SILESIANS
 
The Silesians are
named for their country Silesia
- the old home of the
Silingae, a tribal group of the Germanic Vandals, which are proved to have
lived in this area since about the year 300 before our time. The majority of
the Vandals moved away during the migration of the peoples and gained a place
in history - this and an image that is just as bad as
wrong.
International
archaeologists have proved that real Vandal behavior had
nothing to do with what we call vandalism today. - The Vandals sacked
Rome, but also protected and restored cultural goods, where they settled. After
a long march through Europe they even reached North-Africa, where they
conquered the city of Carthage and it’s surroundings. Senseless destruction
was not their style at all! …
Later the old
homeland of the Silingae was slightly settled by Slavs, just like the
territories of most of the other German New-Tribes had been after the
invasion of the Asian Avars in 556.
For
centuries Silesia was divided in several, changing, little territories
without any real importance. In the 10th century it was ruled by the Polish Piast
line. Conflicts about the Polish throne made Friedrich I. (Barbarossa)
intervene. After that only two Polish dukedoms remained.
The following
history would cause a boring “Chaos“ here. Silesia remained in the sphere of interests
of German, Polish and (Slavonic) Bohemian rulers. A process
of declination after 1138 led to up to 17 dukedoms in Silesia, which had
close relations to Poland and the Reich. - In parts the land
was a feoff of the Reich/ Kaiser.
Because
of family-relationships to German dukedoms, one knew about the
progressiveness of the Germans. Therefore more and more
German settlers were invited. Many followed this call in a time
of massive growth of the population.
The
Silesian Eagle
In
1175 the first German cloister was founded
in Silesia. Since about the year 1200 a strong influx of German
settlers followed. They came into a land with huge primeval forests,
where the Slavonic peasants lived of very simple farming. These were strongly
depending on the ruling nobility and one may even consider here, that the
word “Slav” is indeed related to the word “slave”.
Marriages
of members of the Piasten line with German princesses were typical for this
time of the German migration to the east, while the German settlers cleared
forests and settled in the won areas. About 1200 German villages and about
120 German cities (with German law!) where founded in Silesia at this time.
These cities were built on the base of geometrical plans: they had a chequered
pattern with one free block in the middle for the marketplace, on which
only the city hall was built. The churches were placed at the walls as part
of the defence. Around the cities German villages were founded in equally
planned ways. The German farmers paid an “Erbzins = hereditary lease“ for
their land, so that they did not directly have it as their property, but
bought a right of inheritance for their families. By the influx of German
workmen and traders the economy changed completely. Frankish and Saxon miners
established the modern gallery mining. The mountain-regions were settled and
German stone-buildings changed the image of the landscape, which had been
marked by simple Slavonic wooden houses before. Reports from Slavs are rare.
They do however indicate astonishment about German technologies and envy for
the German rights as well as some German tensions to not respect them to an
equal extend. With time passing by, the German culture however also brought
the Slavs huge improvement of living conditions and law. Between the Cities
of Halle and the city of Neumarkt in Silesia arose the ”Salzstraße =
salt-street. “Halle-Neumarkter Law“ became the standard for many city
foundations (for example Posen) as far as into Poland.
The
“Backsteingotik = Gothic architecture built in brick” became the
architectural style of the German east.
Medieval pictures of the
battle of Liegnitz (April 9th 1241)
In
1241 an army of the Mongols reached Silesia. The Russian cities of
Moscow and Kiev (today capital of the Ukraine) had already been conquered by
them. In the Battle of Liegnitz the Silesian “Reichsherzog =
Reichsduke“, Heinrich II., faced these Mongolic troops with a joined
Polish and German Army. Also his mother was German and his father a
member of the Polish Piasten line. The invasion of the Mongols burned itself
into the common European memory, just like those of the Huns and Avars had
before, because of an equal cruelty. Kaiser Friedrich II. and the Teutonic
Order (north of Silesia) did not intervene. Heinrich II. fought against the
Mongols with his troops alone. Because of very progressive Mongolic arrows
and bows, there were huge losses among his knights. The precise developments
of the battle are not clear, but the often-heard claim that the Mongols would
have withdrawn eastwards after the battle and never returned to Europe again
only because of an inner struggle for power is not correct. They had already
demanded the surrender of the Hungarian king in 1238 and indeed turned their
mission to Hungary now after the battle of Liegnitz. The heroic legends,
people started to tell about the Polish and German knights in Silesia, do
accordingly not have to be wrong! Rather the Mongolic actions were used by
clerics to scare the Europeans with claims about the end of the world being
close … - Once more … - Give all your money to the church, and God
will protect you again … - The Mongols withdrew from Europe in 1242.
The big German powers have never intervened.
Without
a context to the previous sentence(!), the cruel losses in Slavonic villages
led to an even bigger German immigration to Silesia and contributed to
the more and more German character of the country.
Tournament-scenery with well-known
symbols ...
With contracts of
1335, 1338, 1356 and 1372 the Polish Kings abandoned any claims in
Silesia. – The country had definitely become a feoff of Bohemia and got
under the rule of the Habsburger line (Austria) in 1526.
However the
Silesian principalities always preserved a remarkable autonomy -
and this is also the reason why the population could become mostly
protestant in the 16th century.
In 1607
a Silesian became the first German-American!!! -
Coming from the beautiful Silesian capital of Breslau
the medic Dr. Johannes Fleischer was among the settlers, who founded Jamestown,
Virginia (the first English settlement in America)! In the year
after (1608) eight further Germans followed him.
In Europe the
Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) and the counterreformation brought huge pain,
death and religious persecution for the Silesians. However Silesia did
nevertheless become the economically most important and for a long time
richest Province of Austria, which was the most powerful German state of
that time. Artistic glass production (like in Bohemia) and textile production
made Silesia important, but it was also a region of agriculture, including
even the production of wine, and still also of mining of course! It was the
time of manufactories and an (naturally unaware) preparation of the economy
for the following industrialization.
(1) The Silesian Martin Opitz (1597-1639) was one of
the most important German poets. As a cosmopolitan intellectual he worked for
the purity of the German language and emphasised it’s value for the nation.
(2) The philosopher Jacob Böhme -
He was called a “Schlesischer Mystiker = Silesian mystic“, because he
(typically Silesian) combined mysticism and philosophy. As the first famous
German philosopher he was also called “Philosophus Teutonicus“.
In 1742
Prussia started the first of the so called “Silesian Wars“ under it’s king Frederick
the Grand. The backgrounds are complex and can be summarized as a mixture
between royalist yearnings for power, a Christian will to keep women in
neglect (Maria Theresia had started to rule Austria), the continuing
hostility of France and the according old anti-French interests of the United
Kingdom ... - What’s most important here however is the
fact, that most Silesians experienced this annex to Prussia as a huge relief,
because Prussia was not only a mostly protestant country, but
also the most liberal state (in mental affairs) of that time.
While Protestants in the Austrian era had to secretly meet in forests or
hidden valleys, because they hadn’t been allowed to built churches for
worship, they were now free to believe what they wanted to believe, or like
the Prussian Motto says it:
“Suum cuique =
Jedem das Seine = To each his own”
The three
Silesian Wars lasted from: 1740-42; 1744-45 and 1756-63. -
The third one was the Seven Year’s War, which is especially
remarkable, because Prussia was absolutely outnumbered to it’s enemies (only
the United Kingdom was it’s ally), but Prussia did prevail! -
Apart from that, the Seven Year’s War also
took place in America, where
the French and British fought against each other. Thereby it led to a British
predominance in North America and accordingly influenced the following
American history very much.
Also the success
of the Prussian army in the Silesian Wars was important for that, as it
caused the huge reputation of those Prussian
officers who came to America during the War of Independence. - It were the Silesian Wars that made Americans believe
in victory again, when General von Steuben started to train them!
Since then
Silesia was mostly Prussian. Only a small part remained Austrian -
and what a surprise: this was now called Austrian-Silesia ...
Once more the
history of a German New Tribe has become Prussian - a part of the
identity that many people loved
- in Silesia as well as in the
rest of Prussia!
Joseph von Eichendorff from Upper Silesia served as
a “Lützower Jäger” (a military corps of intellectuals fighting for German
unity in black, red, golden Uniforms) and as Lieutenant of the Silesian
“Landwehr” (a militia similar to the National Guard) in the Liberation Wars
against Napoleon. As a poet he united the style of the German “Romantik
(era)“ with a clear sense for real coherences. - Typically Silesian.
Nevertheless the
context of Prussia also leads to a very negative part of the Silesian
history: During the 19th century many people in the textile
industry lost their income because of the industrialization - a part of history that hit the Silesians
especially hard. In 1844 this led to a revolt, after the long begging for help
of the Silesian weavers had been ignored. The result was only more pain -
a pain however that was not forgotten in the revolution of 1848! …
The play “Die
Weber = The Weavers” of Gerhard Hauptmann deals with the needs of these
poor weavers in Silesia and was honoured with the Nobel Prize for Literature,
as it was the first play ever, that didn’t deal with single heroes, but with
a social class instead.
“The misery in Silesia: Hunger and despair -
Official help” - A famous caricature about the hunger-revolt
of Silesian weavers in 1844
Only a few years
later Silesia had become a holiday region. Silesian Gastfreundlichkeit,
Weltoffenheit and the cultural Reichtum made it popular -
and of course the landscape and the excellent infrastructure of this modern
and important part of Germany.
The time after
World War I made Silesia a symbol for anti-German injustice. The land was
split up, based on only one interest:
harming the German nation and making it’s eastern neighbours strong
allies for France. Polish militias committed riots to terrorize the German
population in areas with mixed nationalities, which did however almost
exclusively exist in Upper Silesia (the most eastern part of
Silesia).
But hatred among nations,
racism and cruelty did not end with that: The fact that the town of Auschwitz
is in Upper Silesia is enough to prove this(!), however one must ask
here, how many words it takes to deal with this part of Silesia’s history
appropriately.
To be honest:
maybe only the two lines that were already used above(!), as they remember
people to deal with what humans can do to each other, how ignorant humans can
be towards the pain of others and they also express that this did happen in
Silesia! This article here however tells the story of the Silesians,
who did not lead or plan this camp! The rest quickly gets too complex
and specific, and so this article may rather motivate people to deal with
this part of history, especially also because old books about German tribal
mentalities report about the Silesians as people, who tend to deal with the
world in a contemplatively brooding way ...
This image really
fits to the Silesians! It fits to the remarkable, unique Silesian mixture of
science and tales, romance and Prussian virtues. Like their country, the
Silesians appear full of contradictions
- it’s flat in the north and
suddenly changes into the fascinating and unique world of the Giant Mountains
in the south - a world full of
tales - a land in which people seriously believed in the Ghost
“Rübezahl” (picture above), who protects nature and animals, helps the poor,
but also punishes the bad guys …
Maybe this
diversity is also based on the different backgrounds of the Silesians, who’s
ancestors where once Silingae, Thuringians, Saxons, Franks -
and Bohemians in the mountains. For example the typical Silesian
farmhouse always belonged to the so called “Frankish type”, despite of all own
cultural progress.
Accordingly rich
are also the Silesian customs and their long history as a part of the German
people, which arose from a peaceful cooperation with other nations - especially with the Polish.
After 1945 these
things weren’t worth anything! The decision to deport the Silesians, ignored
the consequences of tearing tribe and culture-area apart. Wiping out a
valuable part of the German and European culture was regarded as irrelevant.
Almost all German Silesians were deported. Everything, they had, was robbed!
People got brutally murdered and abused. For month they lived without any
rights(!) and had to wear white stripes at their arms, so that everyone could
recognize them as Germans …
It is also
remarkable that these events did not take place right after the war,
in fury. - Over a million German refugees had even returned to Silesia
after the surrender of the German Reich on may 8th 1945. The next
summer of 1946 was the peak of this brutal expulsion(!) and a
British-Polish treaty only “regulated” the deportations later that year. -
Nobody would doubt that the ethnic cleansings in Yugoslavia of the
1990s were crimes against humanity
- in Silesia an entirely
German land was hit by robberies, expulsions and murders!
The more
important is it to contribute to maintaining this great culture! -
Especially in the USA, which is also decisively responsible for the
injustice of that time and which itself is a country were Germans live free
and proud! - Native American tribes have shown that
this doesn’t mean a contradiction to American patriotism, as real
US-patriotism always requires fidelity to values!
(1) Eduard Schulte -
A Silesian hero against Nazism. Leading a big mining-company in
Breslau he had access to information from the Führer-headquarter. In July
1942 he got to know about the plan to kill all European Jews. Risking his own
life, Eduard Schulte travelled to Switzerland, in order to inform the world,
hoping to stop this mass murder. His message reached the Jewish World
Congress in New York. However the world did not care as much as he had hoped.
The New York Times for example printed the news about this genocide only on
page 10! ….
In 1943 Schulte had to escape from
the Nazi’s tyranny himself. He survived in Switzerland.
(2) Gerhard Hauptmann was not
deported from Silesia after World War II -
he died before this could happen
- but his last words were: ”Am
I still in my house?“
(3) His two dogs proof the Prussian
influence on the Silesians. - With our Alemanic Hecker such a photo
would be unimaginable ...
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