Province of Lower Silesia


The Province of Lower Silesia was a province of the Free State of Prussia from 1919 to 1945. Between 1938 and 1941 it was reunited with Upper Silesia as the Province of Silesia. The capital of Lower Silesia was Breslau. The province was further divided into two administrative regions, Breslau and Liegnitz.
The province was not congruent with the historical region of Lower Silesia, which now lies mainly in Poland. It additionally comprised the Upper Lusatian districts of Görlitz, Rothenburg and Hoyerswerda in the west, that until 1815 had belonged to the Kingdom of Saxony, as well as the former County of Kladsko in the southeast.
The province was disestablished at the end of World War II and with the implementation of the Oder–Neisse line in 1945, the area east of the Neisse river fell to the Republic of Poland. The smaller western part was incorporated into the German states of Saxony and Brandenburg.

Administrative regionshttp://www.genealogienetz.de/reg/SCI/index.html [Administrative divisions of Lower and Upper Silesia] (in German)

Regierungsbezirk Breslau

Urban districts / ''Stadtkreise''

  1. City of Breslau
  2. City of Brieg
  3. City of Schweidnitz
  4. City of Waldenburg

    Rural districts / ''Landkreise''

  5. Landkreis Breslau
  6. Landkreis Brieg
  7. Landkreis Frankenstein
  8. Landkreis Glatz
  9. Landkreis Groß Wartenberg
  10. Landkreis Guhrau
  11. Landkreis Habelschwerdt
  12. Landkreis Militsch
  13. Landkreis Namslau
  14. Landkreis Neumarkt
  15. Landkreis Oels
  16. Landkreis Ohlau
  17. Landkreis Reichenbach
  18. Landkreis Schweidnitz
  19. Landkreis Strehlen
  20. Landkreis Trebnitz
  21. Landkreis Waldenburg
  22. Landkreis Wohlau

    Regierungsbezirk Liegnitz

Urban districts / ''Stadtkreise''

  1. City of Glogau
  2. City of Görlitz
  3. City of Hirschberg im Riesengebirge
  4. City of Liegnitz

    Rural districts / ''Landkreise''

  5. Landkreis Bunzlau
  6. Landkreis Fraustadt
  7. Landkreis Freystadt i. Niederschles.
  8. Landkreis Glogau
  9. Landkreis Görlitz
  10. Landkreis Goldberg
  11. Landkreis Grünberg
  12. Landkreis Hirschberg
  13. Landkreis Hoyerswerda
  14. Landkreis Jauer
  15. Landkreis Landeshut
  16. Landkreis Lauban
  17. Landkreis Liegnitz
  18. Landkreis Löwenberg
  19. Landkreis Lüben
  20. Landkreis Rothenburg
  21. Landkreis Sprottau

    Post-1945 population

During the Polish post-war census of December 1950, data about the pre-war places of residence of the inhabitants as of August 1939 was collected. In case of children born between September 1939 and December 1950, their origin was reported based on the pre-war places of residence of their mothers. Thanks to this data it is possible to reconstruct the pre-war geographical origin of the post-war population. The same area corresponding to pre-1938 Province of Lower Silesia east of the Oder-Neisse line was inhabited in December 1950 by:
Region :NumberPercent
Autochthons 120,8856,1%
Polish expellees from Kresy 696,73935,3%
Poles from abroad except the USSR91,3954,6%
Resettlers from the City of Warsaw61,8623,1%
From Warsaw region 69,1203,5%
From Białystok region and Sudovia23,5151,2%
From pre-war Polish Pomerania54,5642,8%
Resettlers from Poznań region172,1638,7%
Katowice region 66,3623,4%
Resettlers from the City of Łódź16,4830,8%
Resettlers from Łódź region96,1854,9%
Resettlers from Kielce region141,7487,2%
Resettlers from Lublin region70,6223,6%
Resettlers from Kraków region156,9207,9%
Resettlers from Rzeszów region110,1885,6%
place of residence in 1939 unknown26,5861,3%
Total pop. in December 19501,975,337100,0%

Over 90% of the 1950 inhabitants were new to the region, with less than 10% residing in the province already back in August 1939. The largest group among new inhabitants were Poles expelled from areas of Eastern Poland annexed by the USSR. The second largest group came from Southern Poland followed by Greater Poland. Many Poles from Bosnia settled around Bolesławiec.