Silesians

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Silesians

Silesians (Silesian: Slunzoki; ; ; , Silesian German

Silesian German

Lower Silesian language or simply Silesian , is a German language dialect/language spoken in Lower Silesia. Today, the area is mainly in southwestern Poland, but as well as in northeastern Czech Republic and in eastern Germany....
: Schläsinger), are the inhabitants of Silesia

Silesia

Silesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in present-day Poland, with parts in the Czech Republic and Germany.Silesia is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas....
in Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian Enclave and exclave, to the north....
, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
and the Czech Republic

Czech Republic

The Czech Republic , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country borders Poland to the northeast, Germany to the west, Austria to the south and Slovakia to the east....
.

There has been some debate over whether or not the Silesians (historically Upper Silesia

Upper Silesia

Ethnic group

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Encyclopedia

Silesians (Silesian: Slunzoki; ; ; , Silesian German

Silesian German

Silesia

Poland

Germany

Czech Republic

Upper Silesia

Ethnic group

An ethnic group is a group of humans whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage that is real or presumed.Ethnic identity is further marked by the recognition from others of a group's distinctiveness and the recognition of common culture, linguistic, religion, human behaviour or Race traits, real or presumed, as indic...
. In modern history, they have been often pressured to declare themselves to be either German or Polish and embrace the language of the current governing nation. Nevertheless, more than 170,000 people declared Silesian nationality in the Polish national census in 2002, making them the largest minority group in Poland alongside the German minority

German minority in Poland

The German minority in Poland consists of 152,900 people according to a 2002 census..The German language is used in certain areas in Opole Voivodship , where most of the minority resides....
and more than 10,000 people declared Silesian nationality in the Czech national census in 2001.

The term Silesian can also be applied in a more general manner to describe an inhabitant of Silesia, regardless of ethnicity.

History

Inhabited from time immemorial

Time immemorial

Time immemorial is a phrase meaning time extending beyond the reach of memory, record, or tradition. The implication is that the subject referred to is, or can be regarded as, indefinitely ancient....
and exceptionally rich in natural resources, Silesia has been long contested by various peoples, states and principalities. The constant shifting of Silesia between (alphabetically) Austrian, Czech, German and Polish control over several centuries resulted in the multilingual Silesians developing a separate culture that borrowed heavily from (alphabetically) Czech, German and Polish (and vice versa).

In the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

File:Karl 1 mit papst gelasius gregor1 sacramentar v karl d kahlen.jpgThe Middle Ages of European history are a period in history which lasted for roughly a millennium, commonly dated from the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century to the beginning of the Early Modern Period in the 16th century, marked by the division of Western Christi...
, Silesia was a Piast duchy, which subsequently became a possession of the Bohemia

Bohemia

History...
n crown under the Holy Roman Empire

Holy Roman Empire

The Holy Roman Empire was a union of territories in Central Europe during the Middle Ages and the Early modern Europe under a Holy Roman Emperor....
in the 14th century and passed with that crown to the Habsburg Monarchy

Habsburg Monarchy

The Habsburg Monarchy covered the territories ruled by the junior Austria branch of the House of Habsburg , and then by the successor House of Habsburg-Lorraine , between 1526 and 1867/1918....
of Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west....
in 1526. In 1742, most of Silesia was seized by King Frederick the Great

Frederick II of Prussia

Frederick II was a monarch of Kingdom of Prussia from the House of Hohenzollern. In his role as a prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire, he was Frederick IV of Margraviate of Brandenburg....
of Prussia

Kingdom of Prussia

The Kingdom of Prussia was a Germany monarchy from 1701 to 1918 and, from 1871, was the leading state of the German Empire, comprising almost two-thirds of the area of the empire....
in the War of the Austrian Succession

War of the Austrian Succession

The War of the Austrian Succession involved nearly all the Power in international relations of Europe. The war began under the pretext that Maria Theresa of Austria was ineligible to succeed to the House of Habsburg throne, because Salic law precluded royal inheritance by a woman, though in reality this was a convenient excuse put forward by...
. This part of Silesia constituted the Province of Silesia

Province of Silesia

The Province of Silesia was a Provinces of Prussia of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1815 to 1919; the territory had been conquered from Habsburg Monarchy during the 18th century Silesian Wars....
(later the Prussian provinces of Upper

Province of Upper Silesia

The Province of Upper Silesia was a Provinces of Prussia of the Free State of Prussia created in the aftermath of World War I. It composed much of the region of Upper Silesia and was eventually divided into two administrative regions , Kattowitz and Oppeln ....
and Lower Silesia

Province of Lower Silesia

The Province of Lower Silesia was a Provinces of Prussia of the Free State of Prussia from 1919 to 1945. Between 1938 and 1941 it was reunited with Province of Upper Silesia as the Province of Silesia....
) until 1945.

Following World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
, the vast majority of the region of Silesia was incorporated into Poland, with smaller regions remaining in the German Democrat Republic and Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe that existed from October 1918 until 1992 . On January 1, 1993, Czechoslovakia dissolution of Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and Slovakia....
. Millions of ethnic German

Ethnic German

Ethnic Germans , also collectively referred to as the German diaspora, are those who are considered, by themselves or others, to be of Germans origin ethnicity, not necessarily born or living within the present-day Germany, holding its citizenship or speaking the German language....
Silesians were subsequently expelled

Expulsion of Germans after World War II

The 'expulsion of Germans after World War II' was the forced migration of German nationals and ethnic Germans in order to achieve the ethnic cleansing of German populations from the former eastern territories of Germany, former Sudetenland and other areas across Europe in the first five years after World War II....
, but those Silesians classified by the Polish authorities as "autochthons" or "ethnic Poles insufficiently aware of their Polishness" were allowed to remain, after being sifted out from the ethnic Germans by a process of "national verification". In order to qualify, it was enough to speak some of the Upper Silesia

Upper Silesia

Upper Silesia is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia; Lower Silesia is to the northwest. Since the 9th century, Upper Silesia has been part of Greater Moravia, Kingdom of Bohemia, Poland, Holy Roman Empire, Habsburg Monarchy, Kingdom of Prussia, and later of unified German Reich....
n dialect, or just to have a Slavic-sounding surname. Many such Silesians were allowed to remain in the city of Opole

Opole

Opole is a city in southern Poland on the Oder River . It has a population of 129,553 and is the capital of the Opole Voivodeship, and also the seat of Opole County....
.

During the Communist era, nearly 600,000 Silesians emigrated to West Germany

West Germany

West Germany was the common English name for the Germany , from its formation in May 1949 to German reunification in October 1990, when East Germany was dissolved and its States of Germany became part of the Federal Republic, ending the more than 40-year division of Germany....
.

Since the end of Communist rule in Poland

People's Republic of Poland

The People's Republic of Poland or Polish People's Republic was the official name of Poland from 1952 to 1989 inclusively.Although the People's Republic of Poland was a sovereignty state as defined by international law, its leaders were at the very least approved by Soviet Union leaders....
, there have been calls for greater political representation for the Silesian ethnic minority. In 1997, a Katowice

Katowice

Katowice is a city in Silesia in southern Poland, on the Klodnica and Rawa river rivers . Katowice is located in the Silesian Highlands, about 50 km from the Silesian Beskids and about 100 km from Sudetes....
law court registered the Union of People of Silesian Nationality (ZLNS) as the political representative organization of the Silesian ethnic minority, but after two months the registration was revoked by a regional court.

Language

The Silesian language (or often Upper Silesian) is spoken by the Silesian ethnic group or nationality inside Upper Silesia

Upper Silesia

Upper Silesia is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia; Lower Silesia is to the northwest. Since the 9th century, Upper Silesia has been part of Greater Moravia, Kingdom of Bohemia, Poland, Holy Roman Empire, Habsburg Monarchy, Kingdom of Prussia, and later of unified German Reich....
. According to the last census in Poland (2002), some 60,000 people declared Silesian as their native language.

There is some contention over whether Silesian is a dialect or a language in its own right. Some Polish linguists consider Silesian to be merely a prominent regional dialect of Polish

Polish language

Polish , an official language of Poland, has the largest number of speakers of any West Slavic languages. Polish-speakers use the language in a uniform manner through most of Poland, and it has a regular orthography....
. However, many Silesians regard it as a separate language belonging to the West Slavic

West Slavic

West Slavic can refer to:* West Slavic languages* West Slavs...
branch of Slavic languages

Slavic languages

File:Slavic europe.svgThe Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia....
, together with Polish and other Lekhitic languages, as well as Upper and Lower Sorbian, Czech

Czech language

Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czech people worldwide....
and Slovak

Slovak language

The Slovak language , sometimes incorrectly called ?Slovakian?, is an Indo-European languages that belongs to the West Slavic languages .The Czech and Slovak languages are Mutual intelligibility which means that even after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia Czech may be used in all official proceedings and documents in Slovakia, and vice ver...
. In July 2007 the Silesian language was recognized by the Library of Congress

Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is the de facto national library of the United States and the research arm of the United States Congress. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and holds the largest number of books....
and SIL International

SIL International

SIL International is a United States, worldwide Evangelicalism non-profit organization, whose main purpose is to study, develop and document lesser-known languages, in order to expand linguistics knowledge, promote literacy and aid minority language development....
. The language was attributed ISO

International Organization for Standardization

The International Organization for Standardization , widely known as ISO , is an international standard-setting body composed of representatives from various national standards organizations....
code: SZL. The first official dictation contest of the Silesian language took place in August 2007.

The Lower Silesian dialect

Silesian German

German language

German is a West Germanic languages, thus related to and classified alongside English language and Dutch language. It is one of the world's world language and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union....
was (in some cases remains) spoken by all former - or even some few remaining - inhabitants of Lower Silesia

Province of Lower Silesia

Silesians

History

Language

See also

External links