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70-549: Pringsheim is a Jewish Silesian surname. Notable people with the surname include: Alfred Pringsheim (1850–1941), mathematician, father-in-law of writer Thomas Mann Ernst Pringsheim Sr. (1859–1917), German physicist Ernst Pringsheim Jr. (1881–1970), German botanist Klaus Pringsheim Sr. (1883–1972), German composer, conductor, twin brother of Katharina Pringsheim Nathanael Pringsheim (1823–1894), German botanist [REDACTED] Surname list This page lists people with

140-612: A fee for areas once resigned by Bretislaus I. In 1147, the Bohemian duke, Vladislaus II , accompanied the German king, Conrad III , on the Second Crusade , but halted his march at Constantinople . Thanks to his military support against northern Italian cities (especially Milan ) for the emperor Frederick Barbarossa , Vladislaus was elected king of Bohemia on 11 January 1158, becoming the second Bohemian king. The Duchy earned

210-537: A geographical term, probably derived from the Celtic (Gallic) Boii tribes, first appeared in 9th-century Frankish sources. In 805, Emperor Charlemagne prepared to conquer the lands, invading Bohemia in 805 and laying siege to the fortress of Canburg . However, the Czech forces shirked from open battle and retired into the deep forests to launch guerilla attacks. After forty days the emperor had to withdraw his forces for

280-656: A majority ethnic Polish population, was awarded to Poland, becoming the Silesian Voivodeship . The Prussian Province of Silesia within Germany was then divided into the provinces of Lower Silesia and Upper Silesia . Meanwhile, Austrian Silesia , the small portion of Silesia retained by Austria after the Silesian Wars , was mostly awarded to the new Czechoslovakia (becoming known as Czech Silesia and Trans-Olza ), although most of Cieszyn and territory to

350-576: A network of forced labour camps solely for Poles ( Polenlager ), subcamps of prisons, POW camps and of the Gross-Rosen and Auschwitz concentration camps. The Potsdam Conference of 1945 defined the Oder-Neisse line as the border between Germany and Poland, pending a final peace conference with Germany which eventually never took place. At the end of WWII, Germans in Silesia fled from

420-1011: A new mixed Polish dialect and novel costumes . There is ongoing debate about whether the Silesian language , common in Upper Silesia, should be considered a dialect of Polish or a separate language. The Lower Silesian German dialect is nearing extinction due to its speakers' expulsion. The names of Silesia in different languages most likely share their etymology— Polish : Śląsk [ɕlɔ̃sk] ; German : Schlesien [ˈʃleːzi̯ən] ; Czech : Slezsko [ˈslɛsko] ; Lower Silesian : Schläsing ; Silesian : Ślōnsk [ɕlonsk] ; Lower Sorbian : Šlazyńska [ˈʃlazɨnʲska] ; Upper Sorbian : Šleska [ˈʃlɛska] ; Slovak : Sliezsko ; Kashubian : Sląsk ; Latin , Spanish and English: Silesia ; French: Silésie ; Dutch : Silezië ; Italian : Slesia . The names all relate to

490-604: A period of intense immigration from Silesia to the United States), considered Silesian as a geographical (not ethnic) term, denoting the inhabitants of Silesia. It is also mentioned the existence of both Polish Silesian and German Silesian dialects in that region. Modern Silesia is inhabited by Poles , Silesians , Germans , and Czechs . Germans first came to Silesia during the Late Medieval Ostsiedlung . The last Polish census of 2011 showed that

560-711: A result of immigration from German-speaking states of the Holy Roman Empire . The first granting of municipal privileges in Poland took place in the region, with the granting of rights for Złotoryja by Henry the Bearded. Medieval municipal rights modeled after Lwówek Śląski and Środa Śląska , both established by Henry the Bearded, became the basis of municipal form of government for several cities and towns in Poland, and two of five local Polish variants of medieval town rights. The Book of Henryków , which contains

630-580: A signficiant income from the Prague slave trade , trafficking Pagan Slavs, termed as saqaliba , to slavery in al-Andalus in the 10th- and 11th-centuries. Mining of tin and silver began in the Ore mountains in early 12th century. During the German civil war between the Hohenstaufen king Philip of Swabia and his Welf rival Otto IV , Duke Ottokar I of Bohemia decided to support Philip, for which he

700-443: A thriving agricultural sector, which produces cereals (wheat, rye, barley, oats, corn), potatoes, rapeseed, sugar beets and others. Milk production is well developed. The Opole Silesia has for decades occupied the top spot in Poland for their indices of effectiveness of agricultural land use. Mountainous parts of southern Silesia feature many significant and attractive tourism destinations (e.g., Karpacz , Szczyrk , Wisła ). Silesia

770-543: Is also rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. The largest city and Lower Silesia's capital is Wrocław ; the historic capital of Upper Silesia is Opole . The biggest metropolitan area is the Katowice metropolitan area , the centre of which is Katowice . Parts of the Czech city of Ostrava and the German city of Görlitz are within Silesia's borders. Silesia's borders and national affiliation have changed over time, both when it

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840-564: Is different from Upper Silesia in many respects as its population was predominantly German-speaking from around the mid 19th century until 1945–48. In the fourth century BC from the south, through the Kłodzko Valley , the Celts entered Silesia, and settled around Mount Ślęża near modern Wrocław , Oława and Strzelin . Germanic Lugii tribes were first recorded within Silesia in the 1st century BC. West Slavs and Lechites arrived in

910-533: Is different from Wikidata All set index articles Silesia Silesia (see names below ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland , with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany . Its area is approximately 40,000 km (15,400 sq mi), and the population is estimated at 8,000,000. Silesia is split into two main subregions, Lower Silesia in

980-466: Is generally well forested. This is because greenness is generally highly desirable by the local population, particularly in the highly industrialized parts of Silesia. Silesia has been historically diverse in every aspect. Nowadays, the largest part of Silesia is located in Poland; it is often cited as one of the most diverse regions in that country. The United States Immigration Commission, in its Dictionary of Races or Peoples (published in 1911, during

1050-730: Is now part of the Czech Republic, forming part of the Moravian-Silesian Region and the northern part of the Olomouc Region . Germany retains the Silesia-Lusatia region ( Niederschlesien-Oberlausitz or Schlesische Oberlausitz ) west of the Neisse , which is part of the federal state of Saxony . The region was affected by the 1997 , 2010 and 2024 Central European floods. Most of Silesia

1120-680: Is relatively flat, although its southern border is generally mountainous. It is primarily located in a swath running along both banks of the upper and middle Oder (Odra) River, but it extends eastwards to the upper Vistula River. The region also includes many tributaries of the Oder, including the Bóbr (and its tributary the Kwisa ), the Barycz and the Nysa Kłodzka . The Sudeten Mountains run along most of

1190-647: The Bohemian Crown which was part of the Holy Roman Empire; however, a number of duchies remained under the rule of the Polish dukes from the houses of Piast, Jagiellon and Sobieski as formal Bohemian fiefdoms , some until the 17th–18th centuries. In 1469, sovereignty over the region passed to Hungary , and in 1490, it returned to Bohemia. In 1526 Silesia passed with the Bohemian Crown to

1260-683: The Brynica River, which separates it from Zagłębie Dąbrowskie in the Lesser Poland region. However, to many Poles today, Silesia ( Śląsk ) is understood to cover all of the area around Katowice, including Zagłębie. This interpretation is given official sanction in the use of the name Silesian Voivodeship ( województwo śląskie ) for the province covering this area. In fact, the word Śląsk in Polish (when used without qualification) now commonly refers exclusively to this area (also called Górny Śląsk or Upper Silesia). As well as

1330-657: The Diocese of Kraków . The Duchy of Krosno Odrzańskie ( Crossen ) was inherited by the Margraviate of Brandenburg in 1476 and with the renunciation of King Ferdinand I and the estates of Bohemia in 1538, became an integral part of Brandenburg. From 1645 until 1666, the Duchy of Opole and Racibórz was held in pawn by the Polish House of Vasa as dowry of the Polish queen Cecylia Renata . In 1742, most of Silesia

1400-720: The East Frankish king Louis the German and confirmed his Bohemian dominion. With the fragmentation of Great Moravia under the pressure of the Magyar incursions around 900, Bohemia began to form as an independent principality. Already in 880, the Přemyslid prince Bořivoj from Levý Hradec , initially a deputy of Duke Svatopluk I who had been baptised by the Great Moravian archbishop Methodius of Salonica in 874, moved his residence to Prague Castle and started to subjugate

1470-525: The Golden Bull of Sicily —a formal edict by the Hohenstaufen emperor Frederick II confirming the royal title for Ottokar and his descendants, whereby his duchy was formally raised to a kingdom. The Bohemian king would be exempt from all future obligations to the Holy Roman Empire except for participation in the imperial councils. The imperial prerogative to ratify each Bohemian ruler and to appoint

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1540-577: The Habsburg monarchy . In the 15th century, several changes were made to Silesia's borders. Parts of the territories that had been transferred to the Silesian Piasts in 1178 were bought by the Polish kings in the second half of the 15th century (the Duchy of Oświęcim in 1457; the Duchy of Zator in 1494). The Bytom area remained in the possession of the Silesian Piasts, though it was a part of

1610-618: The Pope , anti-kings, and rebellions in Saxony in his long reign. The Bohemian troops showed conspicuous bravery and, in 1083, he entered Rome with Henry and their armed forces. Henry gave Vratislaus a lifetime appointment as the first King of Bohemia in 1085 out of gratitude. For his successor Bretislaus II foreign policy was largely concerned with the Silesian conflict, when the Poles did not pay

1680-605: The Potsdam Agreement between the victorious Allies and became again part of Poland, although with a Soviet -installed communist regime . The small Lusatian strip west of the Oder–Neisse line , which had belonged to Silesia since 1815, became part of East Germany . As the result of the forced population shifts of 1945–48, today's inhabitants of Silesia speak the national languages of their respective countries. Previously German-speaking Lower Silesia had developed

1750-544: The Province of Silesia in 1815, in Germany Görlitz , Niederschlesischer Oberlausitzkreis and neighbouring areas are considered parts of historical Silesia. Those districts, along with Poland's Lower Silesian Voivodeship and parts of Lubusz Voivodeship, make up the geographic region of Lower Silesia. Silesia has undergone a similar notional extension at its eastern extreme. Historically, it extended only as far as

1820-663: The Vltava Basin. Great Moravia briefly regained control over the emerging Bohemian principality upon Bořivoj's death in 888/890 until, in 895, his son Spytihněv together with the Slavník prince Witizla swore allegiance to the East Frankish king Arnulf of Carinthia in Regensburg . He and his younger brother Vratislaus then ruled over Central Bohemia around Prague . They were able to protect their realm from

1890-417: The surname Pringsheim . If an internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that link by adding the person's given name (s) to the link. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pringsheim&oldid=1254444324 " Category : Surnames Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description

1960-626: The 12th century it formed the Duchy of Silesia , a provincial duchy of Poland. As a result of further fragmentation, Silesia was divided into many duchies , ruled by various lines of the Polish Piast dynasty . In the 14th century, it became a constituent part of the Bohemian Crown Lands under the Holy Roman Empire , which passed to the Austrian Habsburg monarchy in 1526; however, a number of duchies remained under

2030-795: The 1970s under the People's Republic of Poland . During this period, Silesia became one of the world's largest producers of coal, with a record tonnage in 1979. Coal mining declined during the next two decades, but has increased again following the end of Communist rule. The 41 coal mines in Silesia are mostly part of the Upper Silesian Coal Basin , which lies in the Silesian Upland. The coalfield has an area of about 4,500 km (1,700 sq mi). Deposits in Lower Silesia have proven to be difficult to exploit and

2100-614: The 19th century and the early 20th century can be found in Table 2.: (67.2%) (62.0%) (62.6%) (62.1%) (58.6%) (58.1%) (58.1%) (58.6%) (58.7%) (57.3%) (59.1%) Duchy of Bohemia While the Bohemian dukes of the Přemyslid dynasty , at first ruling at Prague Castle and Levý Hradec , brought further estates under their control, the Christianization initiated by Saints Cyril and Methodius

2170-763: The Bishop of Prague was revoked. The country then reached its greatest territorial extent and is considered its Golden Age. After the extinction of the Přemyslid dynasty, the Lands of the Bohemian Crown were ruled by the House of Luxembourg from 1310, until the death of Emperor Sigismund in 1437. After the Middle Ages, the Kingdom of Bohemia remained under the rule of the Austrian House of Habsburg from 1526 until

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2240-786: The High Middle Ages, until the extinction of the male line with the death of King Wenceslaus III in 1306. The lands encompassed by the Bohemian Forest , the Ore Mountains , the Sudetes and the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands were settled by Bohemian tribes about 550. In the 7th century the local Czech people were part of the union led by the Frankish merchant Samo (d. 658). Bohemia as

2310-914: The Holocaust and had returned to Silesia. The newly formed Polish United Workers' Party created a Ministry of the Recovered Territories that claimed half of the available arable land for state-run collectivized farms. Many of the new Polish Silesians who resented the Germans for their invasion in 1939 and brutality in occupation now resented the newly formed Polish communist government for their population shifting and interference in agricultural and industrial affairs. The administrative division of Silesia within Poland has changed several times since 1945. Since 1999, it has been divided between Lubusz Voivodeship , Lower Silesian Voivodeship , Opole Voivodeship , and Silesian Voivodeship . Czech Silesia

2380-597: The Katowice area, historical Upper Silesia also includes the Opole region (Poland's Opole Voivodeship) and Czech Silesia. Czech Silesia consists of a part of the Moravian-Silesian Region and the Jeseník District in the Olomouc Region . Silesia is a resource-rich and populous region. Since the middle of the 18th century, coal has been mined. The industry had grown while Silesia was part of Germany, and peaked in

2450-733: The Magyar forces which crushed an East Frankish army in the 907 Battle of Pressburg during the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin . Cut off from Byzantium by the Hungarian presence, the Bohemian principality existed as independent state though still in the shadow of East Francia; the dukes paid tribute to the Bavarian dukes in exchange for the confirmation of the peace treaty. Vratislaus' son Wenceslaus , who ruled from 921,

2520-426: The Old Polish words ślęg [ɕlɛŋk] or śląg [ɕlɔŋk] , which means dampness, moisture, or humidity. They disagree with the hypothesis of an origin for the name Śląsk from the name of the Silings tribe, an etymology preferred by some German authors. In Polish common usage, "Śląsk" refers to traditionally Polish Upper Silesia and today's Silesian Voivodeship , but less to Lower Silesia, which

2590-499: The Pious at the Battle of Legnica , which took place at Legnickie Pole near the city of Legnica . Upon the death of Orda Khan , the Mongols chose not to press forward further into Europe, but returned east to participate in the election of a new Grand Khan (leader). Between 1289 and 1292, Bohemian king Wenceslaus II became suzerain of some of the Upper Silesian duchies. Polish monarchs had not renounced their hereditary rights to Silesia until 1335. The province became part of

2660-420: The Polish rulers to move their capital to Kraków . In 1040, Bretislaus defeated the German King Henry 's invasion into Bohemia in the Battle at Brůdek . However, the next year Henry besieged Bretislaus in Prague and forced him to renounce all of his conquests except Moravia. In 1047, Henry negotiated a peace treaty between Bretislaus and the Poles. The son of Bretislaus, Vratislaus II , supported Henry against

2730-401: The Přemyslid dynasty, Duke Vladivoj received Bohemia as a fief from the hands of the East Frankish king Henry II in 1002 and the duchy became an Imperial State of the Holy Roman Empire . The Duchy of Bohemia was raised to a hereditary Kingdom of Bohemia , when Duke Ottokar I ensured his elevation by the German king Philip of Swabia in 1198. The Přemyslids remained in power throughout

2800-465: The Second World War, Silesia was inhabited mostly by Germans, with Poles a large minority, forming a majority in Upper Silesia . Silesia was also the home of Czech and Jewish minorities. The German population tended to be based in the urban centres and in the rural areas to the north and west, whilst the Polish population was mostly rural and could be found in the east and in the south. Ethnic structure of Prussian Upper Silesia ( Opole regency) during

2870-412: The Silesian Piasts, although their population was primarily Vistulan and not of Silesian descent. Walloons came to Silesia as one of the first foreign immigrant groups in Poland , probably settling in Wrocław since the 12th century, with further Walloon immigrants invited by Duke Henry the Bearded in the early 13th century. Since the 13th century, German cultural and ethnic influence increased as

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2940-465: The Silesian mountain region (Hirschberg, Schneekoppe). After World War I, a part of Silesia, Upper Silesia , was contested by Germany and the newly independent Second Polish Republic . The League of Nations organized a plebiscite to decide the issue in 1921. It resulted in 60% of votes being cast for Germany and 40% for Poland. Following the third Silesian uprising (1921), however, the easternmost portion of Upper Silesia (including Katowice), with

3010-494: The Silesians are the largest ethnic or national minority in Poland, Germans being the second; both groups are located mostly in Upper Silesia. The Czech part of Silesia is inhabited by Czechs, Moravians , Silesians, and Poles . In the early 19th century the population of the Prussian part of Silesia was between 2/3 and 3/4 German-speaking, between 1/5 and 1/3 Polish-speaking, with Sorbs , Czechs , Moravians and Jews forming other smaller minorities (see Table 1. below). Before

3080-400: The area's unprofitable mines were closed in 2000. In 2008, an estimated 35 billion tonnes of lignite reserves were found near Legnica, making them some of the largest in the world. From the fourth century BC, iron ore has been mined in the upland areas of Silesia. The same period had lead, copper, silver, and gold mining. Zinc, cadmium, arsenic, and uranium have also been mined in

3150-532: The battle ground, assuming they would be able to return when the war was over. However, they could not return, and those who had stayed were expelled and a new Polish population, including people displaced from former Eastern Poland annexed by the Soviet Union and from Central Poland, joined the surviving native Polish inhabitants of the region. After 1945 and in 1946, nearly all of the 4.5 million Silesians of German descent fled, or were interned in camps and expelled, including some thousand German Jews who survived

3220-425: The decision of the Entente Powers after insurrections by Poles and the Upper Silesian plebiscite , while the remaining former Austrian parts of Silesia were divided between Czechoslovakia and Poland. During World War II , as a result of German occupation the entire region was under control of Nazi Germany . In 1945, after World War II , most of the German-held Silesia was transferred to Polish jurisdiction by

3290-491: The duchy in fief from the king. Duke Bretislaus I of Bohemia re-acquired the Moravian lands in 1019 or 1029, which thenceforth were usually ruled by a younger son of the Bohemian duke/king. About 1031, Bretislaus invaded Hungary to prevent its future expansion and, in 1035, he helped the Emperor against the Lusatians. In 1039, he invaded Poland , captured Poznań and ravaged Gniezno ; after that he conquered part of Silesia including Breslau . The destruction of Gniezno pushed

3360-421: The earliest known sentence written in the Polish language, as well as a document which contains the oldest printed text in Polish, were created in Henryków and Wrocław in Silesia, respectively. In 1241, the Mongols conducted their first invasion of Poland , causing widespread panic and mass flight. They looted much of the region and defeated the combined Polish, Moravian and German forces led by Duke Henry II

3430-404: The east of it went to Poland. Polish Silesia was among the first regions invaded during Germany's 1939 attack on Poland , which started World War II . One of the claimed goals of Nazi German occupation , particularly in Upper Silesia, was the extermination of those whom Nazis viewed as " subhuman ", namely Jews and ethnic Poles. The Polish and Jewish population of the then Polish part of Silesia

3500-399: The east. He offered opposition to Henry's successor King Otto I , stopped paying the tribute, attacked an ally of the Saxons in northwest Bohemia and in 936 moved into Thuringia . After a prolonged armed conflict, King Otto I besieged a castle owned by Boleslaus' son in 950 and Boleslaus finally signed a peace treaty whereby he recognized Otto's suzerainty and promised to resume the payment of

3570-429: The lack of supplies. When the Frankish forces returned the next year burning and plundering the Bohemian lands, the local tribes finally had to submit and became dependent on the Carolingian Empire . While the Frankish realm disintegrated in the mid-9th century, Bohemia fell under the influence of the Great Moravian state which was established around 830. In 874, the Mojmir duke Svatopluk I reached an agreement with

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3640-408: The name of a river (now Ślęza ) and mountain ( Mount Ślęża ) in mid-southern Silesia, which served as a place of cult for pagans before Christianization . Ślęża is listed as one of the numerous Pre-Indo-European topographic names in the region (see old European hydronymy ). According to some Polonists , the name Ślęża [ˈɕlɛ̃ʐa] or Ślęż [ɕlɛ̃ʂ] is directly related to

3710-432: The region around the 7th century, and by the early ninth century, their settlements had stabilized. Local West Slavs started to erect boundary structures like the Silesian Przesieka and the Silesia Walls . The eastern border of Silesian settlement was situated to the west of the Bytom , and east from Racibórz and Cieszyn . East of this line dwelt a closely related Lechitic tribe, the Vistulans . Their northern border

3780-465: The region, and one of the oldest dioceses in Poland, subjugated to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Gniezno . Poland repulsed German invasions of Silesia in 1017 at Niemcza and in 1109 at Głogów . During the Fragmentation of Poland , Silesia and the rest of the country were divided into many smaller duchies ruled by various Silesian dukes . In 1178, parts of the Duchy of Kraków around Bytom, Oświęcim , Chrzanów , and Siewierz were transferred to

3850-464: The region. Lower Silesia features large copper mining and processing between the cities of Legnica , Głogów , Lubin , and Polkowice . In the Middle Ages, gold (Polish: złoto ) and silver (Polish: srebro ) were mined in the region, which is reflected in the names of the former mining towns of Złotoryja , Złoty Stok and Srebrna Góra . The region is known for stone quarrying to produce limestone, marl , marble, and basalt. The region also has

3920-407: The rule of Polish dukes from the houses of Piast, Jagiellon and Sobieski as formal Bohemian fiefdoms, some until the 17th–18th centuries. As a result of the Silesian Wars , the region was annexed by the German state of Prussia from Austria in 1742. After World War I , when the Poles and Czechs regained their independence, the easternmost part of Upper Silesia became again part of Poland by

3990-463: The same time that Přemyslid rulers used the German alliance to consolidate their rule against a perpetually rebellious regional nobility, they struggled to retain their autonomy in relation to the empire. The Bohemian principality was definitively consolidated in 995, when the Přemyslids defeated their Slavník rivals, unified the Czech tribes, and established a form of centralized rule, albeit shaken by internal dynastic struggles. In 1002, Duke Vladivoj

4060-403: The southern edge of the region, though at its south-eastern extreme it reaches the Silesian Beskids and Moravian-Silesian Beskids , which belong to the Carpathian Mountains range. Historically, Silesia was bounded to the west by the Kwisa and Bóbr Rivers, while the territory west of the Kwisa was in Upper Lusatia (earlier Milsko ). However, because part of Upper Lusatia was included in

4130-408: The tribute. As the king's ally, his Bohemian troops, together with those of the Kingdom of Germany , fought in the 955 Battle of Lechfeld and after the defeat of the Magyars received the lands of Moravia in recognition of his services. Overwhelming the marauding Hungarians had the same benefits for Germans and Czechs. Less obvious is what Boleslav I the Cruel wanted to gain by participating in

4200-458: The two main wartime centers where medical experiments were conducted on kidnapped Polish children by Nazis. Czech Silesia was occupied by Germany as part of so-called Sudetenland . In Silesia, Nazi Germany operated the Gross-Rosen concentration camp , several prisoner-of-war camps for Allied POWs (incl. the major Stalag VIII-A , Stalag VIII-B , Stalag VIII-C camps), numerous Nazi prisons and thousands of forced labour camps, including

4270-432: The war against the Obotrite tribes in far north, when he crushed an uprising of two Slavic dukes (Stojgněv and Nakon) in the Saxon Billung March . Probably Boleslav wanted to ensure that his German neighbors did not interfere with his expansion of Bohemia to the east. Significantly, the Bishopric of Prague , founded in 973 during the reign of Duke Boleslaus II , was subordinated to the Archbishopric of Mainz . Thus, at

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4340-432: The west and Upper Silesia in the east. Silesia has a diverse culture, including architecture , costumes , cuisine , traditions, and the Silesian language (minority in Upper Silesia). The largest city of the region is Wrocław . Silesia is situated along the Oder River, with the Sudeten Mountains extending across the southern border. The region contains many historical landmarks and UNESCO World Heritage Sites . It

4410-410: Was enfeoffed with the Duchy of Bohemia from the hands of King Henry II of Germany . With this act, what had been a fully sovereign duchy became part of the Holy Roman Empire . After Vladivoj died the next year, the Polish duke Bolesław I the Brave invaded Bohemia and Moravia and ruled as Boleslaus IV. In 1004, after the Poles were expelled from Bohemia with help from Henry II, Duke Jaromír received

4480-438: Was a hereditary possession of noble houses and after the rise of modern nation-states , resulting in an abundance of castles , especially in the Jelenia Góra valley . The first known states to hold power in Silesia were probably those of Greater Moravia at the end of the 9th century and Bohemia early in the 10th century. In the 10th century, Silesia was incorporated into the early Polish state, and after its fragmentation in

4550-480: Was already accepted as head of the Bohemian tribal union; however, he had to cope with the enmity of his neighbour Duke Arnulf of Bavaria and his mighty ally, the Saxon king Henry I of Germany . Wenceslaus maintained his ducal authority by submitting to King Henry in 929, whereafter he was murdered by his brother Boleslaus . Assuming the Bohemian throne in 935, Duke Boleslaus conquered the adjacent lands of Moravia and Silesia , and expanded farther to Kraków in

4620-405: Was awarded with a royal coronation in 1198, this time as a hereditary title. In 1200, however, Ottokar abandoned his pact with Philip and declared for the Welf faction. Both Otto and Pope Innocent III subsequently accepted Ottokar as hereditary King of Bohemia. The Bohemian principality was then reborn into the Bohemian kingdom . In 1212, Ottokar I, bearing the title "king" since 1198, extracted

4690-408: Was continued by the Frankish bishops of Regensburg and Passau . In 973, the Diocese of Prague was founded through the joint efforts of Duke Boleslaus II and Emperor Otto I . Later Duke Wenceslaus I of Bohemia , killed by his younger brother Boleslaus in September 935, became the land's patron saint. While the lands were occupied by the Polish king Bolesław I and internal struggles shook

4760-414: Was in the valley of the Barycz River, north of which lived the Western Polans tribe who gave Poland its name . The first known states in Silesia were Greater Moravia and Bohemia . In the 10th century, the Polish ruler Mieszko I of the Piast dynasty incorporated Silesia into the newly established Polish state . In 1000, the Diocese of Wrocław was established as the oldest Catholic diocese in

4830-491: Was seized by King Frederick II of Prussia in the War of the Austrian Succession , eventually becoming the Prussian Province of Silesia in 1815; consequently, Silesia became part of the German Empire when it was proclaimed in 1871. The Silesian capital Breslau became at that time one of the big cities in Germany. Breslau was a center of Jewish life in Germany and an important place of science (university) and industry (manufacturing of locomotives). German mass tourism started in

4900-401: Was subjected to genocide involving expulsions , mass murder and deportation to Nazi concentration camps and forced labour camps, while Germans were settled in pursuit of Lebensraum . Two thousand Polish intellectuals, politicians, and businessmen were murdered in the Intelligenzaktion Schlesien in 1940 as part of a Poland-wide Germanization program . Silesia also housed one of

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