Province of Lower Silesia

This article deals with the Prussian province of Lower Silesia . For the historical region see Lower Silesia .

Prussian Province of
Lower Silesia

flag	coat of arms
Situation in Prussia
Consist	1919-1938, 1941-1945
Provincial capital	Wroclaw
surface	26,981.33 km² (1941–45)
Residents	3,227,601 (1933, based on the territorial status from 1941–45)
Population density	approx. 120 inhabitants / km²
Arose from	Province of Silesia
Today part of	Voivodeships of Lebus , Opole and Lower Silesia ( PL ) and west of the Oder-Neisse line to Saxony and Brandenburg
map

The Province of Lower Silesia was created in the Free State of Prussia after the First World War by dividing the Province of Silesia into the two new provinces of Lower Silesia (western and central part) and Upper Silesia (eastern third).

Area and population

From 1919 to 1938 and from 1941 to 1945 Lower Silesia was an independent Prussian province with the capital Wroclaw . The Province of Lower Silesia was founded in 1919 by dividing the previous Province of Silesia and essentially consisted of the administrative districts of Liegnitz and Breslau .

As a result of the Second World War , in 1945 the parts of Lower Silesia east of the Oder-Neisse line were placed under Polish administration, with the German-speaking population being almost completely expelled. The small part west of the Lusatian Neisse , which - with the exception of the village of Pechern - was historically part of Upper Lusatia , did not belong to the heartland of Lower Silesia and was only attached to it after 1815 through the Prussian administrative reform, is now part of the German states of Saxony and Brandenburg . It concerns the area around Görlitz , Hoyerswerda , Rothenburg , Weißwasser , Niesky , Ruhland and Ortrand (see also Lower Silesian Oberlausitzkreis and District Oberspreewald-Lausitz ).

Since 1999 there has been a Polish Lower Silesian Voivodeship , which partly coincides with the historical Lower Silesia .

Province of Silesia: 37,013 km²; 4,846,333 inhabitants (May 1939)

Term after 1945

The use of the landscape name Silesia or Lower Silesia for the areas west of the Lusatian Neisse was not officially desired in the GDR until 1989/1990 and was only used in the name of the Evangelical Church of Silesia until 1968 . After that, the GDR leadership prohibited the regional church from using the term and called itself the Evangelical Church of the Görlitz Church Area.

The state association of Saxony of the Junge Union , founded in 1990, is called Junge Union Sachsen & Lower Silesia . In 1992 the Evangelical Church of the Görlitz Church Area took on the new name Evangelical Church of Silesian Upper Lusatia (EKsOL).

In 1994, after the district reform in Saxony, the Lower Silesian Upper Lusatia District was created from the Görlitz-Land , Niesky and Weißwasser districts . In August 2008 it went on in the new district of Görlitz . For a reform of police administrative structures in Saxony in 2005 arose from the merger of the police departments Bautzen and Görlitz the police headquarters Upper-Silesia . This was renamed the Görlitz Police Department on January 1st, 2013. The Saxon Cultural Area Act has defined a cultural area Upper Lusatia-Lower Silesia for communal cultural cooperation.

The Evangelical Church of Silesian Upper Lusatia merged on January 1, 2004 with the Evangelical Church in Berlin-Brandenburg to form the Evangelical Church of Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia . The YMCA -Landesverband Schlesische Oberlausitz e. V. has its seat in Görlitz.

Furthermore, the Lower Silesian football club Gelb-Weiß Görlitz 09 played in the Saxony League for several years .

The Sparkasse in the district of Görlitz also bears the name Sparkasse Oberlausitz-Niederschlesien , while Volksbank operates under the name of Volksbank Raiffeisenbank Niederschlesien e. G. and the transport company are correctly called Lower Silesian Transport Company .

politics

Chief President

• 1919–1920: Felix Philipp , SPD
• 1920–1928: Hermann Zimmer , SPD
• 1928–1932: Hermann Lüdemann , SPD
• 1932–1933: Friedrich von Degenfeld-Schonburg , DNVP
• 1933–1934: Helmuth Brückner , NSDAP
• 1935–1938: Josef Wagner , NSDAP
• 1938–1941: Province of Silesia
• 1941–1945: Karl Hanke , NSDAP

Provincial Parliament

Provincial Parliament in Lower Silesia 1921–1925

       

A total of 84 seats

• KPD : 3
• SPD : 43
• USPD : 1
• DDP : 8
• WP : 2
• Z : 17
• DVP : 10

1921: SPD 51.2%, 43 seats | Center 20.2%, 17 seats | DVP 11.9%, 10 seats | DDP 9.5%, 8 seats | KPD 3.6%, 3 seats | WP 2.4%, 2 seats | USPD 1.2%, 1 seat

Provincial Parliament in Lower Silesia 1925–1929

         

A total of 111 seats

• KPD : 4
• SPD : 41
• DDP : 5th
• WP : 4
• Z : 17
• Peasant Party : 3
• DVP : 7
• DNVP : 29
• DVFP : 1

1925: SPD 36.0%, 41 seats | DNVP 26.0%, 29 seats | Center 14.7%, 17 seats | DVP 6.2%, 7 seats | DDP 3.8%, 5 seats | KPD 3.5%, 4 seats | WP 3.2%, 4 seats | Peasant Party 2.4%, 3 seats | DVFP 0.9%, 1 seat

Provincial Parliament in Lower Silesia 1929–1933

        

A total of 110 seats

• KPD : 5
• SPD : 39
• DDP : 5th
• WP : 7
• Z : 16
• DVP : 7
• DNVP : 25
• NSDAP : 6

1929: SPD 35.2%, 39 seats | DNVP 22.0%, 25 seats | Center 14.3%, 16 seats | WP 6.1%, 7 seats | DVP 6.1%, 7 seats | NSDAP 5.2%, 6 seats | KPD 3.5%, 5 seats | DDP 3.5%, 5 seats

Provincial Parliament in Lower Silesia 1933

     

A total of 110 seats

• KPD : 6
• SPD : 24
• Z : 13
• DNVP : 10
• NSDAP : 57

1933: NSDAP 51.7%, 57 seats | SPD 20.9%, 24 seats | Center 11.2%, 13 seats | DNVP 9.0%, 10 seats | KPD 5.2%, 6 seats

100% missing votes: nominations not represented in the provincial assembly.

Web links

Commons : Lower Silesia  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Overview map of the Province of Lower Silesia on gonschior.de

Individual evidence

1. ^ Text of the Saxon Cultural Area Act