Racibórz

Infobox Settlement
name = Racibórz
image_shield = POL Racibórz COA.svg


image_caption = Municipal office building
pushpin_

pushpin_label_position = bottom
subdivision_type = Country
subdivision_name = POL
subdivision_type1 = Voivodeship
subdivision_name1 = Silesian
subdivision_type2 = County
subdivision_name2 = Racibórz County
subdivision_type3 = Gmina
subdivision_name3 = Racibórz (urban gmina)
leader_title = Mayor
leader_name = Mirosław Lenk
established_title = Established
established_date = 12th century
established_title3 = City rights
established_date3 = 1217
area_magnitude = 1 E8
area_total_km2 = 74.96
population_as_of = 2006
population_total = 57352
population_density_km2 = auto
population_metro = 115 164
timezone = CET
utc_offset = +1
timezone_DST = CEST
utc_offset_DST = +2
latd = 50 | latm = 5 | lats = | latNS = N | longd = 18 | longm = 14 | longs = | longEW = E
postal_code_type = Postal code
postal_code = 47-400 to 47-445
area_code = +48 32
blank_name = Car plates
blank_info = SRC
website = http://www.raciborz.pl

Infobox Former Country
native_name = "Herzogtum Ratibor" (del)
"Księstwo Raciborskie" (pl)
conventional_long_name = Duchy of Ratibor
common_name = Raciborz |
continent = Europe
region = Central Europe
country = Poland
era = Middle Ages
status = Vassal
empire = Holy Roman Empire
government_type = Principality|
year_start = 1336
year_end = 1815|
event_start = Přemyslids acquired city
from Piast Poland
date_start =
1336
event_end = Congress of Vienna:
Mediatised to Prussia
date_end =
June 9 1815|
p1 = Duchy of Oppeln
image_p1 =
s1 = Kingdom of Prussia
flag_s1 = Flag of Prussia (1803).gif|
capital = Ratibor (Racibórz)|
footnotes =

Racibórz [IPA-pl|r|a|'|ć|i|b|u|sz] ( _de. Ratibor, _cz. Ratiboř) is a town in southern Poland with 60,218 inhabitants (2006) situated in the Silesian Voivodeship (since 1999), previously in Katowice Voivodeship (1975–1998). It is the capital of Racibórz County.

The name Racibórz is of Slavic origin and comes from the name of Duke Racibor, the city's founder.

History

Until the end of the 5th century AD, the lands of the later Racibórz settlement were inhabited by East Germanic Silinger tribes.

Racibórz was one of five strongholds of the Slavic Golezyce (Golenshitse, Holasici in Czech), a proto-Polish tribe. Racibórz, as a stronghold, was mentioned in a work of the "Bavarian Geographer" in 845. It was the first historical capital of Upper Silesia. The Duchy of Racibórz was established by Duke Mieszko Plątonogi in 1172. The city was granted municipal privileges in 1217. From 1299 Racibórz was ruled by its own city council. The last duke of the Polish branch of the Piast dynasty died in 1336 and from that time until 1521 the duchy and the city were ruled by the Czech branch of the dynasty. Racibórz was also ruled by the Polish duke of Opole. The first coin with the Polish description "MILOST" was issued in Racibórz, in 1211 as well the first Polish national anthem "Gaude mater Polonia" which was written ca. 1260–70 in Latin by a brother from the Dominican monastery in Racibórz.

After the medieval Eastward settlement of German settlers, farmers and traders, which was stimulated by the Polish and Slavic rulers, princes and officials of Upper Silesia, from the 13th century onward Racibórz became known as Ratibor and was heavily Germanized linguistically and culturally. It came under Austrian rule, but in the 18th century was finally ceded to Prussia. Prussian policy increased the Germanification.

The famous German poet Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff, a Roman Catholic Silesian nobleman, was born at Schloss Lubowitz in Ratibor in the 18th century. Until 1945 Ratibor remained German, and the majority of its inhabitants were Germans or Germanized Upper Silesians.

After end of World War II, in June 1945, army of Czechoslovakia briefly entered into the then-German Ratibor and Czechoslovakia officially claimed the area of Racibórz and Głubczyce ("Ratibořsko" and "Hlubčicko") because of having a substantial Czech minority. See border conflicts between Poland and Czechoslovakia for details. At the same time the violent expulsion of Germans by both Czech and Polish nationalist and communist militias and gangs started and the region was virtually ethnically cleansed from Germans, as the town, despite a history of hundreds of years of German rule, culture and German ethnic majority, came to lie far into the territory of the post-war Republic of Poland as defined at the Potsdam Conference. The German CDU politician Herbert Hupka at the end of his life promoted reconciliation between the former German inhabitants, including himself, and the new Polish settlers and administration of Racibórcz (Ratibor).

Sister towns

* Kaliningrad, Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia
* Kędzierzyn-Koźle, Opole Voivodeship, Poland
* Leverkusen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
* Opava, Moravia–Silesia, Czech Republic
* Roth bei Nürnberg, Bavaria, Germany
* Tysmenytsia, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, Ukraine
* flagicon|Wales Wrexham, Wales, United Kingdom

External links

* [http://www.raciborz.pl/ Official website] pl icon
* [http://www.ratibor.de/ Partnership with German city Leverkusen] de icon
* [http://www.raciborz.fotografwz.com/ Photographs of Racibórz and environs]
* [http://www.gliwice.uc.gov.pl/oddzialy/oddzial_raciborz.html Customs House in Ratibor]