Glogau

Głogów

According to the Yellow Book, a handwritten chronicle from the 16th century^[1], Glogau is said to have taken its name from the Polish word głóg (= thorn bush), as the town was repeatedly destroyed by armed conflicts and the ruins were overgrown with thorn bushes.

Glogau is situated at 51° 40′ north latitude, 16° 5′ east longitude, approximately 100 km north-west of Breslau/Wrocław on the Oder crossing and on the old trade routes between Berlin and Breslau – Kraków and Görlitz/Zgorzelec – Poznań – Königsberg/Kaliningrad.

Lower Silesia

Poland; Glogau is a district town in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship and belongs to the Diocese of Zielona Góra-Gorzów.

The Glogau coat of arms is divided into four quarters by a cross and features a small shield in the centre bearing the golden initial ‘G’ on a red background. The blue quarter in the top left shows the Madonna and Child with a crescent moon, surrounded by a halo – the patron saint of Glogau Collegiate Church – whilst the quarter next to it features the black Silesian eagle with a crescent moon and a cross (without a crown) on a gold background. In the light blue quarter at the bottom right, a crow perches on a branch (the coat of arms of the Corvinus/Hunyadi family); the red quarter at the bottom left depicts a bull’s head (the coat of arms of the royal captain Hans von Loos).

In 1010, a Slavic settlement known as Urbs Glogaua is mentioned by Thietmar of Merseburg. This earliest settlement was situated on the island (at that time an islet on the right bank of the Oder), on which the Kastellaneiburg mentioned by Thietmar was also located. In the 12th century, the oldest collegiate foundation in Silesia was established there. After the Duchy of Glogau came into being following the partition of the Principality of Breslau in 1251, the island lost its importance. Konrad I, the first Duke of Glogau, established his residence on the left bank of the Oder in 1253 and founded a town based on Magdeburg law alongside the castle.

Following the extinction of the Glogau branch of the Piast dynasty, the duchy came under the rule of Matthias Corvinus (1488–1496), after which it was ruled by the Jagiellons (1496–1526) and finally came under Habsburg rule until 1742. During the Thirty Years’ War, Glogau was converted into a fortress. In 1632, Protestant troops captured the town. In 1642, it was occupied by the Swedes (until 1650). In 1742, Silesia was annexed by Prussia. In 1758, the town was ravaged by a devastating fire which destroyed most of the public buildings, including the Glogau Peace Church.

During the siege by Napoleonic troops between 1806 and 1814, Glogau suffered severe damage. The town retained its function as a fortress throughout the 19th century – it was not until 1873 that the line of fortifications was moved eastwards, and it was finally abandoned at the beginning of the 20th century.

In 1902, it was decided to demolish the fortification walls; the town was subsequently expanded and modernised in a planned manner. During the First World War, the town was once again designated a fortress, though it was not affected by the hostilities. In 1920, Glogau became an urban district.

In view of the advance of the Red Army in 1944, Glogau was once again declared a fortress. During the seven weeks of fighting leading up to the surrender on 1 April 1945, the town centre was almost completely destroyed. In the 1990s, work began on the reconstruction – partly in the historic style – based on the historical layout of the old town, a process which continues to this day. After the war, the German population was expelled and Poles settled in their place – predominantly displaced persons from the former eastern territories of Poland.

Around 1400, the population^[2] stood at approximately 10,000; over the course of the following centuries, Glogau grew to become the second-largest town in Silesia (after Wrocław), with a population of almost 20,000. The Thirty Years’ War brought devastation; by the time it ended, Glogau had only 122 inhabitants left. During the first Prussian census (1745), the population stood at 6,323. As the economy boomed in the 19th century, the population grew too. In 1890, 20,529 people lived in Glogau (of whom 13,614 were Protestant, 5,989 Catholic and 863 Jewish). In 1939, the town had a population of 30,172 (21,135 Protestants, 8,067 Catholics and 123 Jews). Between 1945 and 1947, the German population was largely expelled, and new residents, predominantly from the former Polish eastern territories, settled in their place. In 1961, the town had 9,179 predominantly Catholic inhabitants; by 2011, the population had risen to 69,608.^[3]

Glogau experienced an economic boom thanks to the expansion of shipping on the River Oder and the construction of the Glogau–Sagan/Żagań and Berlin –Wrocław railway lines (1844). From the 1860s onwards, the Rüster suburb, centred around the winter harbour and the railway station, developed into the town’s industrial and commercial centre. Since its opening in 1967, the copper smelter has been the town’s largest industrial enterprise and most important employer, leading to a rapid increase in population.

In 1249, Franciscans settled in the town, followed by Dominicans (1258), Poor Clares and the Order of the Red Star (1318). The Bernardine monastery was founded outside the town walls in 1465. In 1633, the Counter-Reformation took hold in Glogau. Under the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, the Protestants in Glogau were granted permission to build one of the three Silesian Peace Churches (consecrated in 1652, subsequently used as a Protestant parish church, destroyed in the town fire of 1758). As part of the Counter-Reformation, the Jesuit Church of Corpus Christi, together with its college, was built in the town between 1696 and 1722. In 1810, as part of the secularisation process, the collegiate church and the monasteries were expropriated and were predominantly used as armouries or barracks.

The synagogue, built in the 1890s, was destroyed by arson during the ‘Reichskristallnacht’ in 1938 and subsequently demolished.

The Glogau Songbook (c. 1480) bears witness to the town’s rich musical culture in the late Middle Ages. A printing press was established in Glogau in 1606, where Polish texts were also printed. Notable figures from Glogau include the cleric Kaspar Elyan (c. 1435–1486), Silesia’s first printer; the physician and author of the first history of Silesia, Joachim Cureus (1532–1573), and the legal adviser and poet Andreas Gryphius (1616–1664). Following the Jesuits, who staged a series of school plays, the poet Anna Louisa Karsch (1722–1791) worked here for a time. The musical centres were the Friedenskirche, with an organ by Gottlieb Benjamin Engler of Breslau (1775), and the cathedral, with an organ by the Glogau organ builder Kaspar Gottlieb Neumann (1752). E.T.A. Hoffmann was a trainee teacher here in 1798 and wrote the short story *The Jesuit Church in G.* in memory of this time. Johann Samuel Ersch (1766–1828), who became known throughout Germany as a lexicographer and bibliographer, was born in Glogau. Glogau was home to the philosopher, writer and cultural historian Georg Gustav Fülleborn (1769–1803), who was renowned beyond Silesia. In 1833, Carl Flemming founded the publishing house of the same name, which operated until 1931 and was the most important printing works and map-printing house in the former German eastern territories. In his autobiography *Ut mine Festungstid* (1862), Fritz Reuter described his time in prison in Glogau. The church historian and co-founder of the Berlin Quickborn Working Group, Hermann Hoffmann (1878–1972), and the writer Arnold Zweig (1887–1968) were born here.

The medieval town centre had a regular layout with a rectangular ring (market square), in the centre of which the town hall was built. At the end of the 13th century, work began on a brick town wall, open towards the River Oder, with seven gates. In the first half of the 15th century, a second ring of walls with bastions was built, and in 1471 and 1480 the collegiate church on the island was fortified. Since the Thirty Years’ War, the fortifications have been reinforced on several occasions. During the Prussian period, Glogau had the best-developed fortification system in Silesia, comprising curtain walls, bastions and a citadel to the east of the town; remnants of the 16th-century walls and the south-eastern bastion from the 17th/18th centuries have survived.

Glogau/Głogów market square with the town hall ‘
’ (postcard: before 1945) [Herder Institute, ‘
’ Marburg, image archive. Inv. No. 107296].

In the second half of the 19th century, work began on dismantling the fortifications, which triggered an urban development boom. In 1905, a modern town plan was drawn up for the town. Part of the former fortifications was converted into parks, and with the construction of new residential districts, the town expanded southwards and south-eastwards.In 1945, the majority of the historic buildings were lost, including the former town houses in the old town and the medieval monasteries of the Franciscans, the Poor Clares and the Bernardines.

The former collegiate and collegiate church of St Mary is one of the oldest buildings in Glogau and was built in the 1120s. During the reign of Conrad I (1253–1273), a Romanesque three-nave basilica was built, which underwent a Gothic reconstruction between 1413 and 1466. The church, which was destroyed in January 1945, is still undergoing reconstruction; its predominantly Baroque interior has been lost.

The former Catholic parish church of St Nicholas was built between 1230 and 1240 as the first Romanesque basilica and, from 1253 onwards, served as the parish church of the newly founded town. Following a fire at the end of the 13th century, reconstruction in the Gothic style began; at the end of the 14th century, the building was converted into a hall church. From 1581 to 1628, the church was Protestant. In 1945, the church was burnt down (currently in ruins).

The Catholic parish church of St Nicholas (the former Jesuit church) was built, like the Jesuit college, between 1696 and 1722 (designed by Giulio Simonetti). In 1776, the building was taken over by the Prussian state; it was initially used as a warehouse and, following restoration in 1825–1826, as a garrison church. After its destruction in 1945, it was rebuilt between 1957 and 1964 as a hall church with galleries. The partially preserved furnishings from the first half of the 18th century were supplemented by items from the Protestant church in Freystadt/Kożuchów.

The castle of the Dukes of Glogau (Archaeological and Historical Museum) dates back to the first castle of Conrad I, built on the left bank of the River Oder in the second half of the 13th century, and was integrated into the town’s fortifications from the first half of the 14th century onwards. Following its destruction in 1480, it was rebuilt by Sigismund Jagiello, the then Duke of Glogau, and converted into a Baroque palace complex between 1652 and 1669. Following its destruction in 1945, the palace was rebuilt between 1971 and 1983, and the interior was adapted to suit the requirements of a museum.

Glogau’s first town hall building is mentioned in 1302. Rebuilt following fires in 1420 and 1433, the town hall was redesigned in the Renaissance style in 1574 and replaced between 1831 and 1834 by a new building in the Neo-Gothic style with Neo-Renaissance elements. Following its destruction in 1945, the building was rebuilt between 1989 and 1995. The star-vaulted ceiling dating from around 1500 has been preserved in the Ratskeller.

Until 1945, the Protestant church ‘Schifflein Christi’ stood in the town centre; it was built between 1763 and 1773 following the fire at the Friedenskirche in Glogau, with financial support from the Prussian King Frederick II (1712–1786). The design was provided by the Prussian architect Carl Gotthard Langhans (1732–1808). The building was a three-aisled, brick structure with two monumental west towers and a distinctive early-Classical west façade, the central section of which, crowned by a triangular pediment, was modelled on ancient temples. In 1796/97, the original domes of the towers were replaced by slender pointed roofs.

In 1945, the church was severely damaged; its remains were demolished in 1962. Since 2003, a lapidarium has stood on the site of the church, designed by the architect Dariusz Wojtowicz, displaying the outline and floor fragments of the church.

• Julius Blaschke: History of the Town of Glogau and the Glogau Region. Glogau 1913.
• Głogów/Glogau. In: Ernst Badstübner, Dietmar Popp, Andrzej Tomaszewski, Dethard von Winterfeld (eds.), Sławomir Brzezicki, Christine Nielsen (comp.): Dehio Handbook of Art Monuments in Poland. Silesia. Munich, Berlin 2005, pp. 298–305.
• Arnold Hasse (ed.): Glogau. Berlin-Friedenau 1926 (Monographs of German Towns 17).
• Jarosław Kuczer: The Nobility in the Social and Economic Life of the Duchy of Glogau during the Habsburg Era (1526–1740) [The nobility in the social and economic life of the Duchy of Glogau during the Habsburg era (1526–1740)]. Zielona Góra 2007.
• Hanna Nogossek (ed.): Approaches – Views of Glogau. Zbliżenia. Widoki Głogowa. Marburg/L. 1997.

• www.glogow.pl/ (the town’s website in Polish)
• dl.ub.uni-freiburg.de/diglit/hs1500-3 (The so-called ‘Yellow Book’: a eulogy to the town of Glogau, a chronicle of Liegnitz, etc.; digitised version held by the University Library of Freiburg)
• www.herder-institut.de/bildkatalog/wikidata/Q66013 (Images relating to Glogau/Głogów in the image archive of the Herder Institute, Marburg)

[1] We would like to thank Dr Balázs J. Nemes (University of Freiburg) for pointing out that the autograph manuscript of the ‘Yellow Book’ has been held at the University Library of Freiburg since 2006 under the reference number Hs. 1500,3 and is available as a digital copy at dl.ub.uni-freiburg.de/diglit/hs1500-3.

[2] According to Rafael Rokaszewicz: 1000 lat Głogowa w datach [1000 Years of Glogau in Dates]. URL: www.glogow.pl/1000lat/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=88&Itemid=1 (accessed 16 November 2012).

Information on population trends in the 19th century and prior to 1939: Michael Rademacher: German Verwaltungsgeschichte von der Reichseinigung 1871 bis zur Wiedervereinigung 1990. URL: treemagic.org/rademacher/www.verwaltungsgeschichte.de/ (accessed 6 July 2021).

[3] Główny Urząd Statystyczny, Wybory do Sejmu i Senatu 2011 [Central Statistical Office, the 2011 Sejm and Senate elections]. URL: pkw.gov.pl (accessed 16 November 2012).

Beata Lejman, Tomasz Torbus: Glogau/Głogów. In: Online Encyclopaedia on the Culture and History of Germans in Eastern Europe, 2012. URL: ome-lexikon.uni-oldenburg.de/p32381 (as at 30 July 2021).