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137-523: The immigrants mainly came from what was then eastern provinces of Germany ( Province of Posen , East Prussia , West Prussia , Province of Silesia ), which were acquired by the Kingdom of Prussia in the late-18th-century Partitions of Poland or earlier, and which housed a significant Polish-speaking population. This migration wave, known as the Ostflucht , began in the late 19th century, with most of

274-596: A German majority (the Posen–West Prussia Border March, Lauenburg and Bütow Land , the southern and western rim of East Prussia , Ermland , Western Upper Silesia , and the part of Lower Silesia east of the Oder ), or mixed German– Czech with a German majority ( Glatz ). Virtually the entire German population of the territories that did not flee voluntarily in the face of the Red Army advance of 1945 ,

411-641: A camp for Romani people in the present-day Wattenscheid district, and three subcamps of the Buchenwald concentration camp . A report from July 1943 listed 100 forced labour camps in Bochum. Because the Ruhr region was an area of high residential density and a centre for the manufacture of weapons, it was a major target in the war. Women with young children, school children and the homeless fled or were evacuated to safer areas, leaving cities largely deserted to

548-758: A consulate, and eventually moved to Düsseldorf in 1936. In the interbellum , the main Polish newspaper of the Ruhr Poles was Naród , issued in Herne since 1921, whereas Wiarus Polski , the oldest Polish newspaper of the Ruhr, was moved to Poznań , Poland in 1923. Bochum was the headquarters of the Third District of the Union of Poles in Germany , which covered not only Westphalia and Rhineland , within which

685-577: A kingdom. Subsequently, it entered into an alliance with Austria and Russia, invading Polish territories of Royal Prussia in the First Partition of Poland (1772), with Warmia being made part of the newly formed province of East Prussia in 1773. As a result of the Treaty of Versailles, a minor part around Soldau was transferred to Poland, the Klaipėda Region formed a free city supervised by

822-562: A massive campaign of renaming of thousands of placenames , to remove traces of Polish, Lithuanian and Old Prussian origin. Germany invaded Poland without a declaration of war on 1 September 1939, heralding the start of the Second World War . The Third Reich annexed the Polish lands included the former Prussian Partition , comprising Pomerelia (the " Polish Corridor "), Chełmno Land , Greater Poland proper, Kuyavia , Łęczyca Land , Sieradz Land , Northern Masovia , as well as

959-777: A migration process known as the Ostsiedlung , and the Hanseatic League dominated the shores of the Baltic Sea . In Pomerania, Brandenburg , East Prussia , Lusatia , Kłodzko Land and Lower Silesia , the former West Slav ( Bohemians , Polabian Slavs and Poles ) or Baltic population became minorities in the course of the following centuries, but substantial numbers of them remained in areas such as Upper Silesia . In Greater Poland and in Eastern Pomerania ( Pomerelia ), German settlers always remained

1096-482: A minimum of 1,3h per day in December and a lot more in early summer and late spring with May featuring 7,5h per day. The total amount of sunshine per year is 1689h. Due to the cities northern latitude of 51°N, seasonal day-length variation is significant. The longest day of the year, June 21, features 16 h 38 min. of daylight while the shortest day of the year which is December 21 is only 7 h and 50 min. long. Bochum

1233-862: A minority. Some of the territories, such as Pomerelia and Masovia, reunited with Poland during the 15th and 16th centuries. Silesia, Lubusz Land and Lusatia (as parts of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown ) and the Duchy of Pomerania became more firmly incorporated into the Holy Roman Empire . In the course of the Partitions of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth , the Kingdom of Prussia and the Austrian Empire acquired vast territorial shares of

1370-473: A new interchange (Dreieck Bochum-West) between the Donezk-Ring and Autobahn A40 is being constructed within tight parameters due to the existence of a nearby factory. Apart from the autobahns and expressways, there is also a small ring road around the centre of Bochum, where most roads radiating out of Bochum begin. Most main roads in Bochum are multi-lane roads with traffic lights. Bochum is also served by

1507-668: A political ultimatum caused a Lithuanian delegation to travel to Berlin, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Juozas Urbšys and German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop signed the Treaty of the Cession of the Memel Territory to Germany in exchange for a Lithuanian Free Zone in the port of Memel that used the facilities erected in the previous years. In the interwar period , the German administration, both Weimar and Nazi, conducted

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1644-583: A replacement for the dissolved Holy Roman Empire the German Confederation (German: Deutscher Bund), an association of 39 German-speaking states in Central Europe under the nominal leadership of the Austrian Empire . Its boundaries largely followed the ones of its predecessor, the Holy Roman Empire , defining the territory of Germany for much of the 19th century and confirming Pomerania , East Brandenburg and Silesia as its parts. On

1781-444: A research facility, its first outside Canada, adding several hundred jobs. Bochum has a municipal zoo, a large municipal park and a number of other gardens and parks. The Ruhr University Botanical Gardens has thousands of plants from all over the world. Among others there is a tropical garden, a cactus garden, and a Chinese garden designed in the southern Chinese style, the only one of its kind in Germany. The Geological Garden

1918-409: A second peak in precipitation due to the return of the westerlies which leads to more thunderstorms being generated along frontal boundaries of Atlantic low-pressure systems. In recent years, the city was affected by summer and spring droughts. Thunderstorms are not uncommon in the warm season and can generate intense downpours and sporadically hail. The city experiences little sunshine in winter with

2055-673: A separate realm and becoming a part of the Habsburg monarchy in the aftermath of the Bohemian Revolt 's defeat in the Battle of White Mountain . After losing the 18th-century Silesian Wars , the Habsburg monarchy was forced to cede most of the region to the Kingdom of Prussia in the treaties of Breslau and of Berlin , retaining only Austrian Silesia . The ceded lands also included the (sometimes considered Moravian ) territories of

2192-429: A severe cold spell bringing temperatures down to –15 degrees Celsius (5 °F) accompanied by heavy snowfall which hindered traffic for multiple days. A week later, a temperature of 17 °C (63 °F) was recorded, an increase of 32K. The total precipitation of 815mm is distributed relatively evenly through most of the year but has a peak in winter and two minima in late spring and July, respectively. June shows

2329-831: A town charter, but the town remained insignificant until the 19th century, when the coal mining and steel industries emerged in the Ruhr area, leading to the growth of the entire region. In the early 19th century it was part of the Grand Duchy of Berg , a client state of France , then it passed to Prussia following the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, and in 1871 it became part of the German Empire . The population of Bochum increased from about 4,500 in 1850 to 100,000 in 1904. Bochum acquired city status, incorporating neighbouring towns and villages. Additional population gains came from immigration, primarily from Poland . Bochum

2466-613: Is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia . With a population of 372,348 (April 2023), it is the sixth-largest city (after Cologne , Düsseldorf , Dortmund , Essen and Duisburg ) in North Rhine-Westphalia, one of the most populous German federal states, and the 16th-largest city in Germany. On the Ruhr Heights ( Ruhrhöhen ) hill chain , between the rivers Ruhr to the south and Emscher to

2603-616: Is a cultural centre of the Ruhr region. There is a municipal theatre, the Schauspielhaus Bochum , and about 20 smaller theatres and stages. The musical Starlight Express , which opened in 1988, is the longest-running musical in Germany. The Bermudadreieck (Bermuda Triangle), in the city center of Bochum, functions as the town's nightlife hub. Around sixty different bars and restaurants are located there, serving multicultural cuisine such as Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Italian, Spanish and German gastronomic specialties. Close to

2740-508: Is divided into six administrative sections ( stadtbezirke ), alongside their respective sub-districts ( stadtteile ), with a total of 362,213 inhabitants living in an urban area of 145.4 km (56.1 sq mi). The current mayor of Bochum is Thomas Eiskirch of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), who was elected in 2015 and re-elected in 2020. The most recent mayoral election was held on 13 September 2020, and

2877-743: Is divided into the river Ruhr catchment in the south and the Emscher catchment in the north. The Ruhr's tributaries are the Oelbach (where as well a waste water treatment plant is established ), Gerther Mühlenbach, Harpener Bach, Langendreer Bach, Lottenbach , Hörsterholzer Bach and the Knöselbach . The Ruhr in combination with upstream reservoirs is also used for drinking water abstraction. The Emscher's tributaries are Hüller Bach with Dorneburger Mühlenbach, Hofsteder Bach, Marbach, Ahbach, Kabeisemannsbach and Goldhammer Bach. The industrial developments in

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3014-543: Is now one of the largest music events in Europe. Since the summer of 1995, the Kunstwerkstatt <Art Workshop> am Hellweg, a former carpenter's workshop, has hosted a wide variety of concerts all year round, from medieval music to baroque music, from Bach to jazz and boogie-woogie. In this informal setting, music fans have the opportunity not only to “sit in the front row”, but also to come into direct contact with

3151-659: Is the method which, in so far as we have been able to see, will be the most satisfactory and lasting. There will be no mixture of populations to cause endless trouble. A clean sweep will be made. The problem with the status of these territories was that the Potsdam Agreement was not a legally binding treaty , but a memorandum between the USSR, the US and the UK (to which neither France, nor Germany or Poland were party). It regulated

3288-637: Is the sixth largest and one of the southernmost cities in the Low German dialect area. There are nine institutions of higher education in the city, most notably the Ruhr University Bochum ( Ruhr-Universität Bochum ), one of the ten largest universities in Germany, and the Bochum University of Applied Sciences ( Hochschule Bochum ). The city lies on the low rolling hills of Bochum land ridge (Bochumer Landrücken), part of

3425-605: The Autobahn network by the A 40 , A 43 and A 44 autobahns. In addition, Bochum has a ring road, built to expressway standards, consisting of four segments; the Donezk, Oviedo, Nordhausen and Sheffield-Ring roads. It serves as a three-quarter loop around central Bochum and begins and ends at Autobahn A40. Ruhr University Bochum is also served by an expressway running from the Nordhausen-Ring to Autobahn A43. Until 2012,

3562-546: The Bundesstraße 51 and Bundesstraße 226 . B51 runs to Herne and Hattingen, and B226 runs to Gelsenkirchen and Witten. Bochum has a central station situated on the line from Duisburg to Dortmund , connecting the city to the long-distance network of Deutsche Bahn as well as to the Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn network. Local service is supplied mainly by BOGESTRA , a joint venture handling transportation between

3699-635: The Cold War , had been indefinitely postponed; however, West Germany in 1972 recognised the Oder–Neisse line as the western boundary of Poland when the 1970 Treaty of Warsaw between West Germany and Poland took effect; and in 1973, the Federal Constitutional Court acknowledged the capability of East Germany to negotiate the Treaty of Zgorzelec as an international agreement binding as a legal definition of its boundaries. In signing

3836-612: The Duchies of Silesia to the Lands of the Bohemian Crown . Ecclesiastically, the Diocese of Wrocław covering Silesia remained a suffragan of the Polish Archdiocese of Gniezno until becoming exempt in 1821. The first German colonists arrived in the late 12th century, and large-scale German settlement started in the early 13th century during the reign of Henry I . New forms of agriculture, technology and law brought in by

3973-721: The Dziennik Polski daily newspaper was founded in Dortmund, and in 1909 the Narodowiec newspaper was founded in Herne. The two most successful and popular football clubs of the Ruhr region, FC Schalke 04 and Borussia Dortmund , were co-founded by Poles, and the former was even mockingly called the Polackenverein (" Polack club") by the Germans because of its many players of Polish origin. The main center of

4110-903: The Emschergenossenschaft in Bottrop . The ecological restoration of the Emscher tributaries initiated by the Emschergenossenschaft started with the Internationale Bauausstellung Emscher Park in 1989. The south of the city has woods, the best known of which are the Weitmarer Holz  [ de ] . These are generally mixed forests of oak and beech . The occurrence of holly gives evidence of Bochum's temperate climate . 844 species of plants can be found within

4247-518: The German Empire . While initially German officials hoped that the Polish population would succumb to Germanization , they eventually lost hope that the long-term strategy would succeed. Polish schools had their accreditation refused, and state schools no longer took account of ethnic diversity. In schools with a high percentage of Polish-speaking students, German officials split up the students. When parents tried to organise private lessons for their children, police would come to their homes. Germany banned

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4384-476: The Gestapo entered the headquarters of the Union of Poles in Germany in Bochum, searched it and interrogated its chief Michał Wesołowski, however, it did not obtain the desired lists of Polish activists, which had been previously hidden by Poles. Increased Nazi terror and persecutions of Poles followed, and in response, many Poles from the region came to Bochum for organizational and information meetings. During

4521-622: The Helsinki Final Act in 1975, both West Germany and East Germany recognised the existing boundaries of post-war Europe, including the Oder–Neisse line, as valid in international law. In 1990, as part of the reunification of Germany , both German countries accepted clauses in the peace treaty with the four countries representing the Allies ( Treaty on the Final Settlement With Respect to Germany ) to replace

4658-684: The Holocaust , including 19 who were younger than 16 years old. Joseph Klirsfeld was Bochum's rabbi at this time. He and his wife fled to Palestine. In December 1938, the Jewish elementary school teacher Else Hirsch began organising groups of children and adolescents to be sent to the Netherlands and England , sending ten groups in all. Many Jewish children and those from other persecuted groups were taken in by Dutch families and thereby saved from abduction or deportation and death. On 15 July 1939,

4795-952: The Late Middle Ages . The northern part of East Prussia was annexed by the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic as the Kaliningrad Oblast , now forming a Russian exclave . The post-war border between Germany and Poland along the Oder–Neisse line was defined in August 1945 by the Potsdam Agreement of the leaders of the three main Allies of World War II , the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and

4932-620: The League of Nations , albeit bound in some aspects by an imposed union with Poland. However, in areas such as Upper Silesia , no clear division between the mostly bilingual population was possible. After a first plebiscite, Upper Silesia was to stay part of Germany's territory. However, after the Silesian Uprisings , the area was divided in accord with the German–Polish Convention regarding Upper Silesia . The parts of

5069-438: The League of Nations , annexed following the Klaipėda Revolt by Lithuania but reclaimed by Germany in 1938, while the bulk (including entire Warmia and Masuria) remained a part of Germany, following the East Prussian plebiscite , and became enlarged by the addition of the formerly West Prussian Malbork Land . In the Potsdam Agreement the description of the territories transferred is "The former German territories east of

5206-405: The Munich agreement . However, as distinct from other lost Czechoslovakian domains, it was not attached to Sudetengau (the administrative region covering the Sudetenland ) but to Prussia ( Upper Silesia ). By late 1938, Lithuania had lost control over the situation in the Memel Territory , which had been annexed by Lithuania in the Klaipėda putsch . In the early hours of 23 March 1939, after

5343-402: The Oder–Neisse line ", and permutations on this description are the most commonly used to describe any former territories of interwar Germany east of the Oder–Neisse line. The term has sometimes been confused with the name East Germany , a political term, used to be the common colloquial English name for the German Democratic Republic (GDR), and mirrored the common colloquial English term for

5480-463: The Ossolineum and the Jan Kazimierz University in Lwów were both relocated to Wrocław , the former Breslau. The territories acquired by Poland after World War II are known there as the Recovered Territories . The territories Poland annexed had been ruled as part of Poland by the Piast dynasty in the High Middle Ages , with the exception of southern East Prussia , which originally was inhabited by Old Prussians and came under Polish suzerainty in

5617-448: The Polish National Council . Poles also demanded Polish priests and mass services in Polish. After the end of World War I and the rebirth of independent Poland , many Poles left the region and returned to Poland, although a sizeable community stayed. To take care of the remaining Polish population in the region and to facilitate the return of Poles to Poland, a Polish Vice-Consulate was established in Essen in 1920, later elevated into

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5754-418: The Potsdam Agreement , whereby Germany renounced all claims to territory outside East and West Germany. As the result of this treaty, Germany's recognition of the Oder–Neisse line as the border was formalised by the re-united Germany in the German–Polish Border Treaty on 14 November 1990 and by the repeal of Article 23 of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany under which German states outside

5891-430: The Potsdam Conference , held from 17 July until 2 August 1945, placed all of the areas east of the Oder–Neisse line, whether recognised by the international community as part of Germany until 1939 or occupied by Germany during World War II, under the jurisdiction of other countries, pending a final Peace Conference. The Allies also agreed that: XII. Orderly transfer of German populations. The Three Governments [of

6028-417: The Second Peace of Thorn (1466), Warmia and the Malbork Land (comprising northern parts of Pomesania and Pogesania ) became subject to the Polish Crown as a part of Royal Prussia , a region initially holding considerable autonomy and continuing to use the German language as official, but ultimately becoming fully integrated with the Crown of Poland upon conclusion of the Union of Lublin . Masuria and

6165-443: The Silesian duke Bolesław II Rogatka sold it to the Ascanian margraves of Brandenburg in 1249. Brandenburg also acquired the castellany of Santok from Duke Przemysł I of Greater Poland and made it the nucleus of its Neumark ("New March") region. The Bishopric of Lebus remained a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Gniezno until 1424, when it passed under the jurisdiction of the Archbishopric of Magdeburg . The Lubusz Land

6302-449: The Soviet Union after World War II . In contrast to the lands awarded to the restored Polish state by the Treaty of Versailles after World War I , the German territories lost with the post-World War II Potsdam Agreement were either almost exclusively inhabited by Germans before 1945 (the bulk of East Prussia , Lower Silesia , Farther Pomerania , and parts of Western Pomerania , Lusatia , and Neumark ), mixed German– Polish with

6439-429: The Teutonic Knights in the 13th and 14th centuries. Under the Teutonic Order, the region's towns were founded, woodlands were cleared and marshlands made arable to be settled by colonists, predominantly from German-speaking areas but also from neighboring Polish and Lithuanian lands. The area became predominantly German during the Ostsiedlung , either almost exclusively ( Sambia , Natangia , and Bartia together forming

6576-421: The fragmentation of Poland after the death of Polish ruler Bolesław III Wrymouth in 1138. The Dukes of Pomerania then became independent, and later were vassals of the Duchy of Saxony from 1164 to 1181, of the Holy Roman Empire from 1181 to 1185, of Denmark from 1185 to 1227 and finally, from 1227 on, were under the Holy Roman Empire (including periods of vassalage to the Margraves of Brandenburg ). By

6713-403: The Bermudadreieck is the Anneliese Brost Musikforum Ruhr , opened in 2016. Founded in 1919, Bochum's orchestra, the Bochumer Symphoniker , has developed over the course of its history into one of the most important concert orchestras in western Germany. Since October 28, 2016, the Anneliese Brost Musikforum Ruhr has been a permanent venue. Tung-Chieh Chuang has been General Music Director of

6850-537: The Bochum Symphony Orchestra and Artistic Director of the Anneliese Brost Musikforum Ruhr since the 2021/2022 season. The Bochum Philharmonic Choir gives about four to five concerts a year and usually performs together with the Bochum Symphony Orchestra. In one of the venues, the Audimax of the Ruhr University Bochum , there is also one of the most modern organs from the Klais Orgelbau with 82 registers. The free rock festival Bochum Total has been taking place in Bochum city center since 1986. With 900,000 spectators, it

6987-427: The Confederation (a failed attempt to include these lands in the German Empire (1848–49) was undertaken by the Frankfurt Parliament ), as did the Austrian-held partition of Poland (the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria ), Transleithania , as well as the German-speaking cantons of Switzerland and the French region of Alsace. In the following years, Prussia superseded Austria in the role of the primary driving force of

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7124-423: The Duchies of Troppau and of Krnov north of the Opava river, as well as the strategically important Kłodzko Land, a part of the core territory of the Kingdom of Bohemia. As the result of the peaceful influx of German -speakers, Lusatia, Silesia and the Kłodzko Land became predominantly German-speaking. Czech continued to be spoken in parts of Austrian Silesia, in the Hlučín Region of Upper Silesia and in

7261-440: The Federal Republic could formerly have declared their accession. Germany went from a territory of 468,787 km before the 1938 annexation of Austria to 357,022 km after the 1990 reunification of Germany, a loss of 24%. Despite its acquisition of the formerly German territory, the war also saw Poland's territory reduced by about 20% overall because of its losses in the east to the Soviets. Farther Pomerania comprised

7398-438: The German invasion of Poland , which started World War II in September 1939, the Nazis carried out mass arrests of local Polish activists, who were then sent to concentration camps. Local Polish premises and seats of organizations were looted and expropriated by Nazi Germany. During the war, Germany operated a prison in the city with three forced labour subcamps within present-day city limits, an additional detention center,

7535-441: The German settlers, took root in the region, also benefiting the Slavic population. By the late 14th century, 130 towns and 1300 villages had adopted German law . Silesian cities such as Jelenia Góra (Hirschberg), Lwówek Śląski (Löwenberg) and Złotoryja (Goldberg) had typical architecture, being centered around a central square, the ring, which became known in Polish as rynek . German craftsmen and miners also started settling

7672-411: The German state, and control over the borderlands would shift back and forth between the two polities over the centuries to come. Mieszko's son and successor, king Bolesław I Chrobry , upon the 1018 Peace of Bautzen expanded the southern part of the realm but lost control over the lands of Western Pomerania on the Baltic coast. After pagan revolts and a Bohemian invasion in the 1030s, Duke Casimir I

7809-400: The Gestapo, under threat of arrest, demanded 30 leading Polish activists to appear at the Gestapo station in Bochum and present lists of members of Polish organizations, but again to no avail. Due to increasing German repressions, many Polish organizations suspended public activity. After the outbreak of the Second World War , all remaining Polish organizations in the Ruhr faced dissolution by

7946-458: The Harpener Hellweg near the Berghofer Holz nature reserve (3.4%), at Westenfelder Straße in the borough of Wattenscheid (3.47%), or at Kemnader Straße, which begins at the banks of the Ruhr in Stiepel (71 m, 233 ft), and rises to its highest point in the centre of Stiepel (196 m, 643 ft, a 5.1% increase). The city extends north to south 13.0 km (8.1 mi) and 17.1 km (10.6 mi) east to west. The perimeter of

8083-405: The Kłodzko Land were contested between Bohemia and Poland. Several independent duchies formed, and eventually some attached themselves to the Kingdom of Bohemia , an electorate of the Holy Roman Empire , while the Kłodzko Land became a constituent part of the kingdom itself. In the 14th century, the Treaty of Namysłów had King Casimir III the Great give up all Polish claims to Silesia and ceded

8220-462: The Nazis. On 11 September 1939, 249 leading Polish activists from the Ruhr were arrested and then placed in concentration camps . At least 60 of them were murdered for their activities by Nazi Germany. Headquarters of Polish organizations and premises in Bochum were looted and expropriated by Nazi Germany. The Gestapo closed the Polish monastery in Bochum, which was then converted into a transit camp for people deported from German-occupied Lithuania . It

8357-411: The Poles had been expelled. The remainder of Polish territory was annexed by the Soviet Union (see Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact ) or made into the German-controlled General Government occupation zone. After the German attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941, the district of Białystok , which included the Białystok , Bielsk Podlaski , Grajewo , Łomża , Sokółka , Volkovysk and Grodno counties,

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8494-587: The Polish Movement in the Rhine-Westphalian Industrial Districts ( Zentralstelle fur Uberwachung der Polenbewegung im Rheinisch-Westfalischen Industriebezirke ) was established by the Germans in Bochum. Other measures included instructing teachers and officials that their duty was to promote a German national consciousness. A decree was issued that ordered all miners to speak German. Discrimination started to affect issues of basic existence. The Settlement Law of 1904 made it difficult for Poles who wished to return east to purchase land. In 1908, laws discriminating against

8631-466: The Polish community of the Ruhr area was Bochum, and since 1905, many organizations and enterprises were based at Am Kortländer Street, which was hence nicknamed "Little Warsaw ". The former Redemptorist Monastery in Bochum, which was closed down by the Prussian government during the Kulturkampf in 1873, was reopened and became a Polish religious center. The rights of the Ruhrpolen as citizens were restricted in many ways by anti-Polish policies of

8768-459: The Polish language were applied to the entire German Empire. In response to harassment by Prussian authorities, the organisations of Ruhr Poles expanded what had been their purely cultural character and restored their links with Polish organisations in the east. The League of Poles in Germany, founded at Bochum in 1894, merged with the ''Straż'' Movement set up in 1905. In 1913, the combined group formed an executive committee, which worked alongside

8905-497: The Potsdam protocols, without German agreement to an Oder–Neisse line boundary there could be no Peace Treaty and no German Reunification. The debate affected Cold War politics and diplomacy and played an important role in the negotiations leading up to the reunification of Germany in 1990. Bochum Bochum ( / ˈ b oʊ x ʊ m / BOHKH -uum , also US : /- ə m / -⁠əm , German: [ˈboːxʊm] ; Westphalian : Baukem )

9042-415: The Restorer (reigned 1040–1058) again united most of the former Piast realm, including Silesia and Lubusz Land , on both sides of the middle Oder River but without Western Pomerania, which returned to of the Polish state only under Bolesław III Wrymouth from 1116 to 1121, when the noble House of Griffins established the Duchy of Pomerania . On Bolesław's death in 1138, Poland was for almost 200 years

9179-466: The Rhineland and Westphalia. In the postwar period, Bochum began developing as a cultural centre of the Ruhr area. In 1965, the Ruhr University was opened, the first modern university in the Ruhr area and the first to be founded in Germany since World War II . Since the seventies, Bochum's industry has moved from heavy industry to the service sector. Between 1960 and 1980, the coal mines all closed. Other industries, such as automotive , compensated for

9316-423: The Ruhr Area (out of roughly five million) are of Polish descent. Former eastern territories of Germany In present-day Germany, the former eastern territories of Germany ( German : ehemalige deutsche Ostgebiete ) refer to those territories east of the current eastern border of Germany , i.e. the Oder–Neisse line , which historically had been considered German and which were annexed by Poland and

9453-461: The Ruhr area, although Nazi Germany increased both its invigilation of Polish activists and organizations, and the censorship of Polish press. Polish activists, expecting a German attack, secured the files of Polish organizations. On 15 July 1939, the Gestapo entered the headquarters of the Union of Poles in Germany in Bochum, searched it and interrogated its chief Michał Wesołowski. The Nazis then carried out mass searches of Polish organizations in

9590-569: The Ruhr is located, but also Baden and the Palatinate . Polish church services were held in numerous churches, often in multiple churches in the same cities (as in Bochum, Castrop, Dortmund, Duisburg, Essen, Gelsenkirchen, Herne, Lünen and Oberhausen), however, in the interbellum they were gradually limited, prohibited or cancelled. In 1934, the last Polish councilman was removed from the Bottrop city council. According to 1935 estimates, Polish organizations in Westphalia and Rhineland had 21,500 members. In early 1939, there were no anti-Polish riots in

9727-485: The Ruhrhöhen (highest elevations) between the Ruhr and Emscher rivers at the border of the southern and northern Ruhr coal region. The highest point of the city is at Kemnader Straße (Kemnader Street) in Stiepel at 196 metres (643 ft) above sea level; the lowest point is 43 metres (141 ft) at the Blumenkamp in Hordel . The terrain of Bochum is characterised by rolling hills that rarely have more than three per cent graduation. Steeper graduation can be found at

9864-549: The Ruhrpolen arriving around the 1870s. The migrants found employment in the mining, steel and construction industries. In 1913 there were between 300,000 and 350,000 Poles and 150,000 Masurians. Of those, one-third were born in the Ruhr area. The Protestant Masurians did not accept being identified with Catholic Poles and underlined their loyalty to Prussia and the German Empire. The first Polish organization Jedność

10001-537: The Soviet Union, the United States and Great Britain], having considered the question in all its aspects, recognize that the transfer to Germany of German populations, or elements thereof, remaining in Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary, will have to be undertaken. They agree that any transfers that take place should be effected in an orderly and humane manner. because in the words of Winston Churchill Expulsion

10138-550: The United States; and was formally recognized by East Germany in 1950, by the Treaty of Zgorzelec , under pressure from Stalin . In 1952, recognition of the Oder–Neisse line as a permanent boundary was one of Stalin's conditions for the Soviet Union to agree to a reunification of Germany (see Stalin Note ). The offer was rejected by Konrad Adenauer , Chancellor of West Germany , at least in part because one of Stalin's other conditions

10275-425: The annexed areas of Poland into administrative units: The territories had an area of 94,000 km and a population of 10,000,000. Throughout the war, the annexed Polish territories were subject to German colonisation. Because of the lack of settlers from Germany itself, the colonists were primarily ethnic Germans relocated from other parts of Eastern Europe. The ethnic Germans were then resettled in homes from which

10412-517: The area. In contrast the Polish-speaking parts of Lower and Middle Silesia, commonly described until the late 19th century as the Polish side , were mostly Germanised in the 18th and 19th centuries, except for a few patches and a larger area along the northeastern frontier. Originally inhabited mainly by the pagan Old Prussians , the regions were conquered and incorporated into the state of

10549-533: The arms industry, coal mines and steel plants and those unable to leave. During the Holocaust, in 1942–1943, local Jews were deported to German-occupied Czechoslovakia , Latvia and Poland . Bochum was first bombed heavily in May and June 1943. On 13 May 1943, the city hall was hit, destroying the top floor, and leaving the next two floors in flames. On 4 November 1944, in an attack involving 700 British bombers,

10686-847: The artists. Often artists also play here who can be heard in the Carnegie Hall , in the Concertgebouw , in the Berlin Philharmonic or in the Great Hall of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory . Again and again. The initiators, Dr. Reinhard Cebulla and his wife Anna, received the Badge of Honor from the city of Bochum in 2013 and the Wattenscheid St. Gertrudis Prize in 2014. Bochum is connected to

10823-467: The central part of the region), mixed German- Lithuanian (the North-Eastern part called Lithuania Minor including Sudovia , Nadrovia and Scalovia ), or mixed German – Polish ( Masurians , Warmiacy ) comprising the southern ( Sasna and Galindia , together forming Masuria ) and western ( Warmia , Pomesania , and Pogesania , the latter two together forming Powiśle ) rim of the region. By

10960-585: The cities of Bochum and Gelsenkirchen. The Bochum Stadtbahn is a single underground line connecting the University of Bochum to Herne , and the Bochum/Gelsenkirchen tramway network is made up of several lines, partially underground, connecting to Gelsenkirchen, Hattingen and Witten . Public transport in the city is priced according to the fare system of the VRR transport association. As one of

11097-595: The city limits is 67.2 km (41.8 mi). It is surrounded by the cities of (in clockwise direction) Herne , Castrop-Rauxel , Dortmund , Witten , Hattingen , Essen and Gelsenkirchen . There is sedimentary rock of carbon and chalk . The geological strata can be visited in the former quarry of Klosterbusch in Querenburg and at the Geological Gardens in Wiemelhausen. The urban area

11234-464: The city limts Bochum features an Oceanic climate ( Köppen : Cfb ; Trewartha : Dobk ) characterized by cool winters and short warm summers. Extreme temperatures are uncommon. However, temperatures rising above 30 °C (86 °F) are to be expected on multiple days in summer and the climate station closest to the City did record a peak temperature of 40 °C (104 °F) on July 25, 2019. On

11371-686: The demised Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth . During the Napoleonic era the Greater Polish territories and the Chełmno Land formed part of the Duchy of Warsaw following the Treaties of Tilsit , and Danzig was granted a status of a Free City . However, after the Congress of Vienna , the Polish duchy was again partitioned between Russia and Prussia. The Congress of Vienna established as

11508-508: The eastern Hohenzollern-ruled territories with a predominantly Polish population (especially the formerly Polish territories of Posen and West Prussia) increasingly became a target of aggressive Germanisation efforts , German settlement, anti-Catholic campaigns ( Kulturkampf ), as well as disfranchisement and expropriations of Poles, and finally annexed following the North German Confederation Treaty (1866). At

11645-538: The eastern part of the Prussian Province of Pomerania . It stretched roughly from the Oder River in the west to Pomerelia in the east, and roughly corresponds to today's Polish West Pomeranian Voivodeship . Along with Farther Pomerania, a small area of Western Pomerania including Stettin (now Szczecin ) and Swinemünde (now Świnoujście ) was transferred to Poland in 1945. The Pomeranian parts of

11782-476: The eastern territories with a predominantly or almost exclusively German population (East Brandenburg, East Prussia, Hither and Farther Pomerania, and the bulk of Silesia ) remained with Germany. The historically Polish and strategically vital for Poland but predominantly German-speaking city of Danzig formed henceforth with its surrounding areas the Free City of Danzig , a self-governing territory supervised by

11919-677: The end of the Middle Ages , because of an influx of Germanic settlers, the assimilation of the Slavic population, the introduction of German town law , the influence of Germanic customs, and the trade of the Hanse , the area had been largely Germanized . Following the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, Farther Pomerania became part of Brandenburg–Prussia . In 1772 the Lauenburg and Bütow Land and

12056-468: The end of the war, 38% of Bochum had been destroyed. 70,000 citizens were homeless and at least 4,095 dead. Of Bochum's more than 90,000 homes, only 25,000 remained for the 170,000 citizens who survived the war, many by fleeing to other areas. Most of the remaining buildings were damaged, many with only one usable room. Only 1,000 houses in Bochum remained undamaged after the war. Only two of 122 schools remained unscathed; others were totally destroyed. Hunger

12193-617: The end of the war. The precise location of the border was left open, and the western Allies also accepted in general the principles of the Oder River being the future western border of Poland and of population transfer being the way to prevent future border disputes. The open questions were whether the border should follow the Eastern or Lusatian Neisse rivers and whether Stettin , the traditional seaport of Berlin , should remain in Germany or be included in Poland. Originally, Germany

12330-754: The few Ruhr area cities, Bochum is not directly connected with the German waterway net; the closest link is in the more northern located Herne at the Rhine-Herne Canal . In the south the border of Bochum is marked by the Ruhr . Up to the first half of the 19th century it was one of the most-travelled rivers in Europe and was mainly used for coal departure. Aside from cruise ships, it is no longer used for commercial navigation. The closest airports are Essen/Mülheim Airport (27 km), Dortmund Airport (31 km) and Düsseldorf Airport (47 km). To reach

12467-721: The former Starostwo of Draheim were annexed by the King in Prussia and integrated into the Province of Pomerania of the Kingdom of Prussia , though not into the Holy Roman Empire, and did not become part of Germany until being included in the German Confederation in 1815. After the Napoleonic Wars , Swedish Pomerania was merged into the Prussian province in 1815, both now constituting the Province of Pomerania . In 1938,

12604-491: The former eastern territories of Germany had been under Polish rule several times from the late 10th century on, when Mieszko I acquired at least significant parts of them. Mieszko's son Bolesław I established a bishopric in the Kołobrzeg area in 1000–1005–07, before the area was lost by Poland again to pagan Slavic tribes. The Duchy of Pomerania was established as a vassal state of Poland in 1121, which it remained until

12741-559: The former province of Posen and of West Prussia that were not restored as part of the Second Polish Republic were administered as Grenzmark Posen-Westpreußen (the German Province of Posen–West Prussia) until 1939. The defeat of Germany and the imposed terms of peace left a sense of injustice among the population. The subsequent interwar economic crisis acted as a fertile ground for irredentist claims that

12878-486: The historic post-war German Democratic Republic, and its counterpart five successor states in the current reunited Germany . However, because people and institutions in the states traditionally considered as Middle Germany , like the three southern new states Saxony-Anhalt , the Free State of Saxony and the Free State of Thuringia , still use the term Middle Germany when referring to their area and its institutions,

13015-509: The integration failed. In 2007, the new synagogue of the Jewish community of Bochum, Herne und Hattingen was opened. In 2008, Nokia closed down its production plant, causing the loss of thousands of jobs, both at the plant and at local suppliers. 20,000 people showed up to protest against the closing. Within months, the Canadian high-tech company, Research in Motion , announced plans to open

13152-468: The international recognition of the Polish government-in-exile, which had been evacuated in 1939. The conference agreed that the Polish eastern border would follow the Curzon Line and that Poland would receive substantial territorial compensation in the west from Germany, but the exact border was to be determined later. A "Committee on Dismemberment of Germany" was to be set up to decide whether Germany

13289-519: The issue of the eastern German border, which was confirmed as being along the Oder–Neisse line, but the final article of the memorandum said that the final decisions concerning Germany, and hence the detailed alignment of Germany's eastern boundaries, would be subject to a separate peace treaty; at which the three Allied signatories committed themselves to respect the terms of the Potsdam memorandum. Hence, so long as these Allied Powers remained committed to

13426-483: The loss of jobs. The Opel Astra was assembled at the Opel Bochum plant ; however, by 2009, the factory was in serious financial difficulties and in December 2012, Opel announced that it would stop vehicle production at the Bochum plant in 2016. In the course of a comprehensive community reform in 1975, Wattenscheid , a formerly independent city, was integrated into the city of Bochum. A local referendum against

13563-625: The main ethnic groups of three of the western republics of the Soviet Union – and many towns that were primarily inhabited by Poles and Jews. The Jewish communities in this region were mostly exterminated in the Holocaust and the Polish communities were mostly expelled to the restored Polish state after World War II, the communist ruled Polish People's Republic . Poles from the northern part of Kresy were primarily resettled in Pomerania and Poles from Galicia were primarily resettled in Silesia , e.g.

13700-456: The nearest active climate station). These comparably mild conditions in Winter permit the planting of plants that would either not be reliably hardy or not able to bloom throughout Germany like Trachycarpus palms, Summer lilac , Paulownia tomentosa and Rosemary . However, winters can be unpredictable with strong fluctuations in temperatures: In mid-February 2021, the city was affected by

13837-603: The north (tributaries of the Rhine ), it is the second largest city of Westphalia after Dortmund, and the fourth largest city of the Ruhr after Dortmund, Essen and Duisburg. It lies at the centre of the Ruhr, Germany's largest urban area, in the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Region , the second biggest metropolitan region by GDP in the European Union, and belongs to the region of Arnsberg . Bochum

13974-489: The northern part of the dissolved Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia became part of the province. At the turn of the 20th century, the total population of the province of almost 1.7 million inhabitants had a Polish-speaking minority of less than 1%. The medieval Lubusz Land , on both sides of the Oder River up to the Spree in the west, including Lubusz ( Lebus ) itself, also formed part of Mieszko's realm. Poland lost Lubusz when

14111-524: The other German state of West Germany . When focusing on the period before World War II, "eastern Germany" is used to describe all the territories east of the Elbe ( East Elbia ), as reflected in the works of sociologist Max Weber and political theorist Carl Schmitt , but because of the border changes in the 20th century, after World War II the term "East Germany" and eastern Germany in English has meant

14248-434: The other extreme, freezing temperatures are common between mid-November and late March. In some years, however, frosts may occur as late as early May. Temperatures below −10 °C are, especially in recent years, only seen on rare occasions. The city lies within the warmer extent of the 8a USDA plant hardiness zone (−12.2 to −9.4 °C or 10 to 15 °F). Some winters may pass without a frost below −5 °C (data from

14385-544: The other hand, the remaining parts of the lands ruled by the House of Hohenzollern which were not included in the Holy Roman Empire, namely the German-speaking Prussian nucleus ( East Prussia ), and the newly acquired predominantly Polish- or Kashubian-speaking territorial share of the collapsed and dismembered Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth ( Grand Duchy of Posen and West Prussia ), continued as external to

14522-639: The parts of Upper Silesia located in Poland, including the former Czechoslovak part of Cieszyn Silesia annexed by Poland in 1938. The Senate of the Free City of Danzig , elected by the Volkstag already also dominated by the Nazi Party at that time, voted to become a part of Germany again, but Poles and Jews were deprived of their voting rights and all non- Nazi political parties were banned. Two decrees by Adolf Hitler (8 and 12 October 1939) divided

14659-471: The region and interrogated Polish activists, however, they did not obtain the desired lists of Polish activists, which had been previously hidden by Poles. Nazi terror and persecutions rapidly intensified. The Nazis limited freedom of assembly , increased censorship and confiscated Polish press for reporting on the persecution and arrests of Poles. In response, many Poles from the region came to Bochum for organizational and information meetings. On 24 August 1939,

14796-468: The region since the 19th century were leading to a kind of division of labour between the two river catchments, pumping drinking water from the Ruhr into the municipal supply system and discharging waste water mainly into the Emscher system. Today approximately 10% of the waste water in the Emscher catchment is discharged via the Hüller Bach. and treated in the centralized waste water treatment plant of

14933-533: The region's mountainous areas. The Bohemian Lands were under the rule of the House of Jagiellon in personal union with the Kingdom of Hungary until the Battle of Mohács in 1526. Afterwards, they were ruled in personal union with the Kingdom of Hungary and the Archduchy of Austria by the Holy Roman Emperors of the House of Habsburg , finally ceasing de facto (but not de jure ) to exist as

15070-473: The restoration of German unity and secured this position by abolishing the German Confederation in the Peace of Prague . Austria was in turn transformed into poly-ethnic Austria-Hungary , abstained from further German unification efforts and abandoned forced Germanization. Thus, the planned German unification was to be accomplished in the Lesser German solution version. With rise of nationalism ,

15207-481: The results were as follows: The Bochum city council governs the city alongside the mayor. The most recent city council election was held on 13 September 2020, and the results were as follows: Bochum dates from the 9th century, when Charlemagne set up a royal court at the junction of two important trade routes. It was first officially mentioned in 1041 as Cofbuokheim in a document of the archbishops of Cologne. In 1321, Count Engelbert II von der Marck granted Bochum

15344-723: The southern part of Pomesania and Pogesania stayed part of the rump Teutonic state (called thereafter Monastic Prussia or Teutonic Prussia ) which became a German fief of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth , finally secularised in 1525 to become the Ducal Prussia . The latter later emancipated, taking advantage of the Russo-Swedish Deluge , and merged with the Electorate of Brandenburg to form Brandenburg–Prussia, shortly thereafter becoming

15481-516: The steel plant, Bochumer Verein, was hit. One of the largest steel plants in Germany, more than 10,000 high-explosive and 130,000 incendiary bombs were stored there, setting off a conflagration that destroyed the surrounding neighbourhoods. An aerial photo shows the devastation. The town centre of Bochum was a strategic target during the Oil Campaign . In 150 air raids on Bochum, over 1,300 bombs were dropped on Bochum and Gelsenkirchen . By

15618-560: The term Ostdeutschland is still ambiguous. As various Germanic tribes had left present-day Poland and East Germany, West Slavic tribes moved to these places from the 6th century onward. Duke Mieszko I of the Polans , from his stronghold in the Gniezno area, united various neighboring tribes in the second half of the 10th century, formed the first Polish state and became the first historically recorded Piast duke. His realm bordered

15755-652: The territory ceded to Poland, Czechoslovakia and Lithuania in 1919–1922 should be returned to Germany, which paved the way for the Nazi takeover of the government . In October 1938 Hlučín Area ( Hlučínsko in Czech, Hultschiner Ländchen in German) of Moravian-Silesian Region , which had been ceded to Czechoslovakia under the Treaty of Versailles, was annexed by the Third Reich as a part of areas lost by Czechoslovakia under

15892-610: The territory of the German Democratic Republic. In German, only one corresponding term Ostdeutschland exists, meaning both East Germany and Eastern Germany. The rather ambiguous German term never gained as widespread use for the GDR during its existence, as did the English designation, or the derived demonym Ossi (Eastie), and only following the German reunification has it started to be commonly used to denote both

16029-499: The three Partitions of Poland and had been part of the Kingdom of Prussia and later the German Empire for the 100 years of the non-existence of Polish state. The territories retroceded to Poland in 1919 were those with a Polish majority, such as Greater Poland , as well as Pomerelia , historically the part of Poland providing its access to the sea. Restoration of Pomerelia to Poland meant the loss of Germany's territorial contiguousness to East Prussia making it an exclave . Most of

16166-568: The time of German Unification in 1871, the Kingdom of Prussia was the largest and dominant part of the North German Confederation , the predecessor of the newly formed German Empire . The Treaty of Versailles of 1919, which ended the war, restored the independence of Poland, known as the Second Polish Republic , and Germany was compelled to cede territories to it, most of which were taken by Prussia in

16303-550: The unilateral implementation of a Polish government in these areas. After World War II, several memoranda of the US State Department warned against awarding Poland such extensive lands, apprehensive of creation of new long-standing tension in the area. In particular, the State Department acknowledged that Polish claims to Lower Silesia had no ethnic or historic justification. Under Stalin's pressure,

16440-468: The use of the Polish language in schools (since 1873), in mines (since 1899), and at public gatherings (since 1908). Polish publishing houses and bookstores were often searched by the German police, and Polish patriotic books and publications were confiscated. Polish booksellers whose books were confiscated were sentenced by German courts to fines or prison. In 1909, the Central Office for Monitoring

16577-543: The war, Bochum was occupied by the British , who established two camps to house people displaced by the war . The majority of them were former Polish Zwangsarbeiter , forced labourers , many of them from the Bochumer Verein. Allied bombing destroyed 83% of the built up area of Bochum during World War II. Today around a third of Bochum consists of buildings from before World War II. More than sixty years after

16714-474: The war, bombs continue to be found in the region, usually by construction workers. One found in October 2008 in Bochum town centre led to the evacuation of 400 and involved hundreds of emergency workers. A month earlier, a buried bomb exploded in neighbouring Hattingen , injuring 17 people. After the war, Bochum was part of West Germany and the newly established state of North Rhine-Westphalia, consisting of

16851-697: The war. The status of Poland was discussed but this was complicated by the fact that Poland was then controlled by the Red Army . The conference agreed to reorganise the Provisionary Polish Government , which had been set up by the Red Army, by the inclusion of some politicians of the Polish government-in-exile , and to transform it into the Provisional Government of National Unity , with an unfulfilled promise to hold democratic and fair elections . That effectively ended

16988-455: The western part of the Kłodzko Land ( Czech Corner ). Sorbian was spoken in parts of Lusatia, while Polish prevailed in Middle Silesia north of the Oder river, in parts of Austrian Silesia and in Upper Silesia . In the latter case, the Germans who arrived during the Middle Ages became mostly Polonised , especially with the advent of the industrial revolution which created employment and business opportunities, attracting numerous Poles to

17125-448: Was subjected to fragmentation and ruled by Bolesław's sons and by their successors, who were often in conflict with one another. Władysław I the Elbow-high , who was crowned king of Poland in 1320, achieved a partial reunification, but the Silesian and Masovian duchies remained independent Piast holdings. In the 12th to the 14th centuries, German settlers, most of whom spoke Low German , moved into Central and Eastern Europe in

17262-406: Was "attached to" but not incorporated into East Prussia, and Eastern Galicia ( District of Galicia ), which included the cities of Lwów , Stanislawów and Tarnopol , was made part of the General Government. The final decision to move Poland 's boundary westward was made by the United States , the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union at the Yalta Conference in February 1945, shortly before

17399-456: Was destroyed during air raids in 1943, rebuilt afterwards, and eventually demolished in 2012. Shortly before demolition, the church bells were sent to Poland. Polish men and women from German-occupied Poland were deported by the Germans to slave labour in the region, including to the subcamps of the Buchenwald concentration camp in Bochum, Dortmund, Essen, Unna and Witten. It is estimated that in modern times, some 150,000 inhabitants of

17536-466: Was established by the German authorities in Bochum in 1909. On 28 October 1938, 250 Polish or stateless Jews were expelled from Bochum to Poland. On 9 November 1938, Kristallnacht , the Bochum synagogue was set on fire and there was rioting against Jewish citizens. The first Jews from Bochum were deported to Nazi concentration camps and many Jewish institutions and homes were destroyed. Some 500 Jewish citizens are known by name to have been killed in

17673-434: Was for Germany to never join NATO ( similarly to Austria ). The then official West German government position on the status of the former territories of Germany east of the Oder and Neisse rivers was that the areas were "temporarily under Polish [or Soviet] administration", because the border regulation at the Potsdam Conference had been taken as preliminary provisions to be revisited at a final peace conference which, due to

17810-1015: Was founded in 1876 in Dortmund by bookseller Hipolit Sibilski. In 1890, Wiarus Polski , the first Polish newspaper in the region, was established in Bochum . Various Polish organizations were founded in the region, including Towarzystwo św. Michała ("St. Michael's Club") in 1888, Związek Polaków w Niemczech ("League of Poles in Germany") in 1894, a regional branch of the "Sokół" Polish Gymnastic Society in 1898, and Zjednoczenie Zawodowe Polskie  [ pl ] ("Polish Professional Union") in 1902. Dozens of Polish bookstores were founded in various places, including Dortmund, Bochum, Herne , Witten , Recklinghausen , Oberhausen , Habinghorst  [ de ] (present-day district of Castrop-Rauxel ), Ückendorf  [ de ] (present-day district of Gelsenkirchen ), Bruckhausen  [ de ] and Laar (present-day districts of Duisburg ). There were also various Polish companies, co-operative shops, banks, sports clubs and singing clubs. In 1904,

17947-431: Was part of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown from 1373 to 1415. After Germanic tribes left the area in the Migration Period , Lechitic tribes began to settle Silesia, while Lusatia was settled by the Milceni and the Polabian Slavs and the Kłodzko Land was settled by Bohemians . In the 10th century Mieszko I of Poland made Silesia part of his realm. From the 10th century to the 12th century, Silesia, Lusatia and

18084-416: Was rampant. A resident of neighbouring Essen was quoted on 23 April 1945 as saying, "Today, I used up my last potato... it will be a difficult time till the new [autumn] potatoes are ready to be picked – if they're not stolen." The US army ground advance into Germany reached Bochum in April 1945. Encountering desultory resistance, the US 79th Infantry Division captured the city on 10 April 1945. After

18221-405: Was the first of its kind in Germany. The nearly 4-acre (16,000 m ) park is the site of an old coal mine, the Zeche Friederika, which operated from 1750 to 1907. In 1962, the property came under environmental protection and a decade later was turned into a geological garden. Other scenic areas include the West Park, Lake Kemnade, Lake Ümmingen and the municipal forest, Weitmarer Holz. Bochum

18358-402: Was the main center of the Polish community of the Ruhr , being the seat of various Polish organizations and enterprises. The Poles were subjected to anti-Polish policies aimed at Germanisation , and the Central Office for Monitoring the Polish Movement in the Rhine-Westphalian Industrial District ( Zentralstelle fur Uberwachung der Polenbewegung im Rheinisch-Westfalischen Industriebezirke )

18495-421: Was to be divided into six nations and, if so, what borders and interrelations the new German states would have. To pressure the Western Allies regarding the verbal commitments of Tehran and Yalta, the Soviets began transferring regions east of the Oder–Neisse line to Polish control, although these areas were still officially part of the Soviet occupation zone of Germany. The US government strongly protested to

18632-454: Was to retain Stettin, and the Poles were to annex all of East Prussia with Königsberg . Eventually, however, Stalin decided to keep Königsberg for strategic grounds (it would also be a year-round warm-water port for the Soviet Navy) and argued that the Poles should receive Stettin instead. The wartime Polish government-in-exile had little say in the decisions. The Yalta Conference agreed to split Germany into four occupation zones after

18769-410: Was violently expelled to Germany , with their possessions being looted and stolen. The ceding of the east German lands to Poland was done in large part to compensate Poland for losing the Kresy lands east of the Curzon line , a region that was annexed by the Soviet Union after the German invasion of Poland in 1939. This territory had large populations of Ukrainians , Belarusians and Lithuanians –

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