City name The city of Chorzów was formed in 1934–1939 by a merger of four adjacent cities: Chorzów, Królewska Huta, Nowe Hajduki and Hajduki Wielkie. The name of the oldest settlement
Chorzów was applied to the amalgamated city. The etymology of the name is not known. Chorzów is believed to be first mentioned as
Zversov or
Zuersov in a document of 1136 by
Pope Innocent II as a village with peasants, silver miners, and two inns. Another place-name likely indicating Chorzów is Coccham or Coccha, which is mentioned in a document of 1198 by the
Patriarch of Jerusalem, who awarded this place to the
Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. Chorzów is then mentioned as
Chareu or
Charev in 1257 and then
Charzow in 1292. The last name may originate from the
personal name Charz, short for
Zachary and may mean ''Zachary's place
. The a
in the early names may have been later modified to the current pronunciation with o
perhaps due to similarity to the common adjective chory
=ill
and a presence of a hospital (which was moved in 1299 to Rozbark at the gates of Bytom). Today, the place of the old village is a subdivision called Chorzów III
or Chorzów Stary (Old Chorzów''). The industrial and residential settlement south-west of Chorzów constructed since 1797 around the
Royal Coal Mine and
Royal Iron Works was named
Królewska Huta by the Poles or
Königshütte by the Germans, both names meaning
Royal Iron Works. As it was growing quickly this settlement was granted
city status in 1868. Today this neighbourhood is called
Chorzów I or
Chorzów-Miasto meaning
Chorzów Centre. The etymology of
Hajduki is ambiguous and is interpreted as either related to the German word for
moorland (German: die Heide), or adopted from the German/Polish/Silesian term for
hajduk(s) (Polish (plural): Hajduki; German (singular): Heiduck), which locally meant bandits. The place was first mentioned in 1627 as
Hejduk and shown on 18th century maps as "Ober Heiduk" and "Nieder Heiduk" (i.e., Upper and Lower Heiduk). The later names
Hajduki Wielkie and
Nowe Hajduki mean
Great Hajduks and
New Hajduks, respectively. The two settlements were merged in 1903 and named after the
Bismarck Iron Works Bismarckhütte. When the international borders shifted, the name of Bismarck was replaced with the name of the
Polish king Batory (so-chosen to preserve that initial "B", which appeared on an economically important local trademark). Today this city subdivision is called
Chorzów IV or
Chorzów-Batory.
Village of Chorzów In the 12th century, the
castellany of
Bytom, including the Chorzów area, belonged to the
Seniorate Province (Kraków Duchy) of Poland. In 1179 it was awarded by Duke
Casimir the Just to the Duke of
Opole, and since that time the history of Chorzów has been connected to the history of
Upper Silesia (
Duchy of Opole). The oldest part of the city, the village of Chorzów, today called
Chorzów Stary, belonged since 1257 to the
Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. Already at that time silver and lead ores were mined nearby, later also the ores of iron. There is more documentation for 16th century developments. From 1327, the Upper Silesian duchies were ruled by the dukes of the
Piast dynasty and were subject to
Bohemian overlordship. The
Crown of Bohemia elected Polish-Lithuanian
Jagiellons kings from 1471 and Austrian
Habsburgs kings after 1526. In 1742, the area was conquered by the Prussian
Hohenzollerns in
Silesian Wars, setting the stage for the Prussian industrial might. The Prussian and then German period lasted for about 180 years and overlapped with the time of rapid industrialization.
Industrial revolution ) With the discovery of
bituminous coal deposits at the end of the 18th century by the Polish local priest
Ludwik Bojarski, new industrial sectors developed in the Chorzów area. In the years 1791–1797, the Prussian
state-owned Royal Coal Mine was constructed (
Kopalnia Król,
Königsgrube, later renamed several times with the changing political winds). In 1799, the first
pig iron was made in the Royal Iron Works (
Królewska Huta,
Königshütte). At the time, it was a pioneering industrial establishment of its kind in
continental Europe. In 1819, the ironworks consisted of four
blast furnaces, producing 1,400 tons of pig-iron. In the 1800s, the modern Lidognia Zinc Works was added in the area. Settlements grew near the new coal and ironworks. Since 1797, one group of settlements was called
Königshütte (
Królewska Huta in Polish) after the ironworks. In 1846, Królewska Huta received a
railway track to
Świętochłowice and
Mysłowice and in 1857 to
Bytom and until 1872 to all major cities in the Silesian region. Królewska Huta received city status in 1868 as part of
Bytom County, and in 1898, it was made a separate
city-county. The population was increasing rapidly: from 19,500 inhabitants in 1870 to 72,600 in 1910. Among them 17,300 workers were employed in the industry (similar number for 1939). In 1871, there was a workers' rebellion in the city. The Royal Iron Works were taken over in 1871 by the holding called
Vereingte Königs- und Laurahütte AG für Bergbau und Hüttenbetrieb, which added a
steel mill, rail mill and workshops. In the vicinity of the Royal Coal Mine,
Countess Laura Coal Mine was opened in 1870, and by 1913–1914 coal production increased to 1 million tons a year. In 1898, a
thermal power plant was commissioned which was, until the 1930s, the biggest electricity producer in Poland with a power of 100 MW (electrical). Today, it operates as
"ELCHO". In 1915, nitrogen chemical works (Oberschlesische Stickstoffwerke) were built nearby to produce fertilizers and explosives by newly invented processes: from the air, water and coal (see
Haber-Bosch process). Today, it operates as "Zakłady Azotowe SA". Another ironworks, Bismarck Iron Works (
Bismarckhütte), later called Bathory Iron Works (
Huta Batory), was opened in 1872 in the village of Hajduki Wielkie, just south of Chorzów and Królewska Huta. A large
carbochemical plant was started nearby in 1889, the first such
chemical plant in what was to later become the Polish state. Today the company operates as "Zakłady Koksochemiczne Hajduki SA". Towards the end of the 19th century, Chorzów experienced a revival of Polish national feelings. Ethnic tensions were mixed with the religious and
class conflicts. The city was a noted center of Polish printing and publishing in the region. Polish newspapers published there included
Katolik since 1869 (editorial office briefly relocated to
Mikołów in the 1870s),
Poradnik Gospodarczy since 1871,
Wiarus Katolicki since 1887,
Górnoślązak. Pismo dla Ludu Katolickiego in 1888, replaced by
Głos Ludu Górnośląskiego that same year,
Gwiazda Górnoszlązka since 1893 (moved from
Piekary Śląskie),
Gazeta Katolicka since 1896,
Dzwonek Maryi since 1901, and
Dziennik Śląski since 1911 (moved from
Bytom, then relocated to
Katowice in 1919).
Katolik (The Catholic) and
Poradnik Gospodarczy (
Economic Advisor) were published by noted Polish activist
Karol Miarka. Karol Miarka was also the founder of several organizations: Upper Silesian Union, Upper Silesian Peasants Union. Polish activist and writer Juliusz Ligoń made his debut as a playwright and also published his popular works on the history of Upper Silesia in the city in the 1880s. A local branch of the Polish
Sokół movement was established in 1901, and a women's section in 1904, however, the latter was eventually dissolved by the German police. In 1920, the football club
Ruch Chorzów was founded in the city. Later on, it would become one of the most successful Polish football teams.
Interwar Poland (1922–1939) In the
Upper Silesia plebiscite a majority of 31,864 voters voted to remain in Germany while 10,764 votes were given for Poland. Following three
Silesian Uprisings, the eastern part of Silesia, including Chorzów and Królewska Huta, was separated from Germany and awarded to
Poland in 1922. Migrations of people followed. Because of its strategic value, the case of the nitrogen factory
Oberschlesische Stickstoffwerke was argued for years before the
Permanent Court of International Justice, finally setting some new legal precedents on what is "just" in international relations. In 1934, the industrial communities of Chorzów, Królewska Huta and Nowe Hajduki were merged into one municipality with 81,000 inhabitants. The name of the oldest settlement
Chorzów was given to the whole city. In April 1939, the settlement of Hajduki Wielkie with 30,000 inhabitants was added to Chorzów. In part due to the German-Polish
trade war in the 1920s, the industry of Chorzów, a border city at that time, stagnated until 1933. In 1927, a division of
Huta Piłsudski was separated into a company making rail cars, trams and bridges; today it operates as
Alstom-Konstal. The State Factory of
Nitrogen Compounds (Państwowa Fabryka Związków Azotowych) was in 1933 merged with a similar company (largely its copy) in
Tarnów-Mościce.
German occupation during World War II (1939–1945) {{multiple image|align=right|caption_align=center|perrow=2|total_width=320 On the day of the outbreak of
World War II in September 1939, Chorzów
was taken by
Nazi Germany. Polish irregulars, mainly Silesian uprising veterans and
scouts, put up resistance to the regular German forces for three days, afterwards the city was
occupied by Germany, and on September 6, 1939, the
Einsatzgruppe I entered the city to commit various
atrocities against Poles. Most of the Polish defenders were murdered in mass executions. An execution of three Poles was carried out by the German
Freikorps already on September 3, 1939. A unit of the
Einsatzgruppe I was stationed in Chorzów, and it was responsible for many crimes against Poles committed in Chorzów and the nearby cities of
Czeladź and
Siemianowice Śląskie. Polish property was confiscated, and Chorzów was promptly re-incorporated into German Silesia; the Upper Silesian industry being one of the pillars of the Nazi Germany
war effort. In 1939 and 1940, the Germans carried out mass arrests of Polish
intelligentsia, especially teachers, for which a prison was operated in the city (see
Intelligenzaktion). Local Polish teachers were among Poles murdered in 1939 in Chorzów and Strzybnica (present-day district of
Tarnowskie Góry), and later in the
Dachau concentration camp. At least 62 people from Chorzów, including the deputy starost, a local journalist, 37 policemen, nine teachers and two school principals were murdered by the Russians in the
Katyn massacre in 1940. There were several
forced labour camps in Chorzów, including one
Polenlager solely for Poles, two camps solely for
Jews, the E246, E594 and E725 subcamps of the
Stalag VIII-B/344 prisoner-of-war camp, and, in years 1944–1945, a
subcamp of the
Auschwitz concentration camp, in which approximately 200 Jews from German-occupied
France,
Belgium and
Czechoslovakia were imprisoned. In January 1945, the prisoners of the subcamp of Auschwitz were evacuated on foot to Gliwice, and then deported to the
Nordhausen-Dora concentration camp.
After 1945 At the end of World War II, Chorzów was given to Poland. Generally, the Chorzów industry suffered little damage during World War II due to its inaccessibility to
Allied bombing, a Soviet Army
enveloping manoeuvre in January 1945, and perhaps
Albert Speer's slowness or refusal to implement the
scorched earth policy. This intact industry now played a critical role in the post-war reconstruction and industrialization of Poland. After the war, businesses were nationalized and operated, with minor changes, until 1989. Some were used as Soviet labour and concentration camps. Some industrial hardware and at least 100,000 Polish Silesians were deported to the Ukrainian Donbass region. At the
"fall of communism" in 1989, the area was in decline. Since 1989, the region has been transitioning from
heavy industry to a more diverse economy. In 1954 as many as 103 miners died in the . On 28 January 2006,
a roof collapsed at an
exhibition hall, killing 65 people. In 2007, Chorzów became a part of the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union (predecessor to the
Metropolis GZM), a voluntary union of a continuous chain of cities aimed at increasing the poor visibility of the area, improving its competitiveness, and modernizing the infrastructure. The region experienced several waves of migrations, including those commencing in 1945 (to Germany and from Poland and Ukraine), in 1971–1976 (to Germany), in 1982 (to
Western countries), and from 2003 (to other countries of the EU). ==Geography==