Recovered Territory

From 1919 to 1989, the borderland of Upper Silesia, one of Central Europe''s most important industrial regions, was at the center of a conflict between Germany and Poland. In their interaction with - and mutual influence on - one another, political and cultural actors from both nations developed a transnational culture of territorial rivalry. Architecture, spaces of memory, films, radio auditions, museums, folklore, language policy, mass rallies, and archeological digs marked just some of the features that gave the borderland a "German" / "Polish" face. This case, representative of the wider politics of twentieth-century Europe, played a critical role in one of history''s most violent and uprooting eras.

Upper Silesia, one of Central Europe’s most important industrial borderlands, was at the center of heated conflict between Germany and Poland and experienced annexations and border re-drawings in 1922, 1939, and 1945. This transnational history examines these episodes of territorial re-nationalization and their cumulative impacts on the region and nations involved, as well as their use by the Nazi and postwar communist regimes to legitimate violent ethnic cleansing. In their interaction with—and mutual influence on—one another, political and cultural actors from both nations developed a transnational culture of territorial rivalry. Architecture, spaces of memory, films, museums, folklore, language policy, mass rallies, and archeological digs were some of the means they used to give the borderland a “German”/“Polish” face. Representative of the wider politics of twentieth-century Europe, the situation in Upper Silesia played a critical role in the making of history’s most violent and uprooting eras, 1939–1950.

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Note on Place Names, Translations, and Labels
List of Abbreviations
Maps

Introduction

Chapter 1. The Making of a Contested Borderland, 1871-1939
Chapter 2. A Transnational Tradition of Border Rallies, 1922-1939
Chapter 3. Acculturating an Industrial Borderland, 1922-1934
Chapter 4. Giving “Polish Silesia” a “German” Face, 1939-1945
Chapter 5. Recovering “Polish Silesia,” 1945-1956

Epilogue: From Revisionism to Ostpolitik and Beyond

Bibliography