Strzeleczki (German: Klein Strehlitz) is a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

Krapkowice County __NOTOC__ Krapkowice County ( pl, powiat krapkowicki) 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 governmen ...

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 ...

, in south-western Poland. It is the seat of the

gmina The gmina (Polish: , plural ''gminy'' , from German ''Gemeinde'' meaning ''commune'') is the principal unit of the administrative division of Poland, similar to a municipality. , there were 2,477 gminas throughout the country, encompassing over 4 ...

(administrative district) called

Gmina Strzeleczki __NOTOC__ Gmina Strzeleczki, German Gemeinde Klein Strehlitz is a rural gmina (administrative district) in Krapkowice County, Opole Voivodeship, in south-western Poland. Its seat is the village of Strzeleczki (Klein Strehlitz), which lies approxim ...

(Gemeinde Klein Strehlitz). It lies approximately west of

Krapkowice Krapkowice (; german: Krappitz; szl, Krapkowicy) is a town in southern Poland with 16,301 inhabitants (2019), situated in the Opole Voivodeship, straddling both banks of the Oder River at the point where it joins with the Osobłoga. It is the re ...

and south of the regional capital

Opole Opole (; german: Oppeln ; szl, Ôpole) ; * Silesian: ** Silesian PLS alphabet: ''Ôpole'' ** Steuer's Silesian alphabet: ''Uopole'' * Silesian German: ''Uppeln'' * Czech: ''Opolí'' * Latin: ''Oppelia'', ''Oppolia'', ''Opulia'' is a city loc ...

. Since 2006 the village, like the entire county, has been officially bilingual in German and Polish. The village has a population of 1,598. The village has one of the highest concentrations of Germans in Poland, with 18 of 20 seats on the municipal council filled by Germans.

History

This ancient market town was probably founded in the mid 13th century, around the year 1250; the first documentary mention dates to the year 1327. Its name, first recorded as Strelicz is thought to derive from a Slavic word for "archers". In 1531 the town's name was recorded in a Latin form as Parva Streletz, and in 1535 as Klein Streletz in German. This was to distinguish it from the nearby town of (Groß) Strehlitz. The town received

German town law The German town law (german: Deutsches Stadtrecht) or German municipal concerns (''Deutsches Städtewesen'') was a set of early town privileges based on the Magdeburg rights developed by Otto I. The Magdeburg Law became the inspiration for regional ...

in 1327; by this point the village was already quite large with a parish church, and since 1375 a school functioned in the village - one of the oldest in Upper Silesia. On March 13, 1428, the village was looted and burned by the

Hussite The Hussites ( cs, Husité or ''Kališníci''; "Chalice People") were a Czech proto-Protestant Christian movement that followed the teachings of reformer Jan Hus, who became the best known representative of the Bohemian Reformation. The Hussit ...

s. The city was again destroyed by Swedish forces during the

30 Years War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history, lasting from 1618 to 1648. Fought primarily in Central Europe, an estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of battle ...

in 1642. In 1742 Klein Strehlitz came under Prussian control. In 1750 the village lost its town rights. When the Archipresbyteriate of Oberglogau was divided, Klein Strehlitz was left with a dean, and until today there is a small deanery in the town. The inhabitants of Klein Strehlitz were always Catholic; in the census of 1861, there were 1370 Catholics, 13 Protestants, and 15 Jews. Before they died out in 1769 the town belonged to the counts of Proskau, passing then to the counts of Schelitz, and then in 1789 to the Prussian state. Until 1945 it belonged to the district of Landkreis Neustadt O.S. In the

Upper Silesia plebiscite The Upper Silesia plebiscite was a plebiscite mandated by the Versailles Treaty and carried out on 20 March 1921 to determine ownership of the province of Upper Silesia between Weimar Germany and Poland. The region was ethnically mixed with bot ...

of 20 March 1921 1381 villagers voted to remain with Germany and 198 voted to join the newly created state of Poland.Results of the Upper Silesia plebiscite (in German)
As a result, Klein Strehlitz remained in Germany. In 1939 the village had 1875 inhabitants. In 1945 Silesia was given to Poland and the German population of Klein Strehlitz was largely expelled. The village was renamed Strzeleczki and annexed to the newly created

Silesian Voivodeship Silesian Voivodeship, or Silesia Province ( pl, województwo śląskie ) is a voivodeship, or province, in southern Poland, centered on the historic region known as Upper Silesia ('), with Katowice serving as its capital. Despite the Silesian ...

. In 1950 it was reassigned to

, and in 1999 reassigned from Prudnik County (formerly Neustadt O.S.) to Krapkowice County. On 17 May 2006 the entire commune of Strzelecki/Klein Strehlitz was declared bilingual in German and Polish, and on 24 November 2008 the old name German name Klein Strehlitz was also made official. The coat of arms of the town most likely comes from the Barons of Promnitz-Pless. The current emblem is based on a drawing made by Heraldic artist

Otto Hupp Hermann Joseph Otto Hubert August Constantin Hupp (May 21, 1859 – January 31, 1949) was a German graphical artist. His main working area was heraldry, yet he also worked as a typeface designer, creating commercial symbols and metal works. Life a ...

in 1898. The film producer

Lothar Stark Lothar Stark (5 September 1876 – 31 March 1944) was a German film producer. Stark was originally a journalist, but was brought into the film industry by the tycoon Paul Davidson. Stark worked as a distributor and worked then as an independent p ...

was born in the village. There is a war memorial in the center of the town that commemorates the soldiers from Klein Strehlitz who died in World Wars I and II.

References

{{Gmina Strzeleczki Strzeleczki