History
Beginnings
The settlement of Giszowiec does not have a long history. The company "Georg von Giesches Erben", which in late 19th century owned many mines in Upper Silesia, planned its own settlement for workers, and therefore Colonie Gieschewald was founded 1907.
Structure of the colony
The leading director of the settlement was Anton Uthemann, who came up with the basic project. This work was completed by George and Emil Zillmann, architects from Charlottenburg, who designed the settlement inspired by Ebenezer Howard's idea of the "Garden city". In just three years the project was completed: high living standard houses for 600 families were built, with four main streets leading to the central marketplace (today called Plac pod Lipami - Square under the Linden Trees). The settlement had its own institutions, a hotel, department stores, a swimming pool and a water tower. Some dwellings were offered to those miners who lived without family. Most inhabitants worked for the Giesche coal mine (today: Wieczorek coal mine), and the total cost of the colony was estimated at 5 million German Marks. In 1914, a narrow-gauge railway to Janów was opened. Throughout its early history the colony was an independent municipality.
Giszowiec in Poland
On 20 June 1922 Gieschewald was renamed Giszowiec and became part of the new Autonomous Silesian Voivodeship and was since then part of the Second Polish Republic. In the subsequent years, numerous Polish associations, among them also a choir were created. Giszowiec lost its independent status in 1924, when it was incorporated into the new municipality of Janów.
German troops occupied the settlement on 4 September 1939. During the occupation, the Nazis tried to destroy everything related to Poland, including a monument of the Silesian Uprising. On 27 January 1945, Red Army captured Giszowiec.
After the Second World War, Giszowiec was merged with Szopienice, but later this decision was voided.
In the course of time the appearance of the colony changed. 1964 were established in the area of the colony after hard coal finds the Staszic Steinkohlebergwerk. In order to take up the inflow of new workers, new populated areas were proven. It was decided that the colony should be torn off and be established in the area a new settlement with zehnstoeckigen blocks of flats. Thus 1969 the Stanisław Staszic housing development was built, which approximated in the next decades ever more near to the old colony. In the western part and East part new disk's buildings replaced the old brick houses, and the colony began to lose their old character of a company-owned housing estate. With the resolutions of the responsible curator of 1978 and 1987 to place the old land development under monument protection the colony could be saved fortunately. In the nineties was begun to maintain and also restore the historical settlement. Nevertheless, only one third of the old land development remained. 1984 were begun with the building of the Barbarapfarrkirche in the Staszic settlement.
Giszowiec is also today still surrounded by forest and is by its relatively large distance to the urban tightness, a popular local recreation place for the inhabitants of the whole city and, since it is the only garden city in Poland, gladly visited and also inhabited. The houses of the colony were transferred 1999 of the city Katowice, since the houses become sold at private people.
Education
In the old colony there is an elementary school number 51(Szkoła Podstawowa nr 51) with approximately 1000 pupils. School building was constructed in 1993 and is the newest in Giszowiec. The two high schools are older. In the seventies the Konopnicka High School (Gimnazjum numer 16 imienia Marii Konopnickiej) was established, the school chronicles go back however until 1908, thus the beginnings of the Gieschewalder school history. Here there are 400 pupils. In addition there exists another high school (Gimnazjum nr 15), with 374 pupils.
Silesia is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately 40,000 km2 (15,400 sq mi), and the population is estimated at 8,000,000. Silesia is split into two main subregions, Lower Silesia in the west and Upper Silesia in the east. Silesia has a diverse culture, including architecture, costumes, cuisine, traditions, and the Silesian language. The largest city of the region is Wrocław.
Silesian Voivodeship is an administrative province in southern Poland. With over 4.2 million residents and an area of 12,300 square kilometers, it is the second-most populous, and the most-densely populated and most-urbanized region of Poland. It generates 11.9% of Polish GDP and is characterized by a high life satisfaction, low income inequalities and high wages.
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Dąbrowa Górnicza is a city in Zagłębie Dąbrowskie, southern Poland, near Katowice and Sosnowiec. It is located in eastern part of the Silesian Voivodeship, on the Czarna Przemsza and Biała Przemsza rivers.
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Rybnik is a city in southern Poland, in the Silesian Voivodeship, around 38 km (24 mi) southwest of Katowice, the region's capital, and around 19 km (11 mi) from the Czech border. It is one of the major cities of the Katowice-Ostrava metropolitan area with a population of 5.3 million and the main city of the so-called Subregion Zachodni, previously also known as the Rybnik Coal Area. With a population of 135,994 as of January 1, 2022, it is the 25th most-populous city in Poland.
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Upper Silesia is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia, located today mostly in Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic. The area is predominantly known for its heavy industry.
Czerwionka-Leszczyny is a town in Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland. It is the only town in Rybnik county and the seat of the larger Czerwionka-Leszczyny municipality which also includes 6 villages. Czerwionka-Leszczyny was created by a merger of two towns and two villages, which to this day maintain their separate identities. As of December 2021, the town has a population of 27,683.
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Giesche Corp. was, during the interwar period, part of and owned by the German firm of Bergwerksgesellschaft Georg von Giesche's Erben and represented those holdings of Giesche's Erben, that after the implementation of the Treaty of Versailles with re-establishment of the Republic of Poland in 1922, were now in Polish territory; registration at Katowice as a Polish corporation followed with a name that had been registered in Prussia about 1907. The corporation was one of the largest mining concerns operating in Upper Silesia, Poland, during interwar. It had the largest Polish zinc output out of the largest zinc mines in Europe. It was one of the largest bituminous coal producers. It had smelters and rolling mills, factories and agricultural and forests properties. Its largest zinc mine was the White Sharley/Bleischarley Its biggest zinc mills were Giesche and Wilhelmina. The largest coal mines were Giesche and Kleofas. All the former property of Giesche's Erben in Upper Silesia, owned and operated by the Giesche family since 1704. It employed nearly 20,000 workers, for which housing quarters were built, today the monumental district of Katowice.
Nikiszowiec is a well-known neighbourhood and settlement which is part of the Janów-Nikiszowiec administrative district of the city of Katowice.
The Great Synagogue was a former Jewish congregation and synagogue, that was located on Uferstrasse, in Katowice (Kattowitz), in the Silesian Voivodeship of Poland, in what was then the German Empire.
The history of Katowice spans over 600 years.
Teofil Ociepka was a Polish self-taught primitivist painter and Theosophist. Along with Nikifor, he was one of the best-known Polish primitivists.
The Upper Silesia 1980 strikes were widespread strikes, which took place mostly in the Upper Silesian mining cities Jastrzębie-Zdrój, Wodzisław Śląski and Ruda Śląska and its surroundings, during late August and early September 1980. They forced the Government of People's Republic of Poland to sign the last of three agreements establishing the Solidarity trade union. Earlier, agreements had been signed in Gdańsk and Szczecin. The Jastrzębie Agreement, signed on September 3, 1980, ended Saturday and Sunday work for miners, a concession that Government leaders later said cut deeply into Poland's export earnings.
Brynów-Osiedle Zgrzebnioka is a district of Katowice, located in the central part of the city, within the western district cluster. It borders four other districts: Śródmieście, Osiedle Paderewskiego – Muchowiec, Piotrowice-Ochojec, and Załęska Hałda-Brynów. This district primarily encompasses the eastern part of the historical Brynów municipality, along with the estates established within it, such as Brynów A, Ptasie, and Zgrzebnioka, as well as new housing complexes developed in the area around Ceglana and Meteorologów streets.
Poland 
