Wrocław

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"Breslau" redirects here. For other uses, see Breslau (disambiguation).
Wrocław
Main Square
Main Square
Flag of Wrocław
Flag
Coat of arms of Wrocław
Coat of arms
Motto: 
Miasto spotkań / Meeting Place
Country Poland
VoivodeshipLower Silesian
Countycity county
Established10th century
City rights1262
Government
 • MayorRafał Dutkiewicz
Area
 • City292.82 km2 (113.06 sq mi)
Elevation
111 m (364 ft)
Population
 (2007)
 • City689,280
 • Density2,400/km2 (6,100/sq mi)
 • Metro
1,030,000
Time zoneUTC+1 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+2 (CEST)
Postal code
50-041 to 54-612
Area code+48 71
Car platesDW
Websitehttp://www.wroclaw.pl
Town square

Wrocław Template:Audio-IPA-pl (German: Breslau ⓘ; Czech: Vratislav; Lithuanian: Vroclavas; Latin: Vratislavia or Wratislavia; Hebrew: ורוצלב; Yiddish: ברעסלוי) is the chief city of the historical region of Lower Silesia in south-western Poland, situated on the Oder (Polish: Odra) river. Before 1945 the city was part of Poland, Kingdom of Bohemia, Austria, Prussia, Germany, untill it finally returned to to Poland. Since 1999 it has been the capital of Lower Silesian Voivodeship. According to official population figures for 2006, its population is 635,280, making it the fourth largest city in Poland.

Etymology

The city's name was first recorded in the year 1000 by Thietmar's Latin chronicle called Thietmari Merseburgensis episcopi Chronicon as Wrotizlawa. The first municipal seal stated Sigillum civitatis Wratislavie. Simplified name is given in 1175 as Wrezlaw, Prezla or Breslaw.

Early records show that the medieval city's name was Vratislav in Czech and Wrocisław in Polish. The Polish name was later phonetically simplified from Wrocisław to Wrotsław to Wrocław used since the 12th century. The Czech spelling was used in Latin documents as Wratislavia or Vratislavia. At that time, Prezla was used in Middle High German, which became Preßlau. In the middle of the 14th century the Early New High German (and later New High German) form of the name Breslau began to replace its earlier versions.

The city is traditionally believed to be named after Wrocisław or Vratislav, often believed to be Duke Vratislaus I of Bohemia. It is also possible that the city was named after the tribal duke of the Silesians or after an early ruler of the city called Vratislav.

The city's name in various foreign languages include in English: Wroclaw, Hungarian: Boroszló, Italian: Breslavia, Latin: Vratislavia or Wratislavia, Hebrew: ורוצלב (Vrotsláv), Slovak: Vratislav or Vroclav, Belarusian: Уроцлаў (Vrotslai), Greek: Βρότσλαβ (Vrotslav), Russian: Вроцлав (Vrotslav); also Бреславль (Breslavl), Yiddish: ברעסלוי (Bréslaévy), Serbian: Вроцлавor Vroclav and Ukrainian: Вроцлав (Vrotslav). Names of Wrocław in other languages are also available.

History

The city of Wrocław originated as a stronghold situated at a long-existing trading route to Greater Moravia and 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 begins at the end of the 10th century under the Polish Piast dynasty. At that time the city bears the name of Vratislavia and is limited to district of Ostrów Tumski (the Cathedral Island).

Wrocław Cathedral in the oldest District of Ostrów Tumski

In the year 1000 king Boleslaw I of Poland established the first bishopric of Silesia there. The city quickly became a commercial center and expanded rapidly to the neighbouring Wyspa Piaskowa (Sand Island), and then to the left bank of the Odra river. In 1163 it became the capital of the duchy of Silesia. By 1139 two more settlements were built. One belonged to Governor Piotr Włostowic (a.k.a Piotr Włast Dunin, Piotr Włost or Peter Wlast; ca. 1080–1153) and was situated near his residence on the Olbina by the St. Vincent's Benedictine Abbey. The other settlement was founded on the left bank of the Oder River, near the present seat of the university. It was located on the trade route that lead from Leipzig and Legnica) and followed through Opole, and Kraków to Kievan Rus'.

The city was devastated in 1241 during the Mongol invasion of Europe. The rebuilding included expansion of the Main Market Square (Rynek) and all surrounding areas. Decimated population was reinforced by many Germans[citation needed] who settled there. Soon the name Breslau appeared for the first time in written records. The new and rebuilt town adopted Magdeburg rights in 1262 and, at the end of the 13th century joined the Hanseatic League. The Polish ruling dynasty remained in control of the region.

Wrocław historic City Hall built in a typical 14th century Brick Gothic

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 in 1493. Documents of that time referred to the town by many variants of the name including Wratislaw, Bresslau and Presslau.

During much of the Middle Ages Wrocław was ruled by its dukes of the Silesian Piast dynasty. Although the city was not part of the Duchy's principality, its bishop was known as the prince-bishop ever since Bishop Preczlaus of Pogarell (1341-1376) bought the Duchy of Grodków (Grottkau) from Duke Boleslaw of Brzeg (Brieg) and added it to the episcopal territory of Nysa (Neisse), after which the Bishops of Wrocław had the titles of Prince of Neisse and Dukes of Grottkau, taking precedence over the other Silesian rulers.

Plac Solny (Salt Market)

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 of mixed Silesian, Bohemian, Moravian, and often of Polish ancestry, had become dominated by influx of German colonists and settlers throughout the centuries.
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 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

Town square and St. Elisabeth's Church
Centennial Hall in Wrocław
UNESCO World Heritage Site
The Hall.
CriteriaCultural: i, ii, iv
Reference1165
Inscription2006 (30th Session)
Department Store designed in 1912 by Hans Poelzig
Wroclaw Central Train Station

After the demise of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, Prussia, and the city, became a part of the German Confederation. In 1811 the Schlesische Friedrich-Wilhelm-Universität (Wrocław University) was re-established. In 1813 King Frederick William III of Prussia gave a speech in Breslau signalling Prussia's intent to join the Russian Empire against 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.

Due to increased ethnic tensions, in August 1920 during the pro-Polish Silesian Uprising, Germans devastated the local Polish school and the Polish library. In 1923 the city was a scene of antisemitic riots.[1] In 1933 the Gestapo began actions against Polish and Jewish students[2] who were issued special segregationist ID documents like those of Communists, Social Democrats, trade unionists, and other people deemed threats to the state. Notably, 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 pre-war 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 while Polish leaders who remained were sent to German concentration camps.[2]

Throughout most of World War II Breslau was not close to the fighting. The city became haven for refugees, swelling in population to nearly one million[4].

In February 1945 the Soviet Red Army approached the city. Nazi Gauleiter Karl Hanke declared the city Festung Breslau (fortress). Concentration camp prisoners were forced to help build new fortifications. In one area, the workers were ordered to construct a military airfield intended for use in resupplying the fortress, while the entire residential district along the Kaiserstraße (now Plac Grunwaldzki) was razed. The authorities threatened to shoot anyone who refused to do their assigned labour. Eyewitnesses estimated that some 13,000 died under enemy fire on the airfield alone. In the end, one of the very few planes that used it was that of the fleeing Gauleiter Hanke.[5]

Hanke finally lifted a ban on the evacuation of women and children, when it was almost too late. During his poorly organised evacuation in early March 1945, around 18,000 people 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 (1945), two-thirds of the city had been destroyed as a consequence of German resistance to Red Army attacks. 40,000 inhabitants including forced labourers lay dead in the ruins of homes and factories. After a siege of nearly three months, "Fortress Breslau" surrendered on May 7 1945. It was one of the last major cities in Nazi Germany to fall.[6]

Along with almost all of Lower Silesia, post-war Wrocław became part of Poland under the terms of the Potsdam Conference. Most remaining German inhabitants fled or were expelled to one of the two post-war German states between 1945 and 1949. However, as was the case 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.

The population of Wrocław was soon increased by resettlement of Poles forming part of postwar repatriation of Poles (1944–1946) (75%) as well as the forced deportations from Polish lands annexed by the Soviet Union in the east (25%) including from cities such as Lwów (now Lviv, Ukraine), Stanisławów (now Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine), Wilno (now Vilnius, Lithuania), and Grodno (now Hrodna, Belarus).

Gradually parts of the old city and most monumental buildings were restored,[7] with special attention given to symbols of Polish history and religion including Gothic churches. Buildings damaged during the war were dismantled together with some already reconstructed houses, which were taken down in the 1950s during the Polish government's campaign called “bricks for Warsaw”,[8] providing much needed reconstruction material for the leveled out Old Town of the Polish capital. During the reconstruction of the city some left-over buildings from Germanisation period were removed from the landscape of the city[9] while the Jewish cemetery was preserved.

Wrocław is now a unique European city of mixed heritage, with architecture influenced by Bohemian, Austrian, and Prussian traditions, such as Silesian Gothic and its Baroque style of court builders of Habsburg Austria (Fischer von Erlach). Wrocław still has a number of buildings by eminent German modernist architects (Hans Poelzig, Max Berg), famous Centennial Hall (Hala Stulecia or Jahrhunderthalle) by Berg (1911–1913) being one of its finest examples.

In July 1997, the city suffered a flood of the Oder River, the worst flooding in post-war Poland. Nearly the entire city stood under water leaving only a small part unaffected.[10] An earlier equally devastating flood of the river took place in 1903.[11]

Historical populations

Year 1800 1831 1850 1852 1880 1900 1910 1925 1933 1939
Inhabitants 64,500 89,500 114,000 121,100 272,900 422,700 510,000 555,200 625,198 629,565
Year 1946 [12] 1956 [13] 1960 1967 1970 1975 1980 1990 1999 2003
Inhabitants 171,000 400,000 431,800 487,700 526,000 579,900 617,700 640,577 650,000 638,000

Administration

Post-modernist Arcades Complex opened in spring 2007, housing offices, cinemas, shopping malls and even a sharks' aquarium
Aula Leopoldina.
Wrocław University.
Wrocław University of Technology.
Grunwaldzki bridge.
File:Poland Wrocław - Most Milenijny 3.jpg
Millennium bridge.

Wrocław is the capital city of Lower Silesian Voivodeship, a province (voivodeship) created in 1999. It was previously the seat of Wrocław Voivodeship. The city is a separate urban gmina and city county (powiat). It is also the seat of Wrocław County, which adjoins but does not include the city.

Wrocław is subdivided into five boroughs (dzielnicas):

Main sights

Education

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

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

  • Whirlpool Polar
  • Volvo Polska sp. z o.o., Wrocław
  • WABCO Polska, Wrocław
  • Siemens, Wrocław
  • Nokia Siemens Networks Sp z o.o
  • Hewlett Packard, Wrocław
  • Google, 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
  • Fortum Wrocław S.A., Wrocław
  • SAP Polska
  • Hologram Industries Polska
  • Zender sp. z o.o., Wrocław
  • MSI (Micro Star International) Polska Sp. z o. o.

Professional sports

File:Wroclaw rynek skating night small.jpg
Skating rink in Rynek (Market Square), December 2003.

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). Some matches of the 2012 UEFA European Football Championships in Poland and Ukraine are scheduled to take place in Wrocław.

Men's sports

Women's sports

Prominent residents

Breslau and surrounding villages (today: quarters of Wrocław) in 1900.
Source: http://www.breslau-wroclaw.de.

Including some who were not born in Wrocław/Breslau

Nobel laureates

listed by year of award

Twin towns and partnerships

Twin towns:

Partnership:

References

  1. ^ Davies, Moorhouse, p. 396; van Rahden, Juden, p. 323-26
  2. ^ a b c Davies, Moorhouse, p. 395
  3. ^ Kulak, p. 252
  4. ^ History of Wrocław
  5. ^ Davies, Moorhouse, p. 31
  6. ^ Festung Breslau (Wrocław Fortress) siege by the Soviet Army - photo gallery
  7. ^ Thum, Breslau passim.[citation needed]
  8. ^ Tyszkiewicz, Jakub ”Jak rozbierano Wroclaw” in Odra 1999/9, p 17 – 21.[citation needed]
  9. ^ Wlodzimierz Kalicki, Breslau - das Zuhause von Pawel und Malgorzata Transdora 17, October 1997. German: Agnieszka Pufelska, from Polish Gazeta Wyborcza 8 (Nr. 36 (132). September 1995.
  10. ^ 1997 great flood of Oder River - photo gallery
  11. ^ 1903 great flood of the Oder river - photo gallery
  12. ^ Immediately following Flight and expulsion of Germans from Poland during and after World War II
  13. ^ The surge in population is the result of Repatriation of Poles (1944–1946) and the subsequent forced deportation of Poles living in Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union

See also

General References

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

  • Encyklopedia Wrocławia. Wrocław 2001
  • Wrocław jego dzieje i 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
  • Kulak, Teresa (2006). "Wrocław". Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie. ISBN 97873844728. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: length (help)
  • Codex Diplomaticus Silesiae, Erster Theil: Breslauer Urkundenbuch. Breslau 1870
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wrocław.
Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Breslau".

Template:Poland

51°07′N 17°02′E / 51.117°N 17.033°E / 51.117; 17.033

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