Up until 1945, the modern-day towns of Zgorzelec and
Görlitz were a single entity; their history up to that point is shared. The date of the town's foundation is unknown. one of the old
Polish tribes, which together with the
Sorbian Milceni tribe, with which it bordered in the west, was subjugated in 990 by the
Margraviate of Meissen, a
frontier march of the
Holy Roman Empire. It was conquered by Polish Duke, and future King,
Bolesław I the Brave in 1002, whose goal was to decisively unite all Polish tribes, and remained part of
Poland during the reign of the first Polish kings Bolesław I the Brave and
Mieszko II Lambert until 1031, when the region fell again to the Margraviate of Meissen. Zgorzelec/Görlitz was first mentioned in a document from the King of
Germany, and later
Holy Roman Emperor,
Henry IV in 1071 as a small village named Goreliz in the region of
Upper Lusatia. In 1075, the region, within the
Holy Roman Empire, passed to rule of the
Duchy of Bohemia (
kingdom from 1198). In the 13th century the village gradually turned into a town. It became rich due to its location on the
Via Regia, an ancient and medieval trade road. In 1319 it became part of the
Piast-ruled
Duchy of Jawor, the southwesternmost duchy of fragmented Poland, and later on, became part of
Bohemia and the Holy Roman Empire again. In the following centuries, from 1346, it was a wealthy member of the
Six-City League of Upper Lusatia, consisting of the six Lusatian cities
Bautzen, Görlitz,
Kamenz,
Lubań,
Löbau and
Zittau. The town of
Gorlice in southern Poland was founded during the reign of
Casimir the Great in 1354 by
ethnic German colonists from Görlitz, in the last phases of
eastward settlement by Germans (in this case by
Walddeutsche). In the conflict over the Bohemian throne between
George of Poděbrady and
Matthias Corvinus, Görlitz, along with the Lusatian League, recognized Corvinus as ruler between 1469 and 1490. The town brokered international trade between German states in the west and
Poland,
Lithuania, Hungary and
Muscovy in the east, In 1815, after the
Napoleonic Wars, the
Congress of Vienna awarded Görlitz to the
Kingdom of Prussia and subsequently the city became part of the
German Empire in 1871. The city was a part of the Prussian province of
Silesia from 1815 to 1919.
20th century During
World War I, the Germans operated a
prisoner-of-war camp in present-day Zgorzelec, in which initially
Russian,
French and
British POWs were held, and then from 1916 to 1919 around 6,500
Greek soldiers were
interned. After the abolition of the Kingdom of Prussia in the aftermath of
World War I, Görlitz became a part of the newly established
Province of Lower Silesia in the
Free State of Prussia. POW camp On 26 August 1939, a few days before
Germany invaded Poland and sparked
World War II, a temporary
prisoner-of-war camp intended for
Poles was established in present-day Zgorzelec, which was soon converted into the large
Stalag VIII-A POW camp. The first 8,000 Polish POWs were brought to the camp on 7 September 1939. Also Polish civilians, including women, were held in the camp, which served as a transit camp for Poles, who were deported to Germany either to
forced labour or to
Nazi concentration camps. Among them were especially Polish activists and
intelligentsia from
Silesia,
Greater Poland and
Pomerania, arrested during the
Intelligenzaktion. During the war also POWs of various other nationalities were held in the camp, including the
Czechs,
Lithuanians,
Jews, French,
Belgians, Russians,
Italians, Britons,
Canadians,
Australians,
New Zealanders,
South Africans,
Yugoslavs,
Slovaks,
Americans. The French composer
Olivier Messiaen was one of its inmates. Most POWs were evacuated by the Germans in February 1945 in a
death march, during which POWs who either were unable to walk or tried to escape were murdered. In November 1941, also the Stalag 368 POW camp was founded in the town, but was relocated to
Beniaminów in the following months. In the wake of German defeat, operation groups arrived in the town on 10 to 12 May 1945 on the right Oder bank of Görlitz to secure Polish takeover of the town district. Polish administration was officially implemented on 21 May. On 2 June 1945, Polish military closed the bridge in Görlitz to block Germans from returning to their homes in
Silesia. Early in the morning on 21 June, the Polish ordered the Germans to leave their homes on the eastern part of Görlitz. Zgorzelec. Polish and Greek settlers arrived in the town. Zgorzelec had a difficult start as a Polish town because almost all of the infrastructure facilities were located in the part remaining German. In 1972, the Polish-East German border was opened for visa-free travel, resulting in intense movement between Zgorzelec and Görlitz, which lasted until 1980, when East Germany unilaterally closed the border due to anti-communist protests and the emergence of the
Solidarity movement in Poland. Until 1975 Zgorzelec was administratively located in the Wrocław (Lower Silesian) Voivodeship, and in 1975–1998 it was located in the
Jelenia Góra Voivodeship.
Recent history Since the
fall of communism in 1989, Zgorzelec and Görlitz have developed a close political relationship. Two of the numerous bridges over the Neisse river that had been blown up by retreating German forces in World War II have been rebuilt, reconnecting the two towns with one bus line. There is also common urban management and annual common sessions of both town councils. In 2006 the towns jointly applied to be the
European Capital of Culture in 2010. It was hoped that the jury would be convinced by the concept of Polish-German cooperation, but the award fell to
Essen, with Görlitz/Zgorzelec in second place. ==Sights==