Gliwice
Gliwice (pronounce:
 |
Ltspkr.png |
[gli'viʦε] in
Polish,
German:
Gleiwitz), is an industrial city in southern
Poland with 200,361 inhabitants (
2004) over the
Kłodnica River, about 20 km to the west from
Katowice. While it was situated in the
Katowice Voivodeship from
1975-
1998, Gliwice has been situated in the
Silesian Voivodeship since
1999.
Late Middle Ages
Gliwice was first mentioned as a town in
1276 and was ruled during the
Middle Ages by the
Silesian
Piast dukes. It became a possession of the
Bohemia crown in
1335, passing with that crown to the
Austrian
Habsburgs in
1526.
Early Modern Age
Because of the vast expenses incurred by the
Habsburg Monarchy during their
16th century wars against the
Ottoman Empire, Gliwice was
leased to
Friedrich Zettritz for the meager amount of 14,000
thalers. Although the original lease was for a duration of 18 years, it was renewed in
1580 for 10 years and in
1589 for an additional 18 years.
During the
Silesian Wars fought from
1740-
1746 and then again from
1757-
1763, Gliwice was taken from Austria by the
Kingdom of Prussia along with the majority of Silesia. After the end of the
Napoleonic Wars, Gleiwitz was administered in the Prussian Tost-Gleiwitz
Landkreis ("district") in
1816. The city was incorporated with Prussia into the
German Empire in
1871. In
1897 Gleiwitz became its own Stadtkreis, or urban district.
Industrialization
Gleiwitz began to develop into a major city through
industrialization during the
19th century. The town's
ironworks fostered the growth of other industrial fields in the area. During the latter 19th century Gleiwitz had:
*14
distilleries*2
breweries*5
mills,
*7
brick factories*3
sawmills
*a
shingle factory
*8
chalk factories
*2
glassworks.
Other features of the 19th century industrialized Gleiwitz were a
gasworks, a
furnace factory, a beer
bottling company, and a plant for
asphalt and
paste. Economically, Gleiwitz opened several
banks,
Savings and loan associations, and
bond centers. Its
tram system was completed in
1892, while its
theater was opened in
1899; until
World War II, Gleiwitz' theatre featured
actors from through Europe and was one of the most famous theatres of entire
Germany. The city's population in
1875 was 14,156.
20th century
According to the
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica, Gleiwitz's population in
1905 was 61,324. By
1911 it had two
Protestant and four
Roman Catholic churches, a
synagogue, a mining school, a
convent, a
hospital, two
orphanages, and a
barracks. Gleiwitz was the center of the
mining industry of
Upper Silesia. It possessed a royal
foundry, with which were connected machine manufactories and boiilerworks. Other industrialized areas of the city had other foundries, meal mills, and manufactories producing wire, gas pipes, cement, and paper.
After the end of
World War I, ethnic clashes between
Poles and
Germans occurred during the
Silesian Uprisings as some Polish inhabitants of Upper Silesia and Gleiwitz tried to separate Upper Silesia from Germany by their violent agitation to become a part of the new Polish state. Because of these three different Polish uprisings and ethnic German resistance against them, the
League of Nations held a
plebiscite on
March 20 1921 to determine which country Gleiwitz should belong to. Germany received 32,029 votes (78.7% of given votes), Poland received 8,558 (21.0%), and 113 (0.3%) votes were declared invalid. Total voter turnout was, at least according to Polish rumours, fraudently listed as 97.0%. The League of Nations determined that Gleiwitz would remain in Germany, as opposed to nearby
Katowice (Kattowitz) which joined the newly found Poland.
A staged
attack on a radio station in Gleiwitz on
August 31,
1939 served as a pretext for
Nazi Germany to invade Poland, thus starting
World War II. Following World War II, Gliwice became a part of Poland and became part of the
Silesian-Dabrowa Voivodeship in
1946. The ethnic
German population was forcibly expulsed to what remained of German territory after the
Potsdam Conference. Many
ethnic Germans were killed in the process of deportation.
Gliwice is a hometown of
*
Silesian University of Technology (
Politechnika Śląska)
*
Akademia Polonijna in
Częstochowa, branch in Gliwice
*
Gliwice College of Entrepreneurship (
Gliwicka Wyższa Szkoła Przedsiębiorczości)
*
Polish Academy of Sciences (
Polska Akademia Nauk):
** Institute of Theoretical And Applied
Computer Science,
** Institute of
Chemical Engineering and
** Carbochemy branch.
 |
Piast Gliwice, Polish football club |
*
Piast Gliwice - men's
football team playing in 2nd league 2003/2004 and 2004/2005)
* Carbo Gliwice - men's
football team,
*
Sośnica Gliwice - women's
handball team playing in
Polish Ekstraklasa Women's Handball League: 10th place in 2003/2004 season.
*
Richard Fritz Behrendt, German sociologist
*
Horst Bienek, German author of novels about
Upper Silesia*
Wolfgang Bittner, German author
*
William Blandowski, zoologist
*
Lothar Bolz, foreign affairs minister of the communist
German Democratic Republic*
Jerzy Buzek, professor of chemistry, prime minister of Poland
1997-
2001,
MEP since 2004
*
Walther Busse von Colbe, German economist
*
Gottfried Bermann Fischer, German publisher
*
Eugen Goldstein, German scientist
*
Alfred Hauptmann, German psychiatrist and neurologist of Jewish origin
*
Rudolf Herrnstadt, German
communist*
Hans Kneifel, German author
*
Richard Kubus, German football player
*
Emanuel Larisch, German communist politician
*
Paul Latussek, Vice-president of the
Association of German expellees (1992-2001)
*
Monika Lindner, director of the Austrian television
ORF*
Gustav Richard Ludwig Neumann, German chess player
*
Lukas Podolski, German (Polish born) soccer player
*
Tadeusz Rozewicz, Polish poet and writer
*
Oskar Troplowitz, farmacist and owner of
Nivea skin creams
*
Leo Yankevich, poet and translator
*
Agnes Wabnitz, feminist
*
Richard Wetz, composer
*
Jerzy Ziętek, Polish statesman
*
Christoph Zöpel, German politician (
SPD)
Bytom/Gliwice/Zabrze constituency
Members of Parliament (
Sejm) elected from Bytom/Gliwice/Zabrze constituency
* Chojnacki Jan, SLD-UP
* Dulias Stanisław, Samoobrona
* Gałażewski Andrzej, PO
* Janik Ewa, SLD-UP
* Kubica Józef, SLD-UP
* Martyniuk Wacław, SLD-UP
* Okoński Wiesław, SLD-UP
* Szarama Wojciech, PiS
* Szumilas Krystyna, PO
* Widuch Marek, SLD-UP
Municipal politics
to be written yet
The
Gliwice Radio Tower of
Radiostacja Gliwicka ("Radio Station Gliwice") is the only remaining radio tower of wood construction in the world, and with a height of 118 metres, is perhaps the tallest remaining construction made out of wood in the world.
Gliwice Trynek narrow-gauge station is a protected monument. The narrow-gauge line to Raciborz via Rudy closed in 1991 although a short section still remains as a museum line.
Gliwice is
twinned with the following cities:
*
Bottrop, Germany
*
Dessau, Germany
*
Doncaster, England
*
Kežmarok, Slovakia
*
Nacka, Sweden
*
Salgótarján, Hungary
*
Valenciennes, France
* Boleslaw Domanski (2000) "The Impact of Spatial and Social Qualities on the Reproduction of Local Economic Success: The Case of the Path Dependent Development of Gliwice", in: Prace Geograficne, zesyt 106, Cracow, pp 35-54.
* B. Nietsche,
Geschichte der Stadt Gleiwitz (1886)
* Seidel,
Die königliche Eisengiesserei zu Gleiwitz (Berlin, 1896)
* http://www.um.gliwice.pl
* http://www.gliwice.uc.gov.pl
* http://www.polsl.pl
* http://www.gliwice.pl
* http://www.gliwice.zobacz.slask.pl
