Brzeg
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Brzeg (German: Brieg (help·info)) is a town in southwestern Poland with 42,00 inhabitants (2006), situated in the Opole Voivodeship. It is the capital of Brzeg County.
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[edit] History
[edit] Etymology
Its name, meaning "shore" in Polish, derives from its being on the banks of the Oder (Odra) river.
[edit] Early to present history
The city received municipal rights in 1250 from Duke Henry III the White of Wrocław. From 1311-1675 Brzeg was the capital of a Silesian duchy ruled by the Piast dynasty. The Duchy of Brzeg, along with Silesia, was part of the Kingdom of Bohemia during the Middle Ages and became heavily Germanised. When Bohemia fell to the Habsburg Monarchy of Austria in 1526, Brzeg (Brieg) fell under the overlordship of the Habsburgs in their roles of Kings of Bohemia, although it was still ruled locally by the Piasts. Upon the extinction of the Piast dukes in 1675, Brzeg (Brieg) came under the direct role of the Habsburgs.
In 1537 the Piast duke Frederick II of Brzeg concluded a treaty with Elector Joachim II of Brandenburg, whereby the Hohenzollerns of Brandenburg would inherit the duchy upon the extinction of the Piasts. Frederick the Great of the Kingdom of Prussia used this treaty to justify his invasion of Silesia during the War of the Austrian Succession in 1740. Brzeg, then already for long known as Brieg, and most of Silesia were annexed by Prussia after that state's victory. The city of Brieg became part of Imperial Germany in 1871, but was given to Poland in 1945 after the Second World War by the Potsdam Conference of victoring powers. Its German population was violently expelled.
[edit] Jewish history
Town in Silesia; formerly the capital of the duchy of the same name. Jews settled there about 1324, chiefly because it was situated on the commercial route to Breslau, in which place a colony of Jews had long resided. The Jewish community of Brieg had its separate place of worship from early times. In 1358 Jews lent money to local noblemen and the duke of Brieg, Ludwig I, who granted the Jews freedom of movement in the duchy in that year. In the 14th century the Jews of Brieg were persecuted on account of their usurious practises; one outbreak of such violence occurred in 1362. In 1392 it was claimed that all debts of the duke had been discharged by the payments to Jacob, the son of Moses, a Jew of Brieg, of a certificate of indebtedness. In 1398 the Brieg Jews bought a letter of protection from the duke, whereby they were guaranteed the peaceful possession of their privileges. But in 1401 they were driven from the city, except Jacob and Seman von Reichenbach, who had received a patent of protection from the duke's council for six years from May 1, 1399. In 1423, duke Ludwig II granted the Jews rights of residence on payment of an annual tax of 20 gulden, but they were expelled from the duchies of Brieg and Liegnitz in 1453 as a result of the inflammatory preachings of the Franciscan John Capistrano. Solomo, a capitalist, lent large sums of money to royal houses in the 15th century. In the 16th century, one of the local Jews served as a physician to the duke of Brieg.
With the decline of Breslau as a trade center, the Jews of Brieg became little more than an isolated community; and in modern times they shared the lot of the other Silesian Jews. They carried on insignificant trade operations as a rule. The conquest of Silesia by Frederick the Great wrought but slight change in their condition.
A synagogue was built in Brieg in 1799, and a rabbi was first appointed in 1816. he Jewish population numbered 156 in 1785; 376 in 1843; 282 in 1913; 255 in 1933; and 123 in 1939. In the Kristallnacht pogroms of 1938 the interior of the synagogue was completely demolished and the Torah scrolls publicly burned; numerous shops were ransacked. The community was not reestablished after the Holocaust.
[edit] References
[edit] Bibliography of Jewish Encyclopedia
- Brann, Gesch. der Juden in Schlesien;
- Jahrb. des Deutsch-Israelitischen Gemeindebundes
- This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, a publication now in the public domain. ([1])
- By : Gotthard Deutsch & A. M. Friedenberg
[edit] Education
- Wyższa Szkoła Humanistyczno-Ekonomiczna
[edit] Sports
- KS Cukierki Odra Brzeg - women basketball team, 8th place in Sharp Torell Basket Liga in 2003/2004 season
[edit] People
- Kurt Masur, German conductor
- Max Friedlaender, German Jewish musician and musical researcher
- Herta Ilk, German politician
- Alfred Kurella, German author and functionary of the SED in East Germany
- Oskar Moll, German painter
- Heinrich von Mühler, Prussian politician
[edit] Other residents
- Emanuel Steinfeld; attended the College of Brieg
- Moritz Cohn
- Benjamin Szold
- Bogumil Dawison (Bogumil Davidsohn)
[edit] Internet Pages
