Zepter Śląsk Wrocław, Śląsk ESKA Wrocław, Śląsk Wrocław, CWKS Wrocław) men's basketball team, 17th Polish Champiion former Polish Champion, 2nd place 2004 in Era Basket Liga

★ Śląsk Wrocław - men's football team (Polish Championship in Football 1977; Polish Cup winner 1976, 1987; Polish SuperCup winner 1987) (2nd league from 2005 to 2007)

★ Śląsk Wrocław - men's handball team (1st league in season 2003/2004)

★ Atlas Wrocław - men's speedway racing team (Champion in season 2006)

★ Gwardia Wrocław - men's volleyball team (Polska Liga Siatkówki (PLS) in season 2003/2004)

★ Gwardia Wrocław - men's boxing team (1st league in season 2003/2004)

★ Polar Wrocław - men's football team (3rd league 2004/2005)

★ KS Hefra Gwardia Wrocław - men's volleyball team playing in Polish Volleyball League (Polska Liga Siatkówki, PLS: Seria A in 2003/2004, Seria B in 2004/2005 season).

Women's sports

★ ZEC ESV Gwardia Wrocław- women's volleyball team playing in Polish Seria A Women's Volleyball League: 6th place in 2003/2004 season.

★ AZS Wrocław - women's football team (1st league in season 2003/2004)

★ AZS AWF Wrocław - women's handball team (1st league in season 2003/2004)

★ AZS AE Wrocław - women table tennis team (1st league in season 2003/2004)

Twin towns & Partnerships

Twin towns:

★ - Breda

★ - Dresden

★ - Charlotte

★ - Guadalajara

★ - Hradec Králové

★ - Kaunas

★ - Lviv

★ - Ramat Gan

★ - Wiesbaden
Partnership:

★ - Vienne department

See also

★ Archdiocese of Wrocław

★ Lower Silesia

★ Silesia

References

★ ''Encyklopedia Wrocławia''. Wrocław 2001

★ ''Wrocław jego dzieje kultura''. Warszawa 1978

★ G. Scheuermann. ''Das Breslau-Lexikon.'' Dülmen 1994

★ K.Maleczyński, M.Morelowski, A.Ptaszycka, ''Wrocław. Rozwój urbanistyczny.'' Warszawa 1956

★ W.Długoborski, J.Gierowski, K.Maleczyński, '' Dzieje Wrocławia do roku 1807.'', Warszawa 1958

★ ''Microcosm, Portrait of a Central European City'', by Norman Davies and Roger Moorhouse (Jonathan Cape, 2002) ISBN 0224062433 (ISBN 8324001727 – Polish translation)

★ Gregor Thum: ''Die Fremde Stadt Breslau 1945.'' Siedler, Berlin 2003. ISBN 3-88680-795-9 (Frankfurt (Oder), Univ., Diss., 2002)

★ Till van Rahden, ''Juden und andere Breslauer: Die Beziehungen zwischen Juden, Protestanten und Katholiken in einer deutschen Großstadt von 1860 bis 1925'', Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2000. ISBN 3-525-35732-X

★

Footnotes

1. Davies, Moorhouse, p. 396; van Rahden, Juden, p. 323-26
2. Davies, Moorhouse, p. 395
3. Kulak, p. 252
4. Davies, Moorhouse, p. 395
5. Davies, Moorhouse, p. 395
6. Davies, Moorhouse, p. 394
7. Davies, Moorhouse, p. 31
8. Thum, Breslau passim
9. German population expelled or evacuated.

External links

★ WikiSatellite view of Wrocław at WikiMapia

★ Municipal website

★ Wroclaw Weekly

★ Wroclaw in webcam

★ Virtual Wrocław

★ Wratislaviae Amici

★ A Few Views of Wroclaw in Old Postcards

★ Postindustrial view of Wroclaw