For centuries, identity has been an important existential issue, because it organizes human relation with the world. Identity is not only one man's being in a biological sense, but the principle of social and cultural order. The identity is the self-awareness, the result of the social actor's involvement in a variety of network connections which are forming a human being together with the biological dimension. Thus, the identity, on the one hand, is a kind of Erikson's tradition, namely the sense of being human, on the other hand interactionist tradition, modification of identity through a process of interaction. Contemporary world, the world of confronting cultures, raises the need for analysis of identity within many cultures, which has been shaped by continuous contact with different values, norms, patterns of behaviour. Upper Silesia has been our empirical reference point for the discussion on social (regional) identity. Identity of Upper Silesia is the result of a long and complicated history and present day. This identity is created by Polish, German, Czech and Jewish a cultural elements.
The article discusses one of the categories of marketing chrematonyms — the names of cafés, which constitute a colourful element of the naming landscape of Upper Silesia. The analysis has several research aims: 1) discovering the naming techniques and types, 2) the presentation of structural models, 3) identifying the changes of meaning and the (con)textual functionality of linguistic units which serve as a commercial medium of evaluation. The names of cafés are presented from the perspective of cultural linguistics, sociolinguistics and pragmalinguistics, as well as the theory of semantic fields. This combined methodological approach enables the author to draw conclusions about marketing chrematonyms in the sphere of culture and language, whereas the structural-semantic analysis of the onymic description of Upper Silesian cafés reveals tendencies that confirm the fact that naming models are created in a serial way. The material presented indicates that commercial chrematonyms belong to semantically and structurally diversified naming categories. The structures show the repetitiveness of naming, the tendency for language internalization and the use of native material, including local dialects.
The plebiscite in Upper Silesia from the year 1921 was one of the most important moments in the history of the region. The establishment of the independent Polish state after 1918 resulted in creating a frontier which divided the region before the plebiscite itself. Therefore, various kinds of travel documents emerged and played an important role. Basing on decision of the Allies, starting from 1st of July 1920, all persons who wanted to enter the plebiscite area were obliged to have a special passport or identity card, issued by the French consulate in Breslau (Wrocław). Also the inhabitants of Upper Silesia, travelling in the area of plebiscite territory, were obliged to possess special travel cards. The author in her article analyses different types of documents as well as mechanisms of dealing with problems of people, who after the final division of Upper Silesia decided to move from one side of the border to the other.
The question of the state affiliation of Upper Silesia which arose after WWI has been treated and perceived by today’s historians, if at all, as a typical German-Polish border conflict. Really however, it was both a European and an international problem of utmost significance. In it, French hegemonic and safety efforts, accumulated in and collided with Britain‘s classic policy of continental equilibrium. Both, Poland with its territorial claim on Upper Silesia and Germany in its struggle to preserve its territorial integrity, thus were not only players of political, diplomatic and military struggles for the second most important European industrial region, but rather objects of the interests of European great powers. This applied even more to the population which was actually to vote in the referendum on Upper Silesia affiliation. However, in its effort to weaken Germany and simultaneously gain control over the Ruhr, France favoured its ally Poland, to a much greater extent than Britain could in respect of Germany.
For many centuries, Upper Silesia was the scene of intensive language contact between a continuum of West Slavic dialects (or the Polish and Czech languages) and German colonists, mainly in the 13th century. The process of colonisation under German town law led to the establishment of hundreds of new towns and villages, some with German names. The oldest historical sources for Upper Silesia are Liber fundationis episcopatus Vratislaviensis (Book of endowments of the Bishopric of Wrocław), dating back to c 1305, as well as registers of such endowments from c 1325. German medieval place names in Upper Silesia are a minority, and no such town names can be found in many areas. This article is an analysis of the percentage of German place names in relation to all place names [in Upper Silesia]. It defines the areas with the largest number of such names and contains a linguistic analysis of the names. Interestingly, the area with the largest number of German place names is the Duchy of Teschen, with the castellany of Oświęcim (which was once part of the Duchy of Teschen), the neighbouring part of the Duchy of Racibórz and the western part of the Duchy of Opole. In the Duchy of Bytom (the Siewierz part of which no longer belongs to Upper Silesia), German place names were not very common. For the areas covered by the Diocese of Kraków, the names of parish priests are known as well. The presence of the German name of parish priests in towns and villages with German place names half a century from their establishment indicates that German people may have lived there, especially because it is certain in some cases that they did.
Zoo is a didactic assembly induced in the system of urban greenery. It has an educational, entertainment, and scientific values. This kind of gardens, directly derived from tradition of baroque menagerie, were created from the mid-18th century. Their greatest development occured since the 2nd half of 19th century and the 20th century. The article is regarding issues of the miniature zoo in Upper Silesia created before World War II. They will be presented their resource, state of preservation and the characteristics of selected examples.
In a rapidly changing environment due to globalization, we are constantly looking for appropriate paths and strategies for cities and regions while taking into account the territorialisation of growth factors. As a result, we can observe an increase in development concepts that seek to define the conditions for urban resilience that could result in sustainable development despite an unstable environment. The author places his reflections in the context of Upper Silesia’s conurbation development challenges. He examines the current path of the region’s development and analyses the role that the application of “smart city” and “creative city” concepts could play in this process. Rather than comparing the efficacy of the two approaches, he suggests a reflection on the proportions of different bundles inside the development process. He also highlights the limits of a smart city approach and shows to what extent those limits can be exceeded through the application of a creative city strategy. Due to the economic and social diversity of the Upper Silesian metropolitan area, there is a significant opportunity for the development of the creative economy that could determine the competitive advantage of this area in the coming decades.
This article surveys the relations between the Polish Radio and the German Broadcasting Corporation (Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft) in the interwar period. In its early phase the relationship was overshadowed by disputes over programmes on Upper Silesia and the takeover by a German company of the radio station in the Free City of Gdańsk (Danzig). After Hitler became chancellor in 1933 there was a marked improve- ment in relations: the two parties even made an agreement to relay each other's programmes. However, in September 1939 the German radio network (RRG) actively aided the German army in its invasion of Poland.