Rybnik - History

History

The city's name derives from the Polish word for "fish" (ryba) and meant "fishpond" in the Old Polish language. (In Romany, rebniko means "fishpond" to this day). The name highlights the importance of fish farming for the city's economy in the Middle Ages, which is reflected in its coat of arms until this day.

The city's origins can be traced back into the 9th and 10th century, when three Slavic settlements existed on Rybnik's present-day territory which eventually merged to form one town. In the course of the medieval eastward migration of German settlers (Ostsiedlung), Rybnik, as many other Polish settlements, was incorporated (granted city status and right) according to the so-called Magdeburg Law at some point before 1308 (the exact date remains unknown). This, however, is not to be confused with a change in national affiliation; Rybnik continued to be part of the Kingdom of Poland, until Silesia as a whole became a fiefdom of the Bohemian crown in 1327. The city continued to grow and developed into a regional trade centre. In the 15th century, the Hussites devastated the city, before being eventually defeated in a decisive battle on a hill nearby. From 1526, Bohemia, including the fiefdom of Silesia, which Rybnik was a part of, came under the authority of the Habsburg crown.

At the beginning of the War of the Austrian Succession between Frederick II of Prussia (the Great) and the Habsburg empress Maria Theresa of Austria, the greatest part of Silesia, including Rybnik, was annexed by Prussia in 1740, which Austria eventually recognized in 1763. Coal mining gained importance for Rybnik's economy as early as the 18th century. In 1871, Prussia, including Rybnik, merged into the German Empire, the first modern German nation state. At this point, Poland had already ceased to exist as an independent state, having been divided between Prussia, Austria and Russia in the Third Partition of Poland of 1795.

With the intensification of Germanization and anti-Polish politics in the German Empire in the late 19th and early 20th century, the ethnically mixed region of Upper Silesia became affected by growing tensions between German and Polish nationalists. After the end of World War I in 1918, Polish statehood was finally restored. Amidst an atmosphere of ethnic unrest, a referendum was organized to determine the future national affiliation of Upper Silesia. Although an overall majority had opted for Germany, the area was finally divided in an attempt to satisfy both parties. Although both parties considered the territory they were assigned insufficient, the division was justified insofar as in the German and Polish parts a majority had voted in favour of the respective nation.

The lowest amount of pro-German votes was registered in the districts of Rybnik and Pszczyna (Pless). The city and the largest part of the district of Rybnik were attached to Poland; Rybnik thus became part of a Polish state for the first time since 1526. The referendum and eventual division of Upper Silesia were accompanied by three Silesian Uprisings, the first of which (in 1919) was centered on Rybnik.

Within the Second Polish Republic of the interwar period, Rybnik was part of the Silesian Voivodeship, which enjoyed far-reaching political and financial autonomy.

With the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the border city Rybnik returned under the rule of Germany, being in the part of Poland that was directly incorporated into the German state. The population was ethnically categorized and either "re-Germanized" or disfranchised and partially deported into the General Government as Poles.

After the eventual German defeat which ended World War II in the European theatre of war in 1945, Rybnik was once more integrated into Poland, the territory of which was now being shifted westward on Joseph Stalin's initiative. Rybnik thus ceased to be German-Polish border city. Its population was again categorized to be either "re-polonized" or forcefully resettled to Germany. A large portion of ethnic Germans from Rybnik eventually settled in the West German city of Dorsten (District of Recklinghausen), which eventually became one of Rybnik's twin towns in 1994.

In the post-war period, coal mining continued to gain importance. The 1970s saw the construction of a coal-fired power station, which is important for power generation in the region and beyond. A reservoir on the river Ruda was constructed to provide it with cooling water. In 2002, the University of Economics (Akademia Ekomomiczna), the University of Silesia (Uniwersytet Śląski), both in based Katowice, and the Silesian Polytechnic University (Politechnika Śląska) based in Gliwice established a joint campus in Rybnik to improve academic training opportunities in the area.