Niemodlin (; german: Falkenberg O.S., Falkenberg Oberschlesien; szl, Ńymodlin) is a town in
Opole County
__NOTOC__
Opole County ( pl, powiat opolski) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Opole Voivodeship, south-western Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reform ...
,
Opole Voivodeship
Opole Voivodeship, or Opole Province ( pl, województwo opolskie ), is the smallest and least populated voivodeship (province) of Poland. The province's name derives from that of the region's capital and largest city, Opole. It is part of Upper S ...
,
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
, with 6,315 inhabitants (2019).
History
The community was first mentioned as ''Nemodlin'' in a 1224 deed and received
town privileges
Town privileges or borough rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium. The city law customary in Central Europe probably dates back to Italian models, which in turn were oriented towards the tradition ...
in 1283. The German place-name ''Falkenberg'' was first recorded in the year 1290. Originally a part of the
Duchy of Opole
Duchy of Opole ( pl, Księstwo opolskie; german: Herzogtum Oppeln; cs, Opolské knížectví) was one of the duchies of Silesia ruled by the Piast dynasty. Its capital was Opole (Oppeln, Opolí) in Upper Silesia.
Duke Boleslaw III 'the Wrymou ...
, after the death of
Duke Bolko I, Niemodlin became the capital of a duchy in his own right from 1313 to 1382. When the Opole line of the
Piast dynasty
The House of Piast was the first historical ruling dynasty of Poland. The first documented Polish monarch was Duke Mieszko I (c. 930–992). The Piasts' royal rule in Poland ended in 1370 with the death of king Casimir III the Great.
Branch ...
became extinct in 1532, various noble families like the
Hohenzollern
The House of Hohenzollern (, also , german: Haus Hohenzollern, , ro, Casa de Hohenzollern) is a German royal (and from 1871 to 1918, imperial) dynasty whose members were variously princes, electors, kings and emperors of Hohenzollern, Brandenb ...
, the
House of Zierotin
The House of Žerotín or House of Zierotin was a Czech noble family in the Lands of the Bohemian Crown, one of the oldest and most illustrious noble families from Bohemia and Moravia. The family was first mentioned around the year 1200 as ''Bl ...
, and the Prazma (German,
Praschma) held the estate (also known as ''Falkenberg'') until the 1940s.
The town of Falkenberg, after the
First Silesian War
The First Silesian War (german: Erster Schlesischer Krieg, links=no) was a war between Prussia and Austria that lasted from 1740 to 1742 and resulted in Prussia's seizing most of the region of Silesia (now in south-western Poland) from Austria. T ...
in 1742, had become part of
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...
and was the capital of the
Falkenberg district in the
Province of Silesia
The Province of Silesia (german: Provinz Schlesien; pl, Prowincja Śląska; szl, Prowincyjŏ Ślōnskŏ) was a province of Prussia from 1815 to 1919. The Silesia region was part of the Prussian realm since 1740 and established as an official p ...
. In the 18th century, Falkenberg belonged to the tax inspection region of
Neustadt.
In 1871, with the Prussian-led
Unification of Germany
The unification of Germany (, ) was the process of building the modern German nation state with federalism, federal features based on the concept of Lesser Germany (one without multinational Austria), which commenced on 18 August 1866 with ad ...
, the town became part of the
German Empire
The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...
. After Germany's defeat in
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, it was placed under
Weimar
Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...
administration. After
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
in 1945, it was placed under Polish administration. The estate's final owner, Count Frederick Leopold von Praschma, left a
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
castle built about 1600, which became offices for the State Repatriation Office, then served as a high school and NCO school.
Notable residents
*
Wilhelm Iwan
Wilhelm Iwan, author, historian, and Lutheran theologian lived from 1871 until 1958. As a historian, he documented the 19th century exodus from Kingdom of Prussia, Prussia (Germany) to America and Australia by a group who sought religious freedom ...
(1871–1958), Lutheran pastor and historian
*
Otto Schwarzer (1906–1976),
Wehrmacht
The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previous ...
officer
Twin towns – sister cities
See
twin towns of Gmina Niemodlin.
References
External links
Jewish Community in Niemodlinon Virtual Shtetl
Cities in Silesia
Cities and towns in Opole Voivodeship
Opole County
{{OpoleCounty-geo-stub