Gliwice, Silesian Voivodeship, Poland

🇵🇱 Gliwice is a city in Upper Silesia, in southern Poland. The city is located in the Silesian Highlands, on the Kłodnica river. It lies approximately 25 km west from Katowice, the regional capital of the Silesian Voivodeship.

Gliwice is the westernmost city of the Upper Silesian metropolis, and is the third-largest city of this area. It also lies within the larger Upper Silesian metropolitan area which spans across most of eastern Upper Silesia, western Lesser Poland and the Moravian-Silesian Region in the Czech Republic. Gliwice is bordered by three other cities and towns of the metropolitan area: Zabrze, Knurów and Pyskowice. It is one of the major college towns in Poland, thanks to the Silesian University of Technology, which was founded in 1945 by academics of Lwów University of Technology. Over 20,000 people study in Gliwice. Gliwice is an important industrial centre of Poland. Following an economic transformation in the 1990s, Gliwice shifted from steelworks and coal mining to automotive and machine industry.

Founded in the 13th century, Gliwice is one of the oldest settlements in Upper Silesia, with a preserved Old Town core. Gliwice's most historical structures include St Bartholomew's Church (15th century), Gliwice Castle and city walls (14th century), Armenian Church (originally a hospital, 15th century) and All Saints Old Town Church (15th century). Gliwice is also known for its Radio Tower, where Gleiwitz incident happened shortly before the outbreak of World War II and which is thought to be the world's tallest wooden construction, as well as Weichmann Textile House, one of the first buildings designed by world-renowned architect Erich Mendelsohn. Gliwice hosted the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2019 which took place on 24 November 2019.

Early history Gliwice was first mentioned as a town in 1276, however, it was granted town rights earlier by Duke Władysław Opolski of the Piast dynasty. It was located on a trade route connecting Kraków and Wrocław and was part of various Piast-ruled duchies of fragmented Poland: Opole until 1281, Bytom until 1322, from 1322 to 1342 Gliwice was a capital of an eponymous duchy, afterwards again part of the Duchy of Bytom until 1354, later it was also ruled by other regional Polish Piast dukes until 1532, although in 1335 it fell under the suzerainty of the Bohemian Crown, passing with that crown under suzerainty of the Austrian Habsburgs in 1526.

According to 14th-century writers, the town seemed defensive in character, when under rule of Siemowit of Bytom. In the Middle Ages the city prospered mainly due to trade and crafts, especially brewing.

On 17 April 1433, Gliwice was captured by the Duke Bolko V, who joined the Hussites after they captured Prudnik.

Early Modern Age After the dissolution of the Duchy of Opole and Racibórz in 1532, it was incorporated as Gleiwitz into the Habsburg monarchy. Because of the vast expenses incurred by the Habsburg monarchy during their 16th century wars against the Ottoman Empire, Gleiwitz was leased to Friedrich Zettritz for the amount of 14,000 thalers. Although the original lease was for a duration of 18 years, it was renewed in 1580 for 10 years and in 1589 for an additional 18 years. Around 1612, the Reformed Franciscans came from Kraków, and then their monastery and Holy Cross Church were built. The city was besieged or captured by various armies during the Thirty Years' War. In 1645 along with the Duchy of Opole and Racibórz it returned to Poland under the House of Vasa, and in 1666 it fell to Austria again. In 1683 Polish King John III Sobieski stopped in the city before the Battle of Vienna. In the 17th and 18th century, the city's economy switched from trading and brewing beer to clothmaking, which collapsed after the 18th-century Silesian Wars.

During the mid 18th century Silesian Wars, Gleiwitz was taken from the Habsburg monarchy by the Kingdom of Prussia along with the majority of Silesia. After the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Gleiwitz was administered in the Prussian district of Tost-Gleiwitz within the Province of Silesia in 1816. The city was incorporated with Prussia into the German Empire in 1871 during the unification of Germany. In 1897 Gleiwitz became its own Stadtkreis, or urban district.

Industrialization The first coke-fired blast furnace on the European continent was constructed in Gleiwitz in 1796 under the direction of John Baildon. Gleiwitz began to develop into a major city through industrialization during the 19th century. The town's ironworks fostered the growth of other industrial fields in the area. The city's population in 1875 was 14,156. However, during the late 19th century Gleiwitz had: 14 distilleries, 2 breweries, 5 mills, 7 brick factories, 3 sawmills, a shingle factory, 8 chalk factories and 2 glassworks.

Other features of the 19th century industrialised Gleiwitz were a gasworks, a furnace factory, a beer bottling company, and a plant for asphalt and paste. Economically, Gleiwitz opened several banks, Savings and loan associations, and bond centers. Its tram system was completed in 1892, while its theater was opened in 1899; until World War II, Gleiwitz' theatre featured actors from throughout Europe and was one of the most famous theatres in the whole of Germany. Despite Germanisation policies, the Poles established various Polish organizations, including the "Sokół" Polish Gymnastic Society, and published local Polish newspapers.

20th century According to the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Gleiwitz's population in 1905 was 61,324. By 1911, it had two Protestant and four Roman Catholic churches, a synagogue, a mining school, a convent, a hospital, two orphanages, and a barracks. Gleiwitz was the centre of the mining industry of Upper Silesia. It possessed a royal foundry, with which were connected machine factories and boiler works. Other industrialised areas of the city had other foundries, meal mills, and factories producing wire, gas pipes, cement, and paper.

After the end of World War I, clashes between Poles and Germans occurred during the Polish insurrections in Silesia. Some ethnically Polish inhabitants of Upper Silesia wanted to incorporate the city into the Second Polish Republic, which just regained independence. On 1 May 1919, a Polish rally was held in Gliwice. Seeking a peaceful solution to the conflict, the League of Nations held a plebiscite on 20 March 1921 to determine which country the city should belong to. In Gleiwitz, 32,029 votes (78.7% of given votes) were for remaining in Germany, Poland received 8,558 (21.0%) votes, and 113 (0.3%) votes were declared invalid. The total voter turnout was listed as 97.0%. This prompted another insurrection by Poles. The League of Nations determined that three Silesian cities: Gleiwitz (Gliwice), Hindenburg (Zabrze) and Beuthen (Bytom) would remain in Germany, and the eastern part of Upper Silesia with its main city of Katowice (Kattowitz) would join restored Poland. After delimiting the border in Upper Silesia in 1921, Gliwice found itself in Germany, but near the border with Poland – the nearby Knurów was already in Poland.

During the interbellum the city witnessed not only Anti-Polish, but also Anti-French incidents and violence by the Germans. In 1920, local Polish doctor and city councillor Wincenty Styczyński [pl], protested against the German refusal to treat French soldiers stationed in the city. In January 1922, he himself treated French soldiers shot in the city. On 9 April 1922, 17 Frenchmen died in an explosion during the liquidation of a German militia weapons warehouse in the present-day Sośnica district. Styczyński, who defended the rights of local Poles and protested against German acts of violence against Poles, was himself murdered by a German radical/militant on 18 April 1922. Nevertheless, various Polish organizations and enterprises still operated in the city in the interbellum, including a local branch of the Union of Poles in Germany, Polish banks and a scout troop.

On 9 June 1933, Gliwice was the site of the first conference of the Nazi anti-Polish organization Bund Deutscher Osten in Upper Silesia. In a secret Sicherheitsdienst report from 1934, Gliwice was named one of the main centres of the Polish movement in western Upper Silesia. Polish activists were increasingly persecuted starting in 1937.

An attack on a radio station in Gleiwitz on 31 August 1939, staged by the German secret police, served as a pretext, devised by Reinhard Heydrich under orders from Hitler, for Nazi Germany to invade Poland, which marked the start of the Second World War.

Shortly after the outbreak of World War II, on 4 September 1939, the Einsatzgruppe I entered the city to commit atrocities against Poles. After the invasion of Poland, the assets of local Polish banks were confiscated by Germany. The Germans formed a Kampfgruppe unit in the city. It was also the cremation site of many of around 750 Poles murdered in Katowice in September 1939. During the war, the Germans operated a Nazi prison in the city, and established numerous forced labour camps, including a Polenlager camp solely for Poles, a camp solely for Jews, a penal "education" camp, a subcamp of the prison in Strzelce Opolskie, and six subcamps of the Stalag VIII-B/344 prisoner of war camp. From July 1944 to January 1945, Gliwice was the location of four subcamps of the Auschwitz concentration camp. In the largest subcamp, whose prisoners were mainly Poles, Jews and Russians, nearly 100 either died of hunger, mistreatment and exhaustion or were murdered. During the evacuation of another subcamp, the Germans burned alive or shot 55 prisoners who were unable to walk. There are two mass graves of the victims of the early 1945 death march from Auschwitz in the city, both commemorated with monuments.

On 24 January 1945, Gliwice was occupied by the Red Army as part of their Allied Occupation Zone. Under borders changes dictated by the Soviet Union at the Potsdam Conference, Gliwice fell inside Poland's new borders after Germany's defeat in the war. It was incorporated into Poland's Silesian Voivodeship on 18 March 1945, after almost 300 years of being outside of Polish rule. The Germans were displaced to the new borders of Germany. Some of Poles that were the from the Polish Kresy (Eastern Borderlands), that were incoporated by Soviet Union, settled in Gliwice, for example from the vicinity of Lwów (Lviv) and part of Eastern Galicia incorporated into the USSR (the western parts of Eastern Galicia with Przemyśl, Sanok, Lubaczów, Lesko and the Western Bieszczady remained with Poland). Poles from other parts of Kresy also settled in Gliwice: from Volhynia, Polesie (Polesia), the Wilno region (Vilnius region) and the Grodno region. In addition, Poles from other regions of Poland, including the vicinity of Kielce, Rzeszów, Łódź or Poznań, as well as Poles from other countries, settled in Gliwice.

Sights and architecture • Market Square (Rynek) with the Town Hall (Ratusz), Neptune Fountain and colourful historic townhouses, located in the Old Town • The Gliwice Radio Tower of Radiostacja Gliwicka ("Radio Station Gliwice") in Szobiszowice is the only remaining radio tower of wood construction in the world, and with a height of 118 meters, is perhaps the tallest remaining construction made out of wood in the world. It is listed as a Historic Monument of Poland and now it is a branch of the local museum. • Piast Castle dates back to the Middle Ages and hosts a branch of the local museum. • Museum in Gliwice (Muzeum w Gliwicach), a local museum • Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral, the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Gliwice, and other historic churches • Medieval fortified Old Saint Bartholomew church • Medieval town walls • Baroque Holy Cross Church and Redemptorist monastery from the 17th century (former Reformed Franciscan monastery) • Piłsudski Square with a monument of pre-war Polish leader Józef Piłsudski • Chopin Park with a monument to the Polish composer Fryderyk Chopin and the Municipal Palm House • Various historic public buildings, including the Main Post Office, Voivodeship Administrative Court, the district court • Teatr Miejski (Municipal Theatre) • Chrobry Park • Monuments to Adam Mickiewicz and Tadeusz Kościuszko • Gliwice Trynek narrow-gauge station is a protected monument. The narrow-gauge line to Racibórz via Rudy closed in 1991 although a short section still remains as a museum line. • The Weichmann Textile House was built during the Summers of 1921 and 1922 . It was never referred to as Weichmann Textile House from its completion in Summer 1922 until its closing in 1943. Rather it was founded under the name Seidenhaus Weichmann (“Silk House Weichmann) by a Jewish WWI veteran, Erwin Weichmann(1891–1976), who had been awarded the Iron Cross 2nd Class by Germany. Erwin Weichmann a long time friend of Erich Mendelsohn, commissioned the architect to design Seidenhaus Weichmann. Today a monument can be seen near the entrance to the bank, that now occupies the building. Seidenhaus Weichmann is a two-floor structure. The second floor was initially a bachelor's pad for Erwin Weichmann, as he did not marry until 1930. In 1936 the newly created Nuremberg Laws forced Erwin Weichmann to sell Seidenhaus Weichmann and move temporarily to Hindenberg (Zabrze) before emigrating to the United States in July 1938. The individual, who had purchased Seidenhaus Weichmann in 1936, never saw a profit, as the economic strain of WWII severely reduced the market demand for nonessentials, which included the fine imported silks of sold by Seidenhaus Weichmann. Then in 1943, the purchaser of Seidenhaus was killed in an Allied bombing raid, which marked the end of Seidenhaus Weichmann.

Higher education and science Gliwice is a major applied science hub for the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union. Gliwice is a seat of: • Silesian University of Technology with about 32,000 students (Politechnika Śląska) • Akademia Polonijna of Częstochowa, branch in Gliwice • Gliwice College of Entrepreneurship (Gliwicka Wyższa Szkoła Przedsiębiorczości) • Polish Academy of Sciences (Polska Akademia Nauk) ◦ Institute of Theoretical And Applied Informatics ◦ Institute of Chemical Engineering ◦ Carbochemistry branch • Other (commercial or government funded) applied research centers: ◦ Oncological Research Center (Centrum Onkologii) ◦ Inorganic Chemistry Research Institute (Instytut Chemii Nieorganicznej) ◦ Research Institute of Refractory Materials (Instytut Materiałów Ogniotrwałych) ◦ Research Institute for Non-Ferrous Metals (Instytut Metali Nieżelaznych) ◦ Research Institute for Ferrous Metallurgy (Polish: Instytut Metalurgii Żelaza) ◦ Welding Research Institute (Instytut Spawalnictwa).

Transport The Polish north–south A1 and east–west A4 motorways, which are parts of the European routes E75 and E40, respectively, run through Gliwice, and their junction is located in the city. In addition the Polish National roads 78 and 88 also run through the city.

Water transport The Gliwice Canal (Kanał Gliwicki) links the harbour to the Oder River and thus to the waterway network across much of Germany and to the Baltic Sea. There is also an older Kłodnica Canal (Kanał Kłodnicki) which is no longer operational.

Sports • Piast Gliwice – men's football team playing in the Ekstraklasa (since season 2008–09), 2019 Polish champions and 2016 runner–ups • Carbo Gliwice – men's football team • Sośnica Gliwice – women's handball team playing in Polish Ekstraklasa Women's Handball League: 10th place in 2003/2004 season • Gliwickie Towarzystwo Koszykówki – men's basketball team • P.A. Nova Gliwice – men's futsal team playing in 1st league (4 times Champion of Poland) • Gliwice Cricket Club • K.S. Kodokan Gliwice – martial arts team and club • Gliwice LIONS – American Football team