Świętochłowice

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Świętochłowice
Coat of arms of Świętochłowice
Świętochłowice (Poland)
Świętochłowice
Świętochłowice
Basic data
State : Poland
Voivodeship : Silesia
Powiat : District-free city
Area : 13.31  km²
Geographic location : 50 ° 19 ′  N , 18 ° 55 ′  E Coordinates: 50 ° 19 ′ 0 ″  N , 18 ° 55 ′ 0 ″  E
Height : 281 m npm
Residents : 49,762
(Jun. 30, 2019)
Postal code : 41-600 to 41-608
Telephone code : (+48) 32
License plate : SW
Economy and Transport
Street : Gliwice - Katowice
Rail route : Katowice – Gliwice
Next international airport : Katowice
Gmina
Gminatype: city
Residents: 49,762
(Jun. 30, 2019)
Community number  ( GUS ): 2476011
Administration (as of 2018)
City President : Daniel Beger
Address:
ul.Katowicka 54 41-600 Świętochłowice
Website : www.swietochlowice.pl



Listen to Świętochłowice [ ˌɕvʲɛ̃tɔxwɔˈviʦɛ ] ? / i ( German : Schwientochlowitz ) is a city in the Silesian Voivodeship in Poland . With around 55,000 inhabitants, it forms its own urban district , as of 2014 it is the most densely populated urban district in Poland with 3,886 inhabitants / km². Świętochłowice is located on the Rawa River . Audio file / audio sample

geography

POL Świętochłowice map.svg

The city is about 7 km west of the voivodeship capital Katowice, centrally located on the Upper Silesian Plate in southern Poland. This is also where the Upper Silesian industrial area is located, with abundant hard coal deposits . Świętochłowice occupies an area of ​​13.31 km², the north-south extension is around 6 km, the west-east extension about 3.7 km, the city limits are 23.22 km long. In the east the city borders on Chorzów , in the west on Ruda Śląska and in the north the urban area of Bytom begins .

City structure

The city of Świętochłowice consists of five districts:

history

Cemetery gate

The history of Schwientochlowitz goes back to the 12th century. At this time the first settlement emerged in what is now the city area, a second, larger village was also founded a little later. The name of the villages Swentochlowicze was first mentioned on May 25, 1313. 1332 there is talk of two places binum Swentochlouice - the older, smaller one was later given the addition of small, the younger with the addition of large, and both existed as separate villages. The development of the two localities was also different, so the older one emerged as a disorganized, little clustered village . The larger town was planned as a street village, probably under the influence of the German colonization in the east , whereby only a few new settlers came to these easternmost areas of Silesia . At the turn of the 13th to the 14th century, this place received Magdeburg city rights . Nevertheless, all of these places were then no more than small villages with a very high Slavic population. In the 15th century there were only twelve homeowners in Schwientochlowitz. They also belonged to the Magdalene parish in Beuthen and to the local rulership until the 19th century .

industrialization

Schwientochlowitz only began to develop rapidly with the onset of industrialization. In 1790 Nieder-, Mittel- and Ober-Schwientochlowitz were finally united in one place. In 1828 Carl Lazarus acquired Count Henckel von Donnersmarck Schwientochlowitz for his family, which owned large industrial estates in Upper Silesia. The estate of the von Kamienitzky and Schwientochlowitz family and at the beginning of the 19th century a. a. belongs to the landowner Johann Adam von Porembsky and Kornitz (1785–1857). With the new owner, however, the appearance of the place changed fundamentally. Now there was a rapid development of industry, especially mining and metallurgy . Schwientochlowitz developed from a village community into an industrial center. Carl Lazarus bought a majority stake in the Mathilde mine in 1827 and built the Bethlen-Falva ironworks (today Huta Florian ) in 1828 . In 1831 coal mining was advanced with the Faust mine. The Eintrachtgrube followed in 1838, where a factory for mining machines and equipment was later set up. Carl Lazarus voluntarily left the Donnersmarcks fortune to his son Guido in 1848. He co-founded the first Upper Silesian joint-stock company in 1853, the Silesian joint-stock company for mines and zinc smelters in Lipine .

With industrial growth, new living space and new institutions became necessary. A school was built in the 1880s, a hospital in 1884, and the Peter and Paul Church followed in 1889–1891. The city of Schwientochlowitz, but also its later districts, developed into an important industrial area.

Part of Poland, war and a place for camp

After the referendum in Upper Silesia on March 20, 1921, in which the Schwientochlowitzers had voted with 51.9% of the vote to remain with Germany, Schwientochlowitz, like all of Eastern Upper Silesia, was nevertheless assigned to the Second Polish Republic in 1922 . The city left the district of Bytom and became part of the autonomous Silesian Voivodeship as Świętochłowice with its own district .

At that time, together with the later districts of Lipiny (Lipine) and Chropaczów (Schlesiengrube), 14 communities and 7 estates belonged to the new district. In 1929 the current district of Zgoda (Eintrachthütte) was added. In the inter-war period , industrial development continued and the old mines and smelters now worked for the new Polish state. During the invasion of Poland in 1939, the city was occupied by German troops and has since been part of the “ Greater German Reich ” in the Katowice district, in violation of international law . The town elevation was decided on January 1, 1940, but it was no longer due to the war. Parts of the population had to take part in acts of war throughout Europe, and in 1943 a sub-camp of the Auschwitz concentration camp , the Eintrachthütte concentration camp , was set up here.

Miners houses

The city was occupied by the Red Army in 1945 and since then has belonged to Poland as Świętochłowice. The German population was expelled . In the camp Zgoda also parts of the remaining German civilians were admitted. Numerous German and Polish Upper Silesians died in the Zgoda labor camp under commandant Salomon Morel , which was still used by the Red Army .

Post-war and present

On January 1, 1947, Świętochłowice was officially granted city rights, and since March 17, 1951, it has been an independent city. At that time the municipalities of Lipiny and Chropaczów were also incorporated. In the following decades the city owned 20 larger industrial plants, with three coal mines, several iron and zinc works, but mechanical engineering and the chemical industry were also important. The urban area of ​​Świętochłowice is now very small in terms of population. With 4238 inhabitants per km², the city is one of the most densely populated cities in Poland. Other problems include the high unemployment due to the closure of numerous mines and smelters in the course of structural change : In 2000 the unemployment rate was 20.9% and rose further to 27.8% in February 2004. Since then it has fallen to 21.2% (as of December 2006), but it is the highest unemployment rate in the Silesian Voivodeship (average 12.8%).

Population development

The population of the city according to the respective territorial status (partially rounded figures):

year Residents
1845 797
1855 2.006
1861 3,508
1885 3,818
1905¹ 14,612
1910² 16,167
year Residents
1939 57,000
1973 58,600
1984 61,000
1995 59,600
2000 56,852
2005 55,327

¹ Manor district Schwientochlowitz: 6,701 inhabitants
² Manor district Schwientochlowitz: 7,473 inhabitants

politics

City President

At the head of the city administration is the city ​​president . Since 2010 this has been Dawid Kostempski (electoral committee “Together for Świętochłowice”). The regular election in October 2018 led to the following results:

  • Dawid Kostempski (Election Committee "Together for Świętochłowice") 41.7% of the vote
  • Daniel Beger (“Friends of Świętochłowice” electoral committee) 31.2% of the vote
  • Sonja Kwaśny (Election Committee of the "Silesian-Świętochłowice Movement") 27.1% of the vote

In the run-off election that was then necessary, Daniel Beger, who came second in the first ballot, prevailed against the incumbent Kostempski with just under 50.4% of the votes and became the new mayor.

City council

The city council has 21 members who are directly elected. The election in October 2018 led to the following result:

  • Election Committee “Together for Świętochłowice” 29.7% of the vote, 8 seats
  • Election committee of the “Silesian Świętochłowice Movement” 25.7% of the vote, 5 seats
  • Koalicja Obywatelska (KO) 23.8% of the vote, 5 seats
  • Electoral Committee “Friends of Świętochłowice” 17.0% of the vote, 3 seats
  • Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (PiS) 3.8% of the votes, no seat

coat of arms

Since the 19th century a coat of arms was used by the community of Schwientochlowitz, which showed Saint Anthony with the baby Jesus and a lily in his right hand. After parts of Upper Silesia fell to Poland in 1922, the Świętochłowice District was formed, which included part of this area. The district, which existed until 1939, received a new coat of arms.

The coat of arms is split vertically and shows half a yellow eagle on a blue background in the left field. As the heraldic animal of Upper Silesia, the eagle embodies the centuries-old bond between the city and Upper Silesia. The right field consists of half a white cross on a red background. The two fields framed by the cross are again divided, there are golden, crossed sticks and iron in the upper field, these miner's utensils indicate the importance of mining in this region. The gear wheel in the lower field is presented in the same colors and indicates the industrial development of the city in the 19th century.

In 1951, the villages of Chropaczów and Lipiny were incorporated and the communist administration replaced the coat of arms that had been valid until then with the former district coat of arms (without a cross). Thus, the industrial importance of the city was indicated and Christian elements were removed from the coat of arms with the saint and the cross. On August 30, 1995, the city council officially adopted this coat of arms as the city's coat of arms.

  • old coat of arms

  • Coat of arms since 1995

  • City flag

Town twinning

The city of Świętochłowice currently has partnerships with five much smaller towns:

traffic

The stop and former railway station Świętochłowice is on the Katowice – Legnica railway line . In the local public transport there is a connection to the network of Upper Silesian trams .

Personalities

sons and daughters of the town

Web links

Commons : Świętochłowice  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b population. Size and Structure by Territorial Division. As of June 30, 2019. Główny Urząd Statystyczny (GUS) (PDF files; 0.99 MiB), accessed December 24, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Cf. Johann Georg Knie: Alphabetical-statistical-topographical overview of the villages, towns, cities and other places of the royal family. Preuss. Province of Silesia. Wroclaw 1845
  3. ↑ Cf. Word document of the city administration ( Memento from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ See katowice.wyborcza.pl
  5. ↑ Cf. Statistical Office Katowice ( Memento of October 12, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ Sources of population figures :
    1845: sbc.org.pl - 1855, 1861: sbc.katowice.pl - 1885: retrobibliothek.de - 1905: Michael Rademacher: German administrative history from the unification of the empire in 1871 to the reunification in 1990. beuthen.html. (Online material for the dissertation, Osnabrück 2006). - 1910: gemeindeververzeichnis.de - 1973 HR Fritsche: Schlesien-Wegweiser - 1984: Encyklopedia Powszechna PWN - 1995, 200, 2005: ( page no longer available , search in web archives: stat.gov.pl )@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.stat.gov.pl
  7. ↑ Result on the website of the election commission, accessed on August 17, 2020.
  8. ↑ Result on the website of the election commission, accessed on August 17, 2020.