Silesian Uprisings - Demographics in The Early 20th Century

Demographics in The Early 20th Century

The area east of the Oder in Upper Silesia was dominated by ethnic Poles, most of whom were lower class. A large proportion spoke a dialect of Polish, many also felt that they were a Slavic ethnic group of their own called Silesians. Simultaneously, most of the local elites - the landowners, businessmen, factory owners, local government, police and Catholic clergy - were German. There was a further division along the religious lines: almost all of the higher German Silesian officials were Protestant while the vast majority of Polish Silesians were Catholic.

In the German census of 1900, 65% of the population of that eastern part of Silesia was recorded as Polish speaking, decreasing to 57% in 1910. This was the result of forced Germanization as well as creating a category of "bilingual inhabitants" for the purpose of the census, which reduced the number of Polish-speaking Silesians. German scholar Paul Weber drew a language map that showed that in 1910 in majority of Upper Silesian districts east of the Oder river Polish-speaking Silesians were a majority, forming over 70% of the population.