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94-618: Borsig was born in Breslau ( Wrocław ), the son of cuirassier and carpenter foreman Johann George Borsig. After learning his father's trade, he first attended the Königliche Provinzial-Kunst- und Bauschule (Royal Provincial Art and Building school), then until fall of 1825 the Königliche Gewerbe-Institut (Royal Institute of Trade). He received his practical training in engine construction at

188-564: A West Slavic tribe, settled on the Oder river and erected a fortified gord on Ostrów Tumski . Wrocław originated at the intersection of two trade routes , the Via Regia and the Amber Road . Archeological research conducted in the city indicates that it was founded around 940. In 985, Duke Mieszko I of Poland conquered Silesia, and constructed new fortifcations on Ostrów. The town

282-591: A former suburb of Berlin. The works was inaugurated in 1898. The Tegel works area was one of the most modern facilities in Germany at that time. It had its own harbour where the ships brought the material for the locomotives. The works itself had long road with every production step at its place. The end of this production lane was the BORSIG Gate. The brand new locomotives left the works through this gate. The company also developed new products that are still part of

376-593: A fortress ( Festung ), to be held at all costs. An attempted evacuation of the city took place in January 1945, with 18,000 people freezing to death in icy snowstorms of −20 °C (−4 °F) weather. In February 1945, the Soviet Army approached the city and the German Luftwaffe began an airlift to the besieged garrison. A large area of the city centre was demolished and turned into an airfield by

470-673: A major centre of science; Johannes Brahms later wrote his Academic Festival Overture to thank the university for an honorary doctorate awarded in 1879. In 1821, the (Arch)Diocese of Breslau withdrew from dependence on the Polish archbishopric of Gniezno, and Breslau became an exempt see. In 1822, the Prussian police discovered the Polonia Polish youth resistance organization and carried out arrests of its members and searches of their homes. In 1848, many local Polish students joined

564-742: A migration background, making it one of the highest percentages alongside Gesundbrunnen , Neukölln , Kreuzberg and Wedding . Moabit is mentioned in countless books and films taking place in Germany or Berlin, primarily in reference to criminal court cases or incarcerations at the Central Criminal Court (Kriminalgericht) and detention centre. The district features briefly in Jonathan Franzen 's 2015 novel Purity and also extensively in Dan Fesperman's 2018 novel Safe Houses. The Berlin-based band No Nebraska! released

658-653: A mob. The number of Poles as a percentage of the total population fell to just 0.5% after the re-emergence of Poland as a state in 1918, when many moved to Poland. Antisemitic riots occurred in 1923. The city boundaries were expanded between 1925 and 1930 to include an area of 175 km (68 sq mi) with a population of 600,000. In 1929, the Werkbund opened WuWa ( German : Wohnungs- und Werkraumausstellung ) in Breslau-Scheitnig, an international showcase of modern architecture by architects of

752-476: A settlement belonging to Governor Piotr Włostowic (also known as Piotr Włast Dunin ) was built, and another on the left bank of the River Oder, near the present site of the university. While the city was largely Polish, it also had communities of Bohemians (Czechs), Germans , Walloons and Jews . In the 13th century, Wrocław was the political centre of the divided Polish kingdom. In April 1241, during

846-487: A sickness fund, a funeral expense fund, and a savings bank. His company had an instruction room, a dining room and a bath with swimming pool. Borsig had become sufficiently important by the end of the 1840s that he was able to weather the economic crisis of 1848-1852 with little damage. Starting 1851, foreign railway companies also began to order Borsig locomotives, among them the Warsaw-Vienna Railway and

940-493: A total of 16,352 locomotives was built in 1954. The rest of the company went to Rheinmetall. After World War II, the company was called Borsig AG, owned by Rheinmetall (as Rheinmetall-Borsig) and later by VIAG , a company owned by the German Federal Republic. In 1970, Borsig was sold to the private company Deutsche Babcock AG, later known as Babcock Borsig AG. In July 2002, Borsig had to reorganize due to

1034-866: A traditional, realistic picture of a pigeon, without an olive branch, was created on a napkin at the Monopol Hotel in Wrocław during the World Congress of Intellectuals in Defense of Peace . In 1963, Wrocław was declared a closed city because of a smallpox epidemic . In 1982, during martial law in Poland , the anti-communist underground organizations Fighting Solidarity and Orange Alternative were founded in Wrocław. Wrocław's dwarves , made of bronze, famously grew out of and commemorate Orange Alternative. In 1983 and 1997, Pope John Paul II visited

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1128-537: Is a university city with a student population of over 130,000, making it one of the most youth-oriented cities in the country. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the University of Wrocław , previously the German Breslau University, has produced nine Nobel Prize laureates and is renowned for its high quality of teaching. Wrocław also possesses numerous historical landmarks, including

1222-657: Is based in Moabit. The origin of the name Moabit is disputed. According to one account, it can be traced back to the Huguenots , in the time of King Frederick William I of Prussia . These French refugees are said to have named their new residence in reference to the Biblical description of the Israelites in the country of Moab , where they stayed before being allowed to enter Canaan . Other possible origins include

1316-459: Is based on a translation of the German article August Borsig , which cites the following references: Wroc%C5%82aw Wrocław ( Polish: [ˈvrɔt͡swaf] ; German : Breslau [ˈbʁɛslaʊ] ; also known by other names ) is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city and historical capital of the region of Silesia . It lies on the banks of

1410-800: The -Vr- sound being replaced over time by -Br- , and the suffix -slav- replaced with -slau- . These variations included Wrotizla , Vratizlau , Wratislau , Wrezlau , Breßlau or Bresslau among others. A Prussian description from 1819 mentions two names of the city – Polish and German – stating "Breslau (polnisch Wraclaw)”. In other languages, the city's name is: German : Breslau [ˈbʁɛslaʊ] ; Silesian German : Brassel ; Yiddish : ברעסלוי , romanized :  Bresloi ; Silesian : Wrocław ; modern Czech : Vratislav [ˈvracɪslaf] ; Hungarian : Boroszló [ˈborosloː] ; Hebrew : ורוצלב , romanized :  Vrotsláv ; and Latin : Wratislavia or Vratislavia . People born or resident in

1504-709: The Battle of Hundsfeld , stopping the German advance into Poland. The medieval chronicle, Gesta principum Polonorum (1112–1116) by Gallus Anonymus , named Wrocław, along with Kraków and Sandomierz , as one of three capitals of the Polish Kingdom. Also, the Tabula Rogeriana , a book written by the Arab geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi in 1154, describes Wrocław as one of the Polish cities, alongside Kraków, Gniezno , Sieradz , Łęczyca and Santok . By 1139,

1598-747: The Duchy of Silesia . One of the most important events during this period was the foundation of the Diocese of Wrocław in 1000. Along with the Bishoprics of Kraków and Kołobrzeg , Wrocław was placed under the Archbishopric of Gniezno in Greater Poland , founded by Pope Sylvester II through the intercession of Polish duke (and later king) Bolesław I the Brave and Emperor Otto III , during

1692-559: The Greater Poland uprising against Prussia. On 5 May 1848, a convention of Polish activists from the Prussian and Austrian partitions of Poland was held in the city. On 10 October 1854, the Jewish Theological Seminary opened. The institution was the first modern rabbinical seminary in Central Europe. In 1863 the brothers Karl and Louis Stangen founded the travel agency Stangen, the second travel agency in

1786-758: The Main Market Square , Cathedral Island , Wrocław Opera , the National Museum and the Centennial Hall , which is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site . The city is also home to the Wrocław Zoo , the oldest zoological garden in Poland. Wrocław is classified as a Sufficiency global city by GaWC . It is often featured in lists of the most livable places in the world, and was ranked 1st among all medium and small cities by fDi Intelligence in 2021. In 1989, 1995 and 2019 Wrocław hosted

1880-587: The Museum für Gegenwart . The Center for Art and Urbanism (ZK/U) is located on the grounds of the Stadtgarten Moabit, in the former Berlin-Moabit freight station. For a long time, Moabit was sparsely inhabited. Its population grew considerably after its incorporation into Berlin in 1861: Moabit's modern-day population is among Berlin's most diverse. As of 2022 , out of 84,148 inhabitants, 29,533 (35.10%) were non-German citizens. 46,113 (54.80%) had

1974-578: The Neue Berliner Eisengießerei (New Iron Foundry of Berlin) of F. A. Egells, where one of his first tasks was the assembly of a steam engine in Waldenburg , Silesia. After the successful completion of this task, Borsig was made factory manager for eight years. In 1828, he married Louise Pahl; they had one son, Albert. From early on, Borsig was a supporter of railroads. Despite the lack of experience with railroads in Germany and

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2068-641: The Oder River in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe , roughly 40 kilometres (25 mi) from the Sudeten Mountains to the south. As of 2023 , the official population of Wrocław is 674,132 making it the third largest city in Poland. The population of the Wrocław metropolitan area is around 1.25 million. Wrocław is the historical capital of Silesia and Lower Silesia . Today, it is

2162-670: The Polish Legion , but three Legions' envoys were arrested by the Germans in November 1914 and deported to Austria, and the organization soon ended its activities in the city. During the war, the Germans operated seven forced labour camps for Allied prisoners of war in the city. Following the war, Breslau became the capital of the newly created Prussian Province of Lower Silesia of the Weimar Republic in 1919. After

2256-681: The Seeländische Eisenbahn . After the 500th locomotive had been completed in 1854, Borsig was made Geheimer Kommerzienrat (Secret Commerce Councillor). This allowed him to tighten his monopoly position, and 67 of the 68 new Prussian locomotives in 1854 came from Borsig factories. Some years earlier, his magnificent villa in Berlin- Moabit had been completed, fulfilling a dream of Borsig's. However, he could not enjoy his wealth for very long. He died in Berlin on 6 July 1854, at

2350-703: The Seven Years' War at the Battle of Breslau , but they were unsuccessful. The Venetian Italian adventurer, Giacomo Casanova , stayed in Breslau in 1766. During the Napoleonic Wars , it was occupied by the Confederation of the Rhine army. The fortifications of the city were levelled, and monasteries and cloisters were seized. The Protestant Viadrina European University at Frankfurt an der Oder

2444-740: The Weimar Republic , the 20-year-old Communist activist Olga Benário and several of her comrades managed to break into Moabit's prison and free the incarcerated Otto "Li De" Braun , a prominent party member and at the time Benario's lover. Despite being hotly hunted, the two lovers succeeded in escaping to Moscow and later rose (separately) to prominence in the International Communist movement (in Brazil and China respectively). Between 1941 and 1945, around 1900 Jews were deported predominantly to Auschwitz , Theresienstadt or Minsk . Approximately as many survived by escaping abroad. After

2538-745: The Western Allies to place the southern Polish-German boundary on the Eastern Neisse , which meant post-war Germany would have been allowed to retain approximately half of Silesia, including those parts of Breslau that lay on the west bank of the Oder. However, the Soviet government insisted the border be drawn at the Lusatian Neisse farther west. The city's German inhabitants who had not fled, or who had returned to their home city after

2632-524: The first Mongol invasion of Poland , the city was abandoned by its inhabitants and burnt down for strategic reasons. During the battles with the Mongols Wrocław Castle was successfully defended by Henry II the Pious . In 1245, in Wrocław, Franciscan friar Benedict of Poland , considered one of the first Polish explorers, joined Italian diplomat Giovanni da Pian del Carpine , on his journey to

2726-481: The " separate system " of Pentonville Prison . In 1878 Max Hödel , who had shot at Emperor Wilhelm I of Germany , was beheaded here. Political activists like Karl Radek , Erich Mühsam and Musa Cälil were detained in Moabit. Wilhelm Voigt , the "Hauptmann von Köpenick", and the writer Wolfgang Borchert served their prison sentences in the prison. The vast building of the Criminal Court on Turmstraße

2820-580: The 125th anniversary of the German Wars of Liberation against Napoleon's invasion. During the invasion of Poland , which started World War II , in September 1939, the Germans carried out mass arrests of local Polish activists and banned Polish organizations, and the city was made the headquarters of the southern district of the Selbstschutz , whose task was to persecute Poles . For most of

2914-975: The European Youth Meetings of the Taizé Community , the Eucharistic Congress in 1997, and the 2012 European Football Championship . In 2016, the city was a European Capital of Culture and the World Book Capital . Also in that year, Wrocław hosted the Theatre Olympics , World Bridge Games and the European Film Awards . In 2017, the city was host to the IFLA Annual Conference and the World Games . In 2019, it

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3008-468: The German ( Berlin dialect ) "Moorjebiet" (swamp area). In the 13th century the waste area along the road to Spandau known as Grosse Stadtheide ("great city heath ") was a hunting ground of the electors of Brandenburg . Settlement began in 1685 with the erection of the Staakensetzerhaus at the western border of what is now Moabit. 1716 saw the formation of the colony of Old Moabit by

3102-663: The German Empire, Breslau eventually became one of the strongest support bases of the Nazi Party , which in the 1932 elections received 44% of the city's vote, their third-highest total in all Germany. After Hitler 's appointment as German Chancellor in 1933, political enemies of the Nazis were persecuted, and their institutions closed or destroyed. KZ Dürrgoy , one of the first concentration camps in Nazi Germany ,

3196-639: The Gniezno Congress. In the years 1034–1038 the city was affected by the pagan reaction in Poland . The city became a commercial centre and expanded to Wyspa Piasek (Sand Island), and then onto the left bank of the River Oder . Around 1000, the town had about 1,000 inhabitants. In 1109 during the Polish-German war , Prince Bolesław III Wrymouth defeated the King of Germany Henry V at

3290-403: The Huguenots, who were meant to cultivate white mulberry trees for silkworms , but failed because of the low soil quality. In 1818 New Moabit was founded and grew together with Old Moabit to an industrial suburb district, which was incorporated into the city of Berlin in 1861. The industrialization started in 1820 when, with the financial support of court counsellor Baillif, a simple bridge

3384-443: The Silesian branch of the Werkbund. In June 1930, Breslau hosted the Deutsche Kampfspiele , a sporting event for German athletes after Germany was excluded from the Olympic Games after World War I. The number of Jews remaining in Breslau fell from 23,240 in 1925 to 10,659 in 1933. Up to the beginning of World War II, Breslau was the largest city in Germany east of Berlin . Known as a stronghold of left wing liberalism during

3478-416: The Wrocław bishops. In the 16th century, the Breslauer Schöps beer style was created in Breslau. The Protestant Reformation reached the city in 1518 and it converted to the new rite. However, starting in 1526 Silesia was ruled by the Catholic House of Habsburg . In 1618, it supported the Bohemian Revolt out of fear of losing the right to religious freedom . During the ensuing Thirty Years' War ,

3572-402: The building of the domes of the Nicolai Church in Potsdam and the Berliner Stadtschloss (Berlin City Palace). The company was expanding rapidly in those years, since new railways were being built all over Germany. In 1847, construction of the new Moabit ironworks started and they became operational in 1849. The machine factory and iron foundry in Kirchstraße was bought in 1850, and this put

3666-399: The campaign which ended at the Battle of Leipzig . The Confederation of the Rhine had increased prosperity in Silesia and in the city. The removal of fortifications opened room for the city to expand beyond its former limits. Breslau became an important railway hub and industrial centre, notably for linen and cotton manufacture and the metal industry. The reconstructed university served as

3760-429: The capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship . The history of the city dates back over 1,000 years; at various times, it has been part of the Kingdom of Poland , the Kingdom of Bohemia , the Kingdom of Hungary , the Habsburg monarchy of Austria, the Kingdom of Prussia and Germany , until it became again part of Poland in 1945 as the result of territorial changes of Poland immediately after World War II . Wrocław

3854-438: The centre of German Baroque literature and was home to the First and Second Silesian school of poets. In 1742, the Schlesische Zeitung was founded in Breslau. In the 1740s the Kingdom of Prussia annexed the city and most of Silesia during the War of the Austrian Succession . Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa ceded most of the territory in the Treaty of Breslau in 1742 to Prussia. Austria attempted to recover Silesia during

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3948-408: The city are known as " Wrocławians " or "Vratislavians" ( Polish : wrocławianie ). The now little-used German equivalent is " Breslauer ." In ancient times, there was a place called Budorigum at or near the site of Wrocław. It was already mapped on Claudius Ptolemy 's map of AD 142–147. Settlements in the area existed from the 6th century onward during the migration period . The Ślężans ,

4042-462: The city at the time at 20,000 to 30,000. The population was 58% Protestant, 37% Catholic (including at least 2% Polish) and 5% Jewish (totaling 20,536 in the 1905 census). The Jewish community of Breslau was among the most important in Germany, producing several distinguished artists and scientists. From 1912, the head of the university's Department of Psychiatry and director of the Clinic of Psychiatry ( Königlich Psychiatrischen und Nervenklinik )

4136-416: The city was occupied by Saxon and Swedish troops and lost thousands of inhabitants to the plague . The Emperor brought in the Counter-Reformation by encouraging Catholic orders to settle in the city, starting in 1610 with the Franciscans , followed by the Jesuits , then Capuchins , and finally Ursuline nuns in 1687. These orders erected buildings that shaped the city's appearance until 1945. At

4230-407: The city's defenses. Important landmarks were inaugurated in 1910, the Kaiser bridge (today Grunwald Bridge ) and the Technical University , which now houses the Wrocław University of Technology . The 1900 census listed 98% of the population as German-speakers, with 5,363 Polish-speakers (1.3%), and 3,103 (0.7%) as bilingual in German and Polish, although some estimates put the number of Poles in

4324-440: The city's name as Wrotizlava and Wrotizlaensem , characteristic of Old Polish -ro-, unlike Old Czech -ra- . In the Polish language , the city's name Wrocław derives from the given name Wrocisław , which is the Polish equivalent of the Czech Vratislav. Also, the earliest variations of this name in the Old Polish language would have used the letter l instead of the modern Polish ł . The Old Czech language version of

4418-449: The city, as well as Polish slave labourers, organised a resistance group called Olimp . The organisation gathered intelligence, carrying out sabotage and organising aid for Polish slave workers. In September 1941 the city's 10,000 Jews were expelled from their homes and soon deported to concentration camps. Few survived the Holocaust . As the war continued, refugees from bombed-out German cities, and later refugees from farther east, swelled

4512-399: The city, so that today the proportion of the Polish population compared to that of the Germans is the reverse of what it was a hundred years ago. Traces of the German past, such as inscriptions and signs, were removed. In 1948, Wrocław organized the Recovered Territories Exhibition and the World Congress of Intellectuals in Defense of Peace . Picasso 's lithograph, La Colombe (The Dove),

4606-499: The city. PTV Echo, the first non-state television station in Poland and in the post-communist countries, began to broadcast in Wrocław on 6 February 1990. In May 1997, Wrocław hosted the 46th International Eucharistic Congress . Moabit Moabit ( German: [moaˈbiːt] ) is an inner city locality in the borough of Mitte , Berlin , Germany. As of 2022, about 84,000 people lived in Moabit. First inhabited in 1685 and incorporated into Berlin in 1861,

4700-420: The city. After the outbreak of the uprising in 1863, the Prussian police carried out mass searches of Polish homes, especially those of Poles who had recently come to the city. The city's inhabitants, both Poles and Germans, excluding the German aristocracy, largely sympathized with the uprising, and some Germans even joined local Poles in their secret activities. In June 1863 the city was officially confirmed as

4794-427: The current manufacturing program: pressure vessels and compressors. The Great Depression made an end the success of BORSIG as a private company. By 1930, the company was on the verge of liquidation , the locomotive business was saved by a merger with AEG . Borsig built a number of famous locomotives, among which was the world speed record holder DRG Class 05 , the first steam locomotive to hit 200 km/h. The last of

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4888-445: The death of Henry VI the Good , to John of Luxembourg . His son Emperor Charles IV in 1348 formally incorporated the city into the Holy Roman Empire . Between 1342 and 1344, two fires destroyed large parts of the city. In 1387 the city joined the Hanseatic League . On 5 June 1443, the city was rocked by an earthquake, estimated at magnitude 6, which destroyed or seriously damaged many of its buildings. Between 1469 and 1490, Wrocław

4982-412: The defenders. By the end of the three-month siege in May 1945, half the city had been destroyed. Breslau was the last major city in Germany to surrender, capitulating only two days before the end of the war in Europe. Civilian deaths amounted to as many as 80,000. In August the Soviets placed the city under the control of German communists . Following the Yalta Conference held in February 1945, where

5076-484: The end of the Thirty Years' War, however, it was one of only a few Silesian cities to stay Protestant. The Polish Municipal school opened in 1666 and lasted until 1766. Precise record-keeping of births and deaths by the city fathers led to the use of their data for analysis of mortality, first by John Graunt and then, based on data provided to him by Breslau professor Caspar Neumann , by Edmond Halley . Halley's tables and analysis, published in 1693, are considered to be

5170-479: The first true actuarial tables, and thus the foundation of modern actuarial science . During the Counter-Reformation, the intellectual life of the city flourished, as the Protestant bourgeoisie lost some of its dominance to the Catholic orders as patrons of the arts. One of two main routes connecting Warsaw and Dresden ran through the city in the 18th century and Kings Augustus II the Strong and Augustus III of Poland often traveled that route. The city became

5264-407: The focus soon shifted to locomotive building, and the name Borsig is connected with locomotives to this day. By 1843, railway companies in Prussia had ordered 18 locomotives, and in 1844, Borsig could exhibit his 24th locomotive at the Berlin industrial fair. The one hundredth locomotive was finished in 1846. Meanwhile, Borsig built the steam pump for the fountain at Sanssouci and participated in

5358-408: The forced deportations from Polish lands annexed by the Soviet Union in the east region, some of whom came from Lviv ( Lwów ), Volhynia , and the Vilnius Region . However, despite the prime role given to re-settlers from the Kresy , in 1949, only 20% of the new Polish population actually were refugees themselves. A small German minority (about 1,000 people, or 2% of the population) remains in

5452-515: The former industrial and working-class neighbourhood is fully surrounded by three watercourses, which define its present-day border. Between 1945 and 1990, Moabit was part of the British sector of West Berlin and directly bordered East Berlin . Until the administrative reform in 2001, Moabit was a part of the district of Tiergarten . Colloquially, the name Moabit also refers to the Central Criminal Court ( Strafgericht ) and detention centre, which deals with all criminal cases in Berlin and

5546-433: The foundry. Despite tremendous costs, the first locomotive, bearing factory number 1 and the name BORSIG, was finished in 1840. This locomotive had an interior frame, a two-axle front pivoted bogie and an extra dead axle behind the only drive axle. On 21 July 1840, Borsig let it compete against a Stephenson -built locomotive on the Berlin-Jüterbog railroad . The Borsig locomotive won by 10 minutes, proving that in spite of

5640-456: The fourth camp. Many prisoners died, and the remaining were evacuated to the main camp of Gross-Rosen in January 1945. There were also three subcamps of the Stalag VIII-B/344 prisoner-of-war camp , and two Nazi prisons in the city, including a youth prison, with multiple forced labour subcamps. In 1945, the city became part of the front lines and was the site of the brutal Siege of Breslau . Adolf Hitler had in 1944 declared Breslau to be

5734-504: The height of his power. After the death of August Borsig, the company was led and expanded by his son August Julius Albert Borsig . On the occasion of the completion of the 1000th locomotive, a large celebration with many prominent guests was held, among them the explorer Alexander von Humboldt . At this time, the company that had started out with 50 workers, had 2800 employees. It continued its expansion, and moved some part of its production to Zabrze in Silesia in 1862. In 1872, Borsig

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5828-410: The insolvency of its parent company, Babcock Borsig AG, Oberhausen. In 2004, Borsig bought ZM Zwickauer Maschinenfabrik, a manufacturer of reciprocating compressors and blowers, today known as BORSIG ZM Compression GmbH, situated in Meerane/Saxony. In 2006, Borsig bought the industrial boiler manufacturer DIM KWE, today BORSIG Boiler Systems GmbH. Today the BORSIG Group consists of six companies: In 2008

5922-430: The isolation of the tuberculosis bacterium. A teaching hospital from 1920 on, the Krankenhaus Moabit employed notable physicians like the Nobel Laureate Werner Forssmann , Lydia Rabinowitsch-Kempner and the resistance fighter Georg Groscurth . A first prison, the Zellengefängnis (Cell Prison) on Lehrter Strasse was built between 1842 and 1849 by order of King Frederick William IV of Prussia , according to

6016-421: The junction of the Via Regia and the Amber Road. With the influx of settlers, the town expanded and in 1242 came under German town law . The city council used both Latin and German , and the early forms of the name Breslau , the German name of the city, appeared for the first time in its written records. Polish gradually ceased to be used in the town books, while it survived in the courts until 1337, when it

6110-533: The lack of experience, Germans could build locomotives that were at least as good as the British models, and so the import of locomotives and engineers was no longer necessary. After this victory, the number of orders rose quickly. A further six machines of this type were sold to the Berlin-Stettiner Eisenbahn and the Oberschlesische Eisenbahn in 1842. In the beginning, the Borsig company also built steam engines for their own needs and machines for other companies as well as cast parts for art and construction. However,

6204-412: The name was used in Latin documents, as Vratislavia or Wratislavia . The city's first municipal seal was inscribed with Sigillum civitatis Wratislavie . By the 15th century, the Early New High German variations of the name, Breslau , first began to be used. Despite the noticeable differences in spelling, the numerous German forms were still based on the original West Slavic name of the city, with

6298-402: The nearby village of Muchobór Wielki (present-day a district of Wrocław), and in December 1474 a ceasefire was signed according to which the city remained under Hungarian rule. The following year was marked by the publication in Wrocław of the Statuta Synodalia Episcoporum Wratislaviensium (1475) by Kasper Elyan, the first ever incunable in Polish, containing the proceedings and prayers of

6392-425: The new geopolitics of Central Europe were decided, the terms of the Potsdam Conference decreed that along with almost all of Lower Silesia, the city would again become part of Poland in exchange for Poland's loss of the city of Lwów along with the massive territory of Kresy in the east, which was annexed by the Soviet Union . The Polish name of Wrocław was declared official. There had been discussion among

6486-401: The population and the subsequent construction of tenements in Moabit and neighbouring Wedding , facilitating the spread of a smallpox epidemic. In consequence, Berlin's city council, exhorted to do so by Rudolf Virchow , built a second hospital (after the Charité ), the Krankenhaus Moabit in 1872. In the 1880s, Robert Koch worked here on the sterilization of surgical instruments and

6580-583: The population to nearly one million, including 51,000 forced labourers in 1944, and 9,876 Allied PoWs. At the end of 1944 an additional 30,000–60,000 Poles were moved into the city after the Germans crushed the Warsaw Uprising . During the war the Germans operated four subcamps of the Gross-Rosen concentration camp in the city. Approximately 3,400–3,800 men were imprisoned in three subcamps, among them Poles, Russians , Italians , Frenchmen , Ukrainians , Czechs , Belgians , Yugoslavs , Dutchmen , Chinese , and about 1,500 Jewish women were imprisoned in

6674-427: The region, the city council's ability to govern independently had increased. In 1274 prince Henry IV Probus gave the city its staple right . In the 13th century, two Polish monarchs were buried in Wrocław churches founded by them, Henry II the Pious in the St. Vincent church and Henryk IV Probus in the Holy Cross church . Wrocław, which for 350 years had been mostly under Polish hegemony , fell in 1335, after

6768-521: The risks involved in the founding of a railroad machinery manufacturing company, Borsig used his savings to buy a site in Berlin at Chausseestraße (in the Feuerland ) near the Oranienburger Tor , neighboring his old company's factory, and founded his own machine factory, focusing on locomotives . The founding date was declared to be 22 July 1837, the day of the first successful casting in

6862-493: The seat of secret Polish insurgent authorities. In January 1864, the Prussian police arrested a number of members of the Polish insurgent movement. The Unification of Germany in 1871 turned Breslau into the sixth-largest city in the German Empire . Its population more than tripled to over half a million between 1860 and 1910. The 1900 census listed 422,709 residents. In 1890, construction began of Breslau Fortress as

6956-577: The seat of the Mongol Khan near Karakorum , the capital of the Mongol Empire , in what is considered the first such journey by Europeans. After the Mongol invasion the town was partly populated by German settlers who, in the ensuing centuries, gradually became its dominant population. The city, however, retained its multi-ethnic character, a reflection of its importance as a trading post on

7050-418: The total number of employees at the three Berlin factories at 1800, making Borsig's company one of the large-scale enterprises of its time. The increasing number of orders also increased Borsig's private wealth, and he soon became a rich entrepreneur who was not averse to splendor and a patron for many artists. August Borsig was said to be a strict but just boss with a zest for action. For his workers, he set up

7144-596: The war had ended, were expelled between 1945 and 1949 in accordance to the Potsdam Agreement and were settled in the Soviet occupation zone or in the Allied Occupation Zones in the remainder of Germany. The city's last pre-war German school was closed in 1963. The Polish population was dramatically increased by the resettlement of Poles, partly due to postwar population transfers during

7238-786: The war the Polish community began holding masses in Polish at the Church of Saint Anne, and, as of 1921, at St. Martin's and a Polish School was founded by Helena Adamczewska. In 1920 a Polish consulate was opened on the Main Square. In August 1920, during the Polish Silesian Uprising in Upper Silesia , the Polish Consulate and School were destroyed, while the Polish Library was burned down by

7332-998: The war, between 1945 and 1990, Moabit was part of the British sector of West Berlin . Due to its new peripheral location adjacent to the Berlin Wall , Moabit became a remote neighbourhood. Similar to Kreuzberg, it attracted mostly immigrants due to its low rents. With the fall of the Berlin Wall, Moabit's location has anew changed to its former centrality. Post-reunification, Moabit has faced problems such as drug trafficking and abuse (especially around Kleiner Tiergarten ), poverty (most notably in its Western parts), and crime. Similar to neighbouring Wedding, lower rents have recently attracted artists and young people, and there are first unmistakable signs of gentrification . At its eastern edge, bordering Mitte, Moabit's neoclassical train station now serves as Berlin's contemporary art museum,

7426-412: The war, the fighting did not affect the city. During the war, the Germans opened the graves of medieval Polish monarchs and local dukes to carry out anthropological research for propaganda purposes, wanting to demonstrate German " racial purity ." The remains were transported to other places by the Germans, and they have not been found to this day. In 1941 the remnants of the pre-war Polish minority in

7520-817: The whole BORSIG Group got a new owner, the KNM Group Berhad, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The actual product and service programme of the BORSIG Group consists of pressure vessels, heat exchangers, process gas waste heat recovery systems, quench coolers, scraped surface exchangers, reciprocating compressors for process gases, turbo compressors for process gases, reciprocating compressors for CNG filling stations, blowers and blowers systems, compressor valves, membrane technologies, such as emission control units, vapour recovery systems, gas conditioning, advanced separations, industrial boilers, power plant engineering, power plant services and industrial services. This article

7614-859: The world. The city was an important centre of the Polish secret resistance movement and the seat of a Polish uprising committee before and during the January Uprising of 1863–1864 in the Russian Partition of Poland. Local Poles took part in Polish national mourning after the Russian massacre of Polish protesters in Warsaw in February 1861, and also organized several patriotic Polish church services throughout 1861. Secret Polish correspondence, weapons, and insurgents were transported through

7708-525: Was Alois Alzheimer and, that same year, professor William Stern introduced the concept of IQ . In 1913, the newly built Centennial Hall housed an exhibition commemorating the 100th anniversary of the historical German Wars of Liberation against Napoleon and the first award of the Iron Cross . The Centennial Hall was built by Max Berg (1870–1947), since 2006 it is part of the world heritage of UNESCO. The central station (by Wilhelm Grapow, 1857)

7802-540: Was banned by the new rulers, the German-speaking House of Luxembourg . The enlarged town covered around 60 hectares (150 acres), and the new main market square , surrounded by timber-frame houses, became the trade centre of the town. The original foundation, Ostrów Tumski , became its religious centre. The city gained Magdeburg rights in 1261. While the Polish Piast dynasty remained in control of

7896-750: Was built to connect the island to the Berlin mainland. The bridge was followed by factories, a power plant, the Berlin-Spandau Canal, the Westhafen port and the Hamburger Bahnhof train station which connected Berlin with Hamburg . A network of streets was laid out in the Hobrecht-Plan in an area that came to be known architecturally as the Wilhelmine Ring . All of that activity resulted in an exponential growth of

7990-741: Was erected in 1906. In 1909, architect Peter Behrens built the AEG 's Turbine factory at the north-western Huttenstraße , one of the first works of Modern architecture . Large parts of Moabit are traditional working-class residential areas. Some areas were known for their political activity during the Nazi era, such as the Red Beusselkiez or the neighbouring Rostock Kiez . After the Nazi Machtergreifung in 1933 they were considered Communist resistance cells. On 11 April 1928, during

8084-549: Was established around Breslau to serve industrial concerns, including FAMO , Junkers , and Krupp . Tens of thousands of forced laborers were imprisoned there. The last big event organized by the National Socialist League of the Reich for Physical Exercise , called Deutsches Turn-und-Sportfest (Gym and Sports Festivities), took place in Breslau from 26 to 31 July 1938. The Sportsfest was held to commemorate

8178-629: Was mentioned by Thietmar explicitly in the year 1000 AD in connection with its promotion to an episcopal see during the Congress of Gniezno . During Wrocław's early history, control over it changed hands between the Duchy of Bohemia (1038–1054), the Duchy of Poland and the Kingdom of Poland (985–1038 and 1054–1320). Following the fragmentation of the Kingdom of Poland , the Piast dynasty ruled

8272-460: Was named a UNESCO City of Literature . The origin of the city's name is disputed. The city was believed to be named after Duke Vratislav I of Bohemia from the Czech Přemyslid dynasty , who supposedly ruled the region between 915 and 921. However, modern scholars and historians dispute this theory; recent archeological studies prove that even if Vratislav once ruled over the area, the city

8366-466: Was not founded until at least 20 years after his death. They suggest that the founder of the city might have simply been a local prince who only shared the popular West Slavic name with the Bohemian Duke. Further evidence against Czech origin is that the oldest surviving documents containing the recorded name, such as the chronicle of Thietmar of Merseburg from the early 11th century, records

8460-510: Was one of the biggest in Germany and one of the first stations with electrified railway services. Since 1900 modern department stores like Barasch (today "Feniks") or Petersdorff (built by architect Erich Mendelsohn) were erected. During World War I , in 1914, a branch of the Organizacja Pomocy Legionom ("Legion Assistance Organization") operated in the city with the goal of gaining support and recruiting volunteers for

8554-470: Was part of the Kingdom of Hungary , and king Matthias Corvinus was said to have had a Vratislavian mistress who bore him a son. In 1474, after almost a century, the city left the Hanseatic League. Also in 1474, the city was besieged by combined Polish-Czech forces. However, in November 1474, Kings Casimir IV of Poland , his son Vladislaus II of Bohemia , and Matthias Corvinus of Hungary met in

8648-483: Was relocated to Breslau in 1811, and united with the local Jesuit University to create the new Silesian Frederick-William University ( German : Schlesische Friedrich-Wilhelm-Universität , now the University of Wrocław ). The city became a centre of the German Liberation movement against Napoleon, and a gathering place for volunteers from all over Germany. The city was the centre of Prussian mobilisation for

8742-618: Was set up in the city in 1933. The Gestapo began actions against Polish and Jewish students (see: Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau ), Communists , Social Democrats , and trade unionists . Arrests were made for speaking Polish in public, and in 1938 the Nazi-controlled police destroyed the Polish cultural centre. In June 1939, Polish students were expelled from the university. Also many other people seen as "undesirable" by Nazi Germany were sent to concentration camps . A network of concentration camps and forced labour camps

8836-789: Was the largest locomotive producer in Europe. Albert Borsig co-founded the Maschinenfabrik Deutschland on the Köln-Mindener Eisenbahn line in Dortmund but the most successful chapter in the Borsig business history ended with Albert's death in 1878. The company continued to be led mostly by Borsig family members and continued to build large numbers of locomotives, but it began to lose market share to other traffic-related companies. The company moved to Tegel,

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