Bielsko

:"See also Bielsko County, and Bielsko, Lublin Voivodeship."

Bielsko ( _de. Bielitz, _cs. Bílsko) was until 1950 an independent town situated in Cieszyn Silesia, Poland. In 1951 it was joined with Biała Krakowska to form the new town of Bielsko-Biała. Bielsko constitutes the western part of that town.

Bielsko was founded by the Cieszyn Piast dukes in the 13th-14th century, on the Biała River. It was first mentioned in a written document in 1312. From the beginning settled by the German settlers it became the largest German-language center ("Deutsche Sprachinsel Bielitz") in the whole Duchy of Teschen. It remained so until the end of World War II. Since the 18th century a rapid development of textile industry occurred. At the beginning of the 19th century more than 500 weavers worked in the town. [Jedlecki 2008, 50.] After the 1920 division of Cieszyn Silesia between Poland and Czechoslovakia it became, despite protest of local Germans, a part of Poland.

According to the Austrian census of 1910 the town had 18,568 inhabitants. Census asked people for their native language, 15,144 (84.3%) were German-speaking, 2,568 (14.3%) were Polish-speaking and 136 (0.7%) were Czech-speaking. Jews were not allowed to declare Yiddish, most of them thus declared the German language as their native. Most populous religious groups were Roman Catholics with 10,378 (55.9%), followed by Protestants with 4,955 (26.7%) and the Jews with 3,024 (16.3%). [Ludwig Patryn (ed): " [http://www.kc-cieszyn.pl/biblioteka/strony/ramka.php?autor=Patryn&licz=1 Die Ergebnisse der Volkszählung vom 31. Dezember 1910 in Schlesien] ", Troppau 1912.] Vast majority of the Jews was exterminated by Nazis during World War II. German population was expelled after the war.

Footnotes

References

* cite journal
last = Jedlecki
first = Przemysław
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = W przędzalni i tkalni
journal = Zwrot
month = July
year = 2008
pages = 50
doi =
id =

External links

* [http://www.ksiestwocieszynskie.republika.pl/bielsko.html History of Bielsko]