Прудник: История и современность польского города

Prudnik (, , link=no, Prudnicium) is a town in southern Poland, located in the southern part of Opole Voivodeship near the border with the Czech Republic. It is the administrative seat of Prudnik County and Gmina Prudnik. Its population numbers 21,368 inhabitants (2016). Since 2015, Prudnik is a member of the Cittaslow International. The town was founded in the 1250s, and was historically part of the Polish ruled Duchy of Opole, and afterwards was located within the Habsburg monarchy, Poland, Habsburg Monarchy again, Prussia, Germany, and eventually Poland again. It was once an important industrial hub known for its shoe making traditions and more recently towel making by the ZPB "Frotex" Company, one of the largest towel manufacturers in Europe. The town also possesses numerous architectural monuments and historic buildings such as the Main Town Hall and "Wok's Tower" (Wieża Woka) from the 13th century.

Prudnik is located in the historic Silesia (Upper Silesia) region at the confluence of the Prudnik river and its Złoty Potok tributary. The city is situated on the border of Opawskie Mountains and the Prudnik Depression (Obniżenie Prudnickie; a part of the Silesian Lowlands). Prudnik and Vrbno pod Pradědem are headquarters of the Euroregion Praděd.

The name "Prudnik" was created after Polish word prąd (flow, stream, Czech: proud, Silesian: prōnd) and, like nearby Prężyna, means a river with a fast stream. In the Middle Ages, the city's name was written with a letter u, which was Czech counterpart of ą (1262 Pruthenos, 1331 Prudnik). Since the 17th century, the name Prudnik was used along with Neustadt. The town's German name was also written in its Latin form Neostadium. Sometimes its Polish and Czech translations were used (Nowe Miasto, Nové Město). The town's older name also had its Latin form (Prudnicium). The town was also called Polnisch Neustadt ("Polish New Town"),

In Polish publications since the 20th century, the city's name was written as Prądnik. In Polish, the city name has masculine grammatical gender.

The first human traces in the present town area, confirmed by archaeological excavations, are dated to the Paleolithic times. Local early Slavs maintained trade contacts with Rome, which is confirmed by Roman coins found here dating back to 700 BC–1250 AD.

The area of present Prudnik was located at the border of Golensizi and Opolans. Between the years of 1255 and 1259 the Czech knight Wok of Rosenberg founded in the defensive bend of the Prudnik river a castle, and his son Jindřich obtained the city rights in 1279. In 1337 it became a part of the Duchy of Opole, and remained under the rule of local Polish dukes of the Piast dynasty until the dissolution of the duchy in 1532, when it was incorporated into the Austrian ruled Bohemian (Czech) Crown. It was located on a trade route between Wrocław and Vienna. The oldest known form of Prudnik's coat of arms comes from a 1399 wax seal. A knight Maćko of Prudnik participated in the Battle of Grunwald fought on 15 July 1410 during the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War. Maćko fought together with the troops of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland. On 23 March 1464, Prudnik and villages around it were excommunicated by Pope Pius II for refusing to pay the debt of Duke Konrad IV the Elder. Although local historian Antoni Dudek claimed that the excommunication was lifted in 16th century, the Pope never revealed a document that lifted the curse.

In 1562, the Austrian ruled Duchy of Opole and Racibórz passed a resolution that obligated Jews to sell their houses, pay their debts, and leave the duchy in a year. On the basis of this resolution, in 1564, Jews were ordered to leave Prudnik, but Krzysztof Prószkowski, who leased the land there, let them stay until 1570. The town was captured and plundered by the Swedes in 1632, during the Thirty Years' War. In 1645 along with Opole and Racibórz it returned to Poland under the House of Vasa, and in 1666 it fell to Austria again as part of Austrian Silesia. In 1742 the town was in the large area of Silesia annexed by Prussia. During the Seven Years' War it was the scene of a bloody surprise attack on 15 March 1760 upon the Prussians as they were marching out of the city. The London Magazine of April 1760 reported "General Laudohn, who had set out from his Quarters on 14th with Palfy's Regiment of Cuirassiers, Lowenstein's Dragoons, 500 Hussars of Nadaski, 500 of Kalnocki, 2000 Croats and 14 Companies of Grenadiers, marched all Night with a View to surprise our Troops at Neustadt. The latter were scarce out of the Gates, when they were surrounded by those of the Enemy. General Jacquemin was posted with the Regiment of Lowenstein near Buchelsdorff on the road to Steinau, General Laudohn followed with the Regiment of Palfy and 2000 Croats, supported by 14 Companies of Grenadiers; a thousand of their Hussars were upon our right flank, the advanced Guard of which consisted of 100 Men under Capt. Blumenthal of the Regiment of Manteuffel. Capt. Zitzewitz commanded the Rear Guard, consisting of the same number; and the rest of the aforesaid regiment, with a Squadron of Dragoons of Bareith under Capt. Chambaud, followed with the Baggage. General Laudohn summoned out Troops twice, by Sound of Trumpet, to lay down their Arms; which they not complying with, he ordered all his Cavalry to advance: Whereupon General Jacquemin fell upon the advance Guard, while General Laudohn himself attacked the Rear, and the Hussars, in Platoons, flanked the Baggage. The Captains Blumenthal and Zittzwitz formed their small Force in a Kind of Square, from whence they kept a continual fire. The enemy's Cavalry nevertheless advanced six Times on a Gallop, to within ten Paces of our Troops; but perceiving many fall on their Side, among whom were several Officers, they retreated in great Disorder The Loss of the Austrians however greatly exceeds ours; they buried above 300 Men, in different Places, and sent 500 Wounded to Neustadt. Besides which we have taken 25 Prisoners, amongst whom are several Officers. We had 35 men killed, and four Officers and 65 private Men wounded, in Manteuffel's Regiment, as also one Lieutenant, with three Dragoons in Bareich's The Officers, taken Prisoners, by our Troops, commend highly the Bravery of the Regiment of Manteuffel upon this Occasion." In the subsequent years, the area developed into a significant centre of handcraft, in particular cloth production and shoe making. In the 19th century, the surrounding factories continued the local tradition of handicraft. Local Polish activist, publicist and teacher , was investigated by the local Prussian administration and police for writing about this practice in the Gazeta Toruńska, a major Polish newspaper in the Prussian Partition of Poland. Nazi Germany increasingly persecuted local Polish activists since 1937, and carried out mass arrests in August and September 1939. On 7 September 1938, Prudnik was visited by Adolf Hitler along with Hermann Göring, Heinrich Himmler, Gerd von Rundstedt, Erhard Milch, Hans Jürgen Stumpff, Josef Wagner and Hellmut Körner. During World War II the Germans established four forced labour camps and four working units for British and Soviet prisoners of war. Around 400 women, mostly from German occupied Hungary, were imprisoned in the subcamp, and some died. During the final months of the war, the town was also a stopping place of death marches of thousands of prisoners of several other subcamps of Auschwitz, The Red Army captured Neustadt on 18 March 1945.

After the end of the Second World War in 1945, Neustadt was transferred from Germany to Poland according to the Potsdam Conference, and given its original Polish name of Prądnik (changed to Prudnik in 1946). Many Polish settlers and refugees were transferred here from the Kresy in the former Polish eastern territories annexed by the Soviet Union. In the later years however many of them left to West Germany to flee the communist Eastern Bloc (see Emigration from Poland to Germany after World War II). Today Prudnik, along with the surrounding region, is known as a centre of the German minority in Poland that recruits mainly from the descendants of the positively verified autochthons. In the city itself however only 1% of the inhabitants declared German nationality according to the last national census of 2002. In September 1980, 1500 workers of ZPB "Frotex" and firefighters from Prudnik's fire brigade went on the biggest anti communist strike in Opole Voivodeship. The strike lasted 5 days (5–10 September).

Alongside German and Polish, many citizens of Prudnik before 1945 used a strongly German influenced Silesian language (sometimes called wasserpolnisch or wasserpolak). Because of this, the post war Polish state administration after the annexation of Silesia in 1945 did not initiate a general expulsion of all former inhabitants of Prudnik, as was done in Lower Silesia, for instance, where the population almost exclusively spoke the German language. Because they were considered "autochthonous" (Polish), the Wasserpolak speakers instead received the right to remain in their homeland after declaring themselves as Poles. Some German speakers took advantage of this decision, allowing them to remain in Silesia, even when they considered themselves to be of German nationality. The city surroundings currently contain the largest German and Upper Silesian minorities in Poland. However, Prudnik itself is only 1% German.

See twin towns of Gmina Prudnik.