Place Names in Upper Silesia: Polish and German Forms in History
Many places in Upper Silesia carry two historical names, one Polish and one German. Often both go back to the same Slavic root. Where do these name pairs come from, and why are some forms still in use today while others have disappeared from official use? This article explains the main connections: the origin of Upper Silesian place names, their changes in the twentieth century and their importance for historical research.
Two Names for One Place
For centuries many towns in the region had both a Polish and a German name form. Often it was the same name, with spelling or pronunciation following the rules of each language. This applies to pairs such as Katowice (Kattowitz), Opole (Oppeln), Gliwice (Gleiwitz), Racibórz (Ratibor), Bytom (Beuthen) or Tarnowskie Góry (Tarnowitz). In these examples the shared root is easy to recognize. The differences lie mainly in spelling and pronunciation.
Not all name pairs resemble each other so clearly. Chorzów was called Königshütte, a completely different German name. Elsewhere the forms also differ: Kluczbork is Kreuzburg in German, Olesno is Rosenberg, Strzelce Opolskie is Groß Strehlitz and Głogówek is Oberglogau. The German names thus did not always imitate the Polish sound. They should therefore be treated as independent historical forms with their own tradition of use.
Name Changes in the Twentieth Century
In the twentieth century, place names in Upper Silesia changed especially quickly. In the 1930s, Germany altered a share of the Slavic-sounding names. These renamings show that place names were by no means fixed: administrative decisions could also determine what a place was called.
A notable example is Zabrze, which bore the name Hindenburg O.S. from 1915 to 1945. Anyone reading documents from that period therefore meets a name that differs fundamentally from the form on today's maps.
After 1945 the situation reversed. In Poland a state commission fixed the names, and many German forms were no longer used officially. In official documents the Polish names are therefore mostly the norm today. The earlier forms, however, still turn up in historical sources. They remain part of the knowledge about the region and its history.
Bilingual Place Names in Present-Day Poland
Today German names can, under certain conditions, also be used in public space. The Minorities Act of 2005 allows municipalities with a strong German minority to introduce an additional name in the minority language. The German names do not replace the Polish ones. Both forms exist side by side.
This rule applies to municipalities with a numerically strong minority, not to the entire region. German names therefore appear only where they have been formally introduced. Whether a place uses bilingual names depends in this case on the decision of the individual municipality. It is not a general rule for the whole of Upper Silesia.
Why Know the Old Names?
Knowing both name forms is practically useful for historical and family research. In old documents spelling is often inconsistent, so the same place can appear under several variants. Historical gazetteers help to identify a place unambiguously and to find it again in records, parish registers or old maps.
Anyone looking for a particular place in old sources should therefore compare the Polish and the German form. Knowing both names can be decisive for finding the right document. Upper Silesian place names are thus more than a historical curiosity: they make the region's history easier to access. Compilations of the different name forms offer a useful basis for your own research.