Timeline of Wrocław

The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Wrocław, Poland.

Historical affiliations

Silesians until the 800s

Duchy of Poland 985–1025
Kingdom of Poland 1025–1038
Duchy of Bohemia 1038–1054
Kingdom of Poland 1054–ca. 1325

• Duchy of Silesia 1202–1335
  

 Kingdom of Bohemia 1335–1469
Kingdom of Hungary 1469–1490
 Kingdom of Bohemia 1490–1526/1742
Habsburg Monarchy 1526–1742
Kingdom of Prussia 1742–1871
German Empire 1871–1918
Weimar Germany 1918–1933
 Nazi Germany 1933–1945
People's Republic of Poland 1945–1989

 Republic of Poland 1989–present

Prior to 16th century

• around 550 - At the end of the Migration Period around and in the present areas of Wrocław, the Slavic tribe of Ślężanie settled.
• 985 - Mieszko I of Poland in power.
• 1000
  • Bishopric of Wrocław established.[1]
  • Population: 1,000 (approximate).
• 1037 - Uprising.
• 1038 - Bohemians in power.
• 1054 - Poles in power.
• 1109 - August 24: Battle of Hundsfeld (Psie Pole), Polish victory against the invading Germans.
• ca. 1112/1118 - Wrocław named one of the three major cities of the Polish Kingdom alongside Kraków and Sandomierz in the Gesta principum Polonorum.
• 1138 - Town becomes capital of Duchy of Silesia within the fragmented Polish realm.

Romanesque church of St. Giles, the oldest preserved church of Wrocław

• around 1240 - Church of St. Vincent founded by High Duke of Poland Henry II the Pious.
• 1241
  • Town besieged by Mongols during the First Mongol invasion of Poland.[2]
  • Burial of Henry II the Pious, killed in the Battle of Legnica, in the Church of St. Vincent,[3] as the first Polish monarch to be buried in Wrocław.
• 1242 - Church of St. Giles built.
• 1257 - Church of St. Elizabeth built.[4]
• 1262 - Magdeburg rights adopted.
• 1272 - Cathedral of St. John the Baptist consecrated.
• 1273 - Piwnica Świdnicka, one of the oldest still operating restaurants in Europe, opened.[5]
• 1274 - Duke Henryk IV Probus granted Wrocław staple right.
• 1288 - Holy Cross church founded by High Duke of Poland Henryk IV Probus.[6]
• 1290 - Death and burial of Henryk IV Probus in the Holy Cross church, that was still under construction,[6] as the second Polish monarch to be buried in Wrocław.
• 1295 - Holy Cross church consecrated.[4]
• 1333 - Town Hall building expanded.
• 1335 - City annexed to Bohemia.[4]
• 1342 - Fire.
• 1344 - Fire.
• 1348 - Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor visits the city.
• 1351 - Saints Stanislaus, Dorothy and Wenceslaus church founded.[2]
• 1362 - St. Mary Magdalene Church built.
• 1387 - City joins Hanseatic League.
• 1418 - Guild revolt.
• 1466 - Meeting of Polish diplomat Jan Długosz and the papal legate in Wrocław, which enabled peace talks between Poland and the Teutonic Order, which culminated a few months later in the signing of a peace treaty in Toruń ending the Thirteen Years' War.[7]
• 1469 - City passed to Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus.
• 1474
  • Siege by combined Polish-Czech forces.[8]
  • Meeting of the Polish, Czech and Hungarian kings in the village of Muchobór Wielki (present-day district of Wrocław), ceasefire signed.[8]
  • City leaves the Hanseatic League.

The oldest printed text in the Polish language in the Statuta Synodalia Episcoporum Wratislaviensis, printed in Wrocław by Kasper Elyan, 1475

• 1475 - Kasper Elyan founded the Drukarnia Świętokrzyska (Holy Cross Printing House), the city's first printing house, which in the same year published the Statuta synodalia episcoporum Wratislaviensium, the first ever incunable in Polish.[9]
• 1490 - City passed to Bohemia.
• 1492 - Pillory erected at the Market Square.[4]

16th–18th centuries

• 1523 - Protestant Reformation.[2]
• 1527 - City annexed to Austria.[4]
• 1530 - City coat of arms adopted.
• 1585 - Plague.
• 1666 - Polish Municipal School (Miejska Szkoła Polska) opened.
• 1670 - Miscellanea Curiosa Medico-Physica, the world's first medical journal published.
• 1672 - House of the Seven Electors built.[4]
• 1702 - Leopoldina Jesuit college founded.[10]
• 1717 - Palace built.
• 1723 - Bergstadtverlag Wilhelm Gottlieb Korn (publisher) in business.
• 1741 - Prussians in power.[10]
• 1742 - Schlesische Zeitung begins publication.[11]
• 1757 - Austrians in power, succeeded by Prussians.[10]
• 1760 - City besieged.[4]

19th century

• 1806 - December: City besieged by forces of the Confederation of the Rhine.[4]
• 1807 - Old fortifications dismantled.[2]
• 1811 - Schlesische Friedrich-Wilhelm-Universität established.[2]
• 1813 - Mobilization against Napoleon of France.[4]
• 1815 - Royal Museum of Art and Antiquity established.
• 1823 - Population: 76,813.[12]
• 1824 - Exchange built.[13]
• 1829 - White Stork Synagogue opens.
• 1833 - Horse racing in Szczytnicki Park begins.
• 1836 - Slavonic Literary Society founded.

Wrocław Opera

• 1841 - Opera House opens.
• 1842 - Upper Silesian Train Station built.
• 1846 - Royal Palace building renovated.[4]
• 1854 - Jewish Theological Seminary founded.
• 1856 - Jewish Cemetery established in Gabitz.
• 1857 - Central Station opens.
• 1861
  • Local Poles join Polish national mourning after the massacre of Polish protesters by Russian troops in Warsaw in February 1861.[14]
  • City becomes an important center of preparations for the Polish January Uprising in the Russian Partition of Poland.[15]
  • Orchestral Society founded.
• 1863
  • Mass searches of Polish homes by the Prussian police after the outbreak of the January Uprising.[16]
  • June: City officially becomes the seat of secret Polish insurgent authorities.[17]
  • New City Hall built.[4]
• 1864 - January: Arrests of several members of the Polish insurgent movement by the Prussian police.[18]
• 1865
  • Zoological Garden opens.
  • Theatre built.[4]
• 1871
  • City becomes part of German Empire.
  • New Church of St. Michael consecrated.[4]
  • Opera house rebuilt.
• 1872
  • New Synagogue consecrated.
  • Piast Brewery in business.
• 1873 - Population: 208,025.[4]
• 1880 - Silesian Museum of Fine Arts established.
• 1883
  • St. Mauritius Bridge constructed.
  • Lutheran Theological Seminar opens.
• 1884 - Polish newspaper Nowiny Szląskie begins publication.
• 1886 - Viadrina (Jewish student society) formed.
• 1887 - "Government offices" built.[2]
• 1889 - Tumski Bridge constructed.
• 1890 - Population: 335,186.[2]
• 1892 - Monopol Hotel built.

Market Square with the Old Town Hall around 1900

• 1894
  • Merchants Club built.[19]
  • "Sokół" Polish Gymnastic Society established, as the first branch of the organization in Silesia.[20]
• 1896 - Kleinburg (Dworek) and Pöpelwitz (Popowice) villages become part of city.
• 1897 - Zwierzyniecki Bridge constructed.
• 1899 - Silesian Museum of Applied Arts established.

20th century

1900–1945

• 1903 - Flood.
• 1904
  • Herdain (Gaj) and Morgentau (Rakowiec) villages become part of city.
  • Barasch Brothers' Department Store opens.
• 1905
  • Population: 470,751.[2]
  • Wrocław water tower built.

Wrocław Market Hall in 1909

• 1908 - Market Hall built.
• 1909 - Theatre built.
• 1910
  • Grunwaldzki Bridge built.
  • Technische Hochschule was founded.
• 1911 - Gräbschen (Grabiszyn) village becomes part of city.
• 1913
  • Centennial Hall and Exhibition Grounds built.
  • Union of Jewish Liberal Youth organized.[21]
• 1916 - Turnip winter (food rationing).
• 1919 - City becomes capital of Province of Lower Silesia.
• 1920
  • May - Consulate of the Republic of Poland opened.[22]
  • August - Polish consulate attacked and demolished by a German nationalist militia.[22]
• 1924 - Local branch of the Union of Poles in Germany founded.[23]
• 1926 - Palace Museum opens.
• 1927 - Polish scout troop founded.[24]
• 1929 - Workplace and House Exhibition held.

Part of the Workplace and House Exhibition

• 1930
  • Wertheim Department Store opens.
  • June: City hosts Deutsche Kampfspiele.
  • 12 September: Hitler gives campaign speech at the Centennial Hall.
• 1932 - Conflict between Communists and Nazis.
• 1933
  • January: Riots.[25]
  • March: KZ Dürrgoy, one of the first Nazi concentration camps, established in the present-day district of Tarnogaj.[26]
  • August: KZ Dürrgoy disestablished.[26]
• 1938
  • July: Deutsches Turn- und Sportfest 1938 held.[27]
  • November 9–10: Kristallnacht pogrom against Jews.
  • Airport built.

Monument to the Polish Olimp organization in Wrocław

• 1939
  • June: Expulsion of Polish students from the university.[24]
  • August: Headquarters of several local Polish organizations, known as the Polish House, searched by the Gestapo and closed down.[24]
  • September: City made the headquarters of the southern district of the Selbstschutz, led by SS-Oberführer Fritz Katzmann, which task was to commit atrocities against Poles during the German invasion of Poland.[28]
  • September: Mass arrests of Polish activists, Polish organizations banned.[24]
• 1941 - Olimp (organization) formed by Polish minority.
• 1942 - AL Breslau-Lissa subcamp of the Gross-Rosen concentration camp established by the Germans, its prisoners were mostly Poles, but also Russians, Ukrainians, Germans, Frenchmen, Czechs, Yugoslavs.[29]
• 1943 - April 23: Polish Zagra-Lin attacks Nazi troop transport.
• 1944
  • August: City declared a Nazi fortress.
  • Three more subcamps of the Gross-Rosen concentration camp established, for prisoners of various nationalities, including one subcamp for women.[29]
• 1945
  • January: evacuation of the prisoners of the Gross-Rosen subcamps to the main camp.[29]
  • February 13-May 6: Siege of Breslau.[30]
  • Polish Boleslaw Drobner becomes mayor.
  • Expulsion of Germans begins.

1946–1990s

• 1946
  • Ossolineum relocates to Wrocław from Lviv.
  • Academy of Fine Arts and Academy for the Dramatic Arts established.
  • Wrocław Puppet Theater active.[19]

National Museum, Wrocław

• 1947 - National Museum, Wrocław, and Trade College established.
• 1948 - Iglica installed.
• 1950 - Wrocław Medical University established.
• 1951
  • Bieńkowice, Brochów, Jagodno, Klecina, Lamowice Stare, Miłostków/Marzanów, Muchobór Wielki, Ołtaszyn, Oporów, Sołtysowice, Wojnów, Wojszyce, Zakrzów, Zgorzelisko villages become part of city.
  • Agricultural University established.
• 1956 - Pantomima established.[31]
• 1958 - Śląsk Wrocław wins its first Polish handball championship.
• 1959 - Wojewodzki Bridge constructed.
• 1963 - Wrocław hosts the EuroBasket 1963.
• 1964 - Unveiling of the monument to Polish professors from Lwów, murdered by the Germans during the occupation of Poland in 1941 (see also: Massacre of Lwów professors).[32]
• 1965
  • Museum of Architecture established.
  • Teatr Laboratorium active.[31]
  • Śląsk Wrocław wins its first Polish basketball championship.
• 1974 - Population: 565,000.[33]
• 1975
  • City becomes capital of Wrocław Voivodeship.
  • Śląsk Wrocław wins its tenth Polish handball championship.
• 1977 - Śląsk Wrocław wins its first Polish football championship.
• 1980 - Gwardia Wrocław wins its first Polish volleyball championship.
• 1982 - Fighting Solidarity organization founded.
• 1985 - Raclawice Panorama re-opens.
• 1986 - Stefan Skapski becomes mayor.
• 1993
  • Śląsk Wrocław wins its tenth Polish basketball championship.
  • Sparta Wrocław wins its first Polish speedway championship.
• 1995 - May 10: Wrocław hosts the first Speedway Grand Prix event in history, won by Tomasz Gollob.

1997 Central European flood in Wrocław

• 1997
  • May: Visit of Pope John Paul II.[34]
  • July: Millennium Flood.[35]
• 1999 - City becomes capital of Lower Silesian Voivodeship.
• 2000 - May: Wrocław hosts the 2000 European Judo Championships.

21st century

New Horizons Film Festival, 2009

• 2001 - New Horizons Film Festival begins.
• 2002
  • Rafal Dutkiewicz becomes mayor.
  • Land Forces Military Academy established.
• 2003 - March 30: Football riot.
• 2009
  • April 25: Renoma department store re-opens.
  • June 4: Multimedia Fountain installed.
  • September: Wrocław co-hosts the EuroBasket 2009.
• 2010
  • July: Wrocław hosts the 2010 Acrobatic Gymnastics World Championships.
  • October: American Film Festival begins.

Stadion Miejski

• 2011
  • Redzinski Bridge and Municipal Stadium open.
  • Population: 631,235.
• 2012 - City co-hosts the UEFA Euro 2012.
• 2013 - Wrocław hosts the 2013 World Weightlifting Championships.
• 2014 - Wrocław co-hosts the 2014 FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship.
• 2016
  • City named World Book Capital by UNESCO.
  • January: Wrocław co-hosts the 2016 European Men's Handball Championship.
• 2017 - Wrocław hosts the 2017 World Games.

See also

• History of Wrocław
• List of mayors of Wrocław
• List of bishops of Wrocław
• Category:Timelines of cities in Poland (in Polish)

References

1. "Chronology of Catholic Dioceses: Germany". Norway: Roman Catholic Diocese of Oslo. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
2. Britannica 1910.
3. Roman Tomczak. "Gdzie jest szkielet bez głowy?". Gość Legnicki (in Polish). Retrieved 15 May 2020.
4. Baedeker 1873.
5. Agnieszka Vincenc. "Wrocławskie kamienice: Piwnica Świdnicka". KRN.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 15 May 2020.
6. Magdalena Lewandowska. "Kolegiata Świętego Krzyża". Niedziela.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 15 May 2020.
7. Karol Górski, Związek Pruski i poddanie się Prus Polsce: zbiór tekstów źródłowych, Instytut Zachodni, Poznań, 1949, p. LXXII (in Polish)
8. Maciej Łagiewski. "Spotkanie królów". Gazeta Wrocławska (in Polish). Retrieved 15 May 2020.
9. Hieronim Szczegóła, Kasper Elyan z Głogowa, pierwszy polski drukarz, Muzeum Ziemi Lubuskiej, Zielona Góra, 1968, p. 4, 6 (in Polish)
10. Richard Brookes (1786), "Breslaw", The General Gazetteer (6th ed.), London: J.F.C. Rivington
11. 150 Jahre Schlesische Zeitung, 1742-1892 (in German), W.G. Korn, 1892, OCLC 8658059, OL 23541958M
12. Jedidiah Morse; Richard C. Morse (1823), "Breslau", A New Universal Gazetteer (4th ed.), New Haven: S. Converse
13. "Breslau", Northern Germany as far as the Bavarian and Austrian frontiers (15th ed.), Leipzig: Karl Baedeker, 1910, OCLC 78390379
14. Mieczysław Pater, Wrocławskie echa powstania styczniowego, "Śląski Kwartalnik Historyczny Sobótka", nr 4, 1963, p. 407 (in Polish)
15. Pater, p. 408
16. Pater, p. 411
17. Pater, p. 412
18. Pater, p. 414-415
19. "Historia Teatru" (in Polish). Wrocławski Teatr Lalek. Retrieved November 26, 2012.
20. "Rok Jubileuszowy – Towarzystwo Gimnastyczne „Sokół"". Ossolineum (in Polish). Retrieved 15 May 2020.
21. Julius H. Greenstone (1931). "Liberal Jewish Youth Association of Breslau". Jewish Quarterly Review. New Series 21.
22. Małgorzata Wieliczko. "100 lat niepodległości: Konsulat II RP we Wrocławiu skrywał tajemnice". www.wroclaw.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 15 May 2020.
23. Mirosław Cygański, Hitlerowskie prześladowania przywódców i aktywu Związków Polaków w Niemczech w latach 1939 - 1945, "Przegląd Zachodni", nr 4, 1984, p. 36 (in Polish)
24. Cygański, p. 37
25. "Riots in Breslau as Corn Returns". New York Times. January 25, 1933.
26. "see article "Concentration Camps in and around Breslau 1940–1945"". Roger Moorhouse. Archived from the original on 9 June 2010.
27. "Nazis Hold Sport Week". New York Times. July 25, 1938.
28. Maria Wardzyńska, Był rok 1939. Operacja niemieckiej policji bezpieczeństwa w Polsce. Intelligenzaktion, IPN, Warszawa, 2009, p. 63 (in Polish)
29. "Subcamps of KL Gross- Rosen". Gross-Rosen Museum in Rogoźnica. Retrieved 15 May 2020.
30. "Soviet Siege Army Captures Breslau; 40,000 Germans Surrender After 84-Day Struggle". New York Times. May 8, 1945.
31. Robert R. Findlay; Halina Filipowicz (1975). "The 'Other Theatre' of Wrocław: Henryk Tomaszewski and the Pantomima". Educational Theatre Journal. 27.
32. Rada Ochrony Pomników Walki i Męczeństwa Czesław Czubryt-Borkowski, Jerzy Michasiewicz, Przewodnik po upamiętnionych miejscach walk i męczeństwa lata wojny 1939- 1945, Wydawnictwo Sport i Turystyka, Warszawa, 1988, p. 798 (in Polish)
33. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Statistical Office (1976). "Population of capital city and cities of 100,000 and more inhabitants". Demographic Yearbook 1975. New York. pp. 253–279.
34. "14 lat temu Jan Paweł II gościł we Wrocławiu". Gazeta Wrocławska (in Polish). Retrieved 15 May 2020.
35. "Poles Hold Off Floodwaters in Wrocław". New York Times. July 14, 1997.

This article incorporates information from the Polish Wikipedia and German Wikipedia.

Bibliography

in English

• "Breslau", Northern Germany (5th ed.), Coblenz: Karl Baedeker, 1873, OCLC 5947482
• George Bradshaw (1898), "Breslau", Bradshaw's Illustrated Hand-book to Germany, London: Adams & Sons
• "Breslau", The Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.), New York, 1910, OCLC 14782424
• Robert E Dickinson (1951). "Structure of the German City: Breslau". West European City: a Geographical Interpretation. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-25970-8.
• George Lerski (1996). "Wroclaw". Historical Dictionary of Poland, 966-1945. Greenwood. ISBN 978-0-313-03456-5.
• Piotr Wróbel (1998). "Wroclaw". Historical Dictionary of Poland 1945-1996. Fitzroy Dearborn. ISBN 978-1-135-92694-6.
• Laurențiu Rădvan (2010), "Towns in the Kingdom of Poland: Wroclaw and Krakow", At Europe's Borders: Medieval Towns in the Romanian Principalities, Translated by Valentin Cîrdei, Leiden: Brill, p. 47+, ISBN 9789004180109

in other languages

• "Breslau". Allgemeine Deutsche Real-Encyclopädie für die Gebildeten Stände (in German) (7th ed.). Leipzig: Brockhaus. 1827.
• "Breslau". Biblioteca geographica: Verzeichniss der seit der Mitte des vorigen Jahrhunderts bis zu Ende des Jahres 1856 in Deutschland (in German). Leipzig: Wilhelm Engelmann. 1858. (bibliography)
• Ludwig Sittenfeld (1909), Geschichte des Breslauer Theaters von 1841 bis 1900 [History of the Breslau Theatre from 1841 to 1900] (in German), Breslau: Preusz, OL 23360659M
• P. Krauss; E. Uetrecht, eds. (1913). "Breslau". Meyers Deutscher Städteatlas [Meyer's Atlas of German Cities] (in German). Leipzig: Bibliographisches Institut.
• Institut für vergleichende Städtegeschichte, ed. (1989), Breslau, Deutscher Städteatlas (in German), 4, ISBN 978-3891150009
• Wolfgang Adam; Siegrid Westphal, eds. (2012). "Breslau". Handbuch kultureller Zentren der Frühen Neuzeit: Städte und Residenzen im alten deutschen Sprachraum (in German). De Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-029555-9.

External links

• Links to fulltext city directories for Breslau via Wikisource
• Europeana. Items related to Wroclaw, various dates.