County of Glatz

Polish: Hrabstwo Kłodzkie; Czech: Hrabství kladské; Latin: Comitatus Glaciensis

The county was named after its centre, the town of Glatz/Kłodzko, which served as the seat of government.

The territory of the County of Glatz covered approximately 16,636 km² and was roughly identical to that of today’s Polish powiat ( district) of Kłodzko (also known as Ziemia Kłodzka [the Glatz Region]).

The Silesians referred to the inhabitants of the County of Glatz as the ‘von üba drüba’ (those from up there) because of their dialect words, which often ended in ‘a’, and their home in the mountains. The inhabitants were also known as ‘Natzla’ in Glatz, after the common first name Ignatius. Owing to the numerous religious monuments in the countryside, the name ‘Herrgottsländchen’ (Polish:‘Kraj Pana Boga’) came into use for the County of Glatz from the 19th century onwards.

According to the Bohemian chronicler Cosmas of Prague (c. 1045–1125), Duke Slavnik (d. 981) already owned ‘Cladsko’ as a Bohemian border fortress, which was of strategic importance during the 10th-century conflict between Poland and Bohemia.

Following the defeat of the Bohemian King Ottokar II Přemysl (c. 1232–1278) in 1278, the Roman-German King Rudolf of Habsburg (1218–1291) granted the Glatz region to Duke Henry IV of Breslau (c. 1256–1290). Following his death, it reverted to the Bohemian Crown and was formally ‘incorporated’ into the Kingdom of Bohemia in 1348 by Emperor Charles IV (1316–1378), in his capacity as King of Bohemia, together with the Silesian principalities; it remained part of Bohemia until its annexation by Prussia in 1742.

The Hussite Wars led to closer ties with the neighbouring Silesian Duchy of Münsterberg/Ziębice, whose Duke John (reign 1410–1428) fell in 1428 at the gates of Glatz—which was not captured—whilst fighting the Hussites. In 1431, Emperor Sigismund (1368–1437) pledged the Glatz region and Frankenstein/Ząbkowice Śląskie to the Bohemian magnate Puotha of Czastolowitz (d. 1434), who had – having been appointed royal governor in 1422 – had distinguished himself in the defence of Glatz. The Glatz region passed by sale to King George of Podiebrad (1420–1471), who elevated it to the status of a county on 24 June 1459, a move confirmed in 1462 by Emperor Frederick III (1415–1493) in 1462, who at the same time appointed George’s sons as Counts of Glatz and Dukes of Münsterberg. In 1501, the Podiebrads sold the county to Count Ulrich von Hardeck (d. 1535).

Following a succession of pledge administrations under the suzerainty of the Habsburgs, who had reigned as Kings of Bohemia since 1526 (with Ernst of Bavaria serving as pledge lord from 1549 to 1560), the estates of the county broke away from the pledge administration in 1567. From then on – with the exception of the period 1618–1622 – the county remained under the direct rule of the Habsburgs until 1742.

Following the rebellion of the people of Glatz, alongside the Bohemian Protestant estates, against the Bohemian King Ferdinand II (1578–1637) and the defeat of 1622, the ‘rebellious’ inhabitants of the county were punished by the loss of their fiefs and, temporarily, their privileges (new privileges granted in 1629 by Emperor Ferdinand II), aristocratic estates were granted to Catholic nobles loyal to the Habsburgs, and Lutheran preachers and teachers were expelled. From then on, the towns were required to pay half a guilder in ‘rebellion tax’ for every barrel of beer. The nobility enforced their lordship over the estates; the peasantry and lower peasant classes lost their personal freedom and were conscripted into labour in addition to paying monetary levies, which led to protracted uprisings after 1650.

In the wake of the Silesian Wars, the County of Glatz, together with the greater part of Silesia, came under Prussian rule in 1742. The Habsburg estates system was abolished, but the County of Glatz remained a political entity. From 1815, the district of Glatz belonged to the Province of Prussia and the administrative district of Breslau/Wrocław.

The reforms delayed by the nobility in Silesia led to uprisings during the Revolution of 1848–1849; however, it was not until 1850 that special laws were enacted to emancipate the peasants on all estates.

After the First World War, the newly founded Czechoslovak Republic laid claim to the territory of the County of Glatz, but was unsuccessful following fierce protests by the inhabitants. Following the NSDAP’s seizure of power in 1933, political life was ‘brought into line’. In isolated cases, members of the Catholic clergy resisted Nazi rule. The County of Glatz was not occupied by the Soviets until after the end of the war. Under the terms of the Potsdam Conference, the territory was assigned to Poland. From March 1946, the German population was expelled, and from 1947, administration was taken over by the Polish Communists.

The Solidarność movement of the 1980s was supported in the Glatz region and had around 30,000 members in 1981. Following the upheaval of 1989, a democratic social order was established.

In the Slavic period, the administration and judiciary (Zuda) were under the authority of the Burgrave of Glatz. Following intensive settlement of the region by colonists from the West and Silesia, Magdeburg law was introduced for the towns in the 14th and 15th centuries, whilst emphyteutic law was introduced for the villagers. Documentary records from as early as 1278 mention a bailiff and a judge, which indicates that Magdeburg law was in force. The nobility were subject to their own jurisdiction (men’s court), which was subordinate to the Burgrave of Glatz. He was the supreme judge of the region, under whose authority the towns and villages administered justice: in the towns through a college of lay judges headed by the bailiff, and in the villages through lay courts presided over by the village owner (patrimonial jurisdiction), including the descendants of the locators, who had formed their own class as ‘free judges’ since the 15th century.

The County of Glatz was divided into six administrative regions, known as districts: Glatz, Habelschwerdt (Bystrzyca Kłodzka), Landeck (Lądek-Zdrój), Hummel (Czech: Homole), Neurode (Nowa Ruda) and Wünschelburg (Radków).

The Prussian reorganisation after 1742 abolished the estates. However, the nobility retained its privileges. Civil administration (‘police affairs’) was under the authority of the War and Domains Chamber in Breslau. The towns largely lost their administrative autonomy. The administration of the villages lay with the landowners within the framework of manorial rule. At the head of the Glatz district stood the district administrator. After 1818, a further district was established in Habelschwerdt in the south of the county; a third was established in 1850 in Neurode in the north-west, though this was dissolved again in 1936. After 1945, the districts of Glatz and Habelschwerdt were retained, and the district of Neurode was re-established in 1954.

There is evidence of Slavic settlers in the valleys from the end of the 11th to the beginning of the 13th century (the names of the rivers Neiße, Weistritz and Biele are of Slavic origin). In the second half of the 13th century and the first half of the 14th century, German-speaking settlers (presumably from Thuringia and Silesia) arrived in the Glatz region, where they frequently established forest-based villages in the countryside, often alongside the Slavic settlements. The legal basis was the ius teutonicum, which granted the settling farmers personal freedom and the right to dispose of their produce. Following the colonisation in the 13th and 14th centuries, the Slavic population became assimilated into the German population. There was a Czech-speaking minority in the so-called Bohemian Corner near Kudowa. Since the forced migration of the German inhabitants in 1946, the population has been predominantly Polish.

Population trends:^[1]

From the origins of the Church to 1972, the Glatz region belonged to the (Arch)Diocese of Prague. In the 14th century, the ecclesiastical system, which was subordinate to the (Arch)Bishop of Prague, was expanded. The rights of patronage lay largely with the nobility or the king. The Knights of St John settled in Krów in 1169 and were granted parish rights; the Friars Minor established themselves in the town from 1240. Following the construction of numerous parish churches in the region, a Dean's Office was established from the mid-13th century onwards. In 1349, the Archbishop of Prague, Arnestus of Pardubice (c. 1300–1364), founded an Augustinian canons’ monastery with a scriptorium and a Latin school. In 1475, the Podiebrad family founded a Franciscan monastery in Glatz. In 1597, the Augustinian canons’ monastery was dissolved by the Pope and its property transferred to the Society of Jesus.

From 1530 onwards, Reformation movements were active among the Anabaptists in Habelschwerdt and the Schwenckfelders in Glatz, as well as in several villages. From the 1560s onwards, Lutheran doctrine gained ground, yet Catholicism held its own under Habsburg rule, which, after 1622, pursued the complete re-Catholicisation of the region against the resistance of the population. From the late 17th century onwards, under the influence of the reactivated religious orders and the nobility, the population was won over to the Catholic Church by Baroque Catholicism, which almost exclusively determined church life. After 1742, Protestant congregations began to emerge under Prussian rule. The Prussian Secularisation Act of 1810 abolished the religious orders’ establishments. Following the expulsion of German Catholics and Protestants in 1946, Cardinal August Hlond (1881–1948) placed the Kłodzko Dean's Office under the authority of the Archbishop of Wrocław, a move which was finally confirmed by Rome in 1972. Since 1972, the Glatz region has belonged to the Diocese of Schweidnitz/Świdnica.

Following the expulsion of the Jewish community – which had existed since 1300 – at the end of the 15th century, a new Jewish community began to form in 1820; its approximately 225 members (in 1857) and 300 members (around 1900), respectively, were spread across the towns and spa resorts of the county. In 1884, a synagogue was built in Glatz with a sculpturally designed, three-part façade and dome; the architect was Albert Grau from Breslau. The synagogue was set alight by the Nazis during the November pogrom of 1938. Following the deportations of 1943–44, eleven Jewish residents were murdered. From 1946 onwards, a Polish-Jewish community was formed with more than 2,000 members, the majority of whom emigrated after 1948.

Notable cultural institutions were found primarily in Glatz. The former libraries of the monasteries (Jesuits, Minorites, Franciscans) were dissolved following the secularisation of 1810. In the 19th and 20th centuries, numerous municipal and parish libraries were established. In the first half of the 19th century, there was a significant castle theatre in Grafenort/Gorzanów, temporarily directed by the poet Karl von Holtei (1798–1880). Seasonal spa theatres were operated at the spas. In addition to the town archives (Glatz, Habelschwerdt), there were numerous aristocratic archives, the remnants of which were collected in the so-called ‘Heimaturkundei Grafschaft Glatz’ (Glatz County Archives), now housed in the State Archives in Wrocław (Archiwum Państwowe we Wrocławiu).

The education system was largely concentrated in Glatz. In Habelschwerdt, there was a teacher-training college, a secondary school, a girls’ secondary school and a commercial and technical further education college. A weaving training centre existed in Neurode.

Owing to the abundance of timber, log-cabin construction was the preferred method in the mountain villages. One often comes across half-timbered houses, which combine log and timber-framed construction. In the elongated, forest-fringed villages, square courtyards were also built for defensive purposes within the unprotected village layout. In the farming villages, alongside the kitchen-diner with its tiled stove at the centre, there was the ‘good parlour’ with the ‘Herrgottswinkel’ (corner of the Lord), which displayed a crucifix and/or devotional images or objects.

The county’s most important buildings were, and still are, located in Glatz.

Village orchestras and choirs bear witness to a love of music; village schoolteachers often also made a name for themselves as composers of masses (Ignaz Reimann [1820–1885]). Notable figures from the region who pursued their musical careers primarily in Vienna, Prague or Berlin included Emanuel Aloys Förster (1748–1823), Eduard Tauwitz (1812‒1894) and Heinrich Reimann (1850‒1906).

In the 14th/15th century, the scriptorium was established at the Augustinian Canons’ Priory in Glatz. In the 17th century, Glatz, under the Schubart family of printers and the publisher Andreas Frantz Pega (documented in Glatz: 1682–1700) Glatz was a major publishing centre serving the Counter-Reformation in Silesia. Franke’s Buchhandlung in Habelschwerdt was a publishing house of some significance in the 19th and 20th centuries. In Neurode, Wenzel Wilhelm Klambt’s (1811–1883) publishing house produced the political and cultural weekly newspaper *Der Hausfreund*, which was read beyond the borders of the County of Glatz and had approximately 150,000 subscribers (1914).

The poet Dietrich von der Glesse (second half of the 13th century), who wrote the verse novella *Der Borte*, is thought to have come from the Klessetal valley in the southern county of Glatz. An important medieval chronicle from this region is the *Cronica Monasterii canonicorum Regularium in Glacz* by Provost Michael Czacheritz (in office 1456–1489). In the 16th century, the furrier Hieronymus Linck (documented in Glatz around 1565) was active as a Meistersinger in Glatz. Around 1600, the occasional poetry of the late humanists emerged. The most significant late humanist work was the *Glaciographia* (Leipzig 1625) by Georg Aelurius (Georg Katschker, 1596–1627). Georg Gloger of Habelschwerdt (1603–1631) is regarded as a representative of the rich Silesian Baroque poetry from the County of Glatz. Friedrich Wilhelm Riemer (1774–1845), an author and Goethe’s secretary, was a native of Glatz. Notable 19th- and 20th-century authors from the County of Glatz included Hermann Stehr (1864–1940) and Joseph Wittig (1879–1949). Robert Karger (1874–1946) is worth mentioning as a dialect poet. Contemporary female authors include Monika Taubitz and the Polish poet Olga Tokarczuk, who lived near Neurode in the 1990s and wrote her novel *Dom dzienny, dom nocny* (1999) (German title: *Taghaus, Nachthaus*), which explores the lives of the generation of Polish settlers.

• Arne Franke, Katrin Schulze: Castles and Manor Houses in the County of Glatz. An Architectural and Park Guide. Würzburg 2009.
• Arno Herzig, Małgorzata Ruchniewicz: In the Land of the Good Lord. Sources and materials on the history of the Kłodzko region from the 10th to the 20th century / W kraju Pana Boga. Źródła i materiały do dziejów Ziemi Kłodzkiej od X do XX wieku. Kłodzko 2003.
• Arno Herzig, Małgorzata Ruchniewicz: History of the Kłodzko Region / Dzieje Ziemi Kłodzkiej. Hamburg, Wrocław 2006.
• Joseph Kögler: The Chronicles of the County of Glatz. 5 volumes. Revised and edited by Dieter Pohl. Modautal, Cologne 1992–2003 (Historical Sources of the County of Glatz / A. New Series 1–5).

• www.grafschaft-glatz.de/fotos/glatz/o-hann.htm (Collection of contemporary photographs)
• www.grafschaft-glatz.de/bilder/ (Collection of historical illustrations)
• www.jüdische-gemeinden.de/index.php/gemeinden/e-g/729-glatz-schlesien (Information about the Jewish population of Glatz)

[1] Aloys Bernatzky: Encyclopaedia of the County of Glatz. With short biographies of famous inhabitants of the county by Nina Hötzel-Strauch. Leimen/Heidelberg 1984 (Glatzer Heimatbücher 8), p. 26.

[2] Klaus Lindner (ed.): Between the Oder and the Giant Mountains. Silesian Maps from Five Centuries. Berlin 1987 (Exhibition Catalogues. State Library of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation 29), p. 101, no. 89.

Arno Herzig: County of Glatz. In: Online Encyclopaedia on the Culture and History of Germans in Eastern Europe, 2015. URL: ome-lexikon.uni-oldenburg.de/p43123 (accessed 25 August 2020).