Dąbrowice , German Dombrowitz is a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

in the administrative district of

Gmina Chrząstowice Gmina Chrząstowice, German: Gemeinde Chronstau is a rural gmina (administrative district) in Opole County, Opole Voivodeship, in south-western Poland. Its seat is the village of Chrząstowice, which lies approximately east of the regional capit ...

(Gemeinde Chronstau), within

Opole County __NOTOC__ Opole County () 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 reforms passed in 1998. ...

Opole Voivodeship Opole Voivodeship ( , , ), is the smallest and least populated voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship (province) of Poland. The province's name derives from that of the region's capital and largest city, Opole. It is part of Silesia. A relatively lar ...

, in south-western

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. It lies approximately south of Chrząstowice (Chronstau) and east of the regional capital

Opole Opole (; ; ; ) is a city located in southern Poland on the Oder River and the historical capital of Upper Silesia. With a population of approximately 127,387 as of the 2021 census, it is the capital of Opole Voivodeship (province) and the seat of ...

. Since 2006 it has been officially bilingual in German and Polish

History

The town of Dombrowitz was first mentioned in 1297. In 1526 the area came under the control of the

Habsburg Empire The Habsburg monarchy, also known as Habsburg Empire, or Habsburg Realm (), was the collection of empires, kingdoms, duchies, counties and other polities (composite monarchy) that were ruled by the House of Habsburg. From the 18th century it is ...

. In 1566 the name was recorded as ''Dumbrowicz''. After the

War of the Austrian Succession The War of the Austrian Succession was a European conflict fought between 1740 and 1748, primarily in Central Europe, the Austrian Netherlands, Italian Peninsula, Italy, the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. Related conflicts include King Ge ...

, Silesia was taken by the

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (, ) was a German state that existed from 1701 to 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Rev. ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1946. It played a signif ...

. After the unification of Germany, the village was located in the

Upper Silesia Province The Province of Upper Silesia (; Silesian German: ''Provinz Oberschläsing''; ; ) was a province of the Free State of Prussia from 1919 to 1945. It comprised much of the region of Upper Silesia and was eventually divided into two government regio ...

. 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 the Second Polish Republic. The region was ethni ...

on March 20, 1921, 134 people voted to remain in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and 45 to join

. Consequently, Dombrowitz remained with Germany. In 1933 Dombrowitz had 233 inhabitants. Until 1945 it was located in the district of

Landkreis Oppeln In 13 German states, the primary administrative subdivision higher than a '' Gemeinde'' (municipality) is the () or (). Most major cities in Germany are not part of any ''Kreis'', but instead combine the functions of a municipality and a ''Kr ...

. From 1935 the Nazi government made a large-scale effort to rename places with Slavic-origin names. On 15 June 1936 the town was renamed Eichgrund O.S. In 1939 the town had 294 inhabitants. After 1945 the town was annexed to Poland and much of German population was expelled; it was renamed Dąbrowie to de-Germanize it, and later this name was changed to Dąbrowice. In 1950 the town was added to

and in 1999

(formerly Kreis Oppeln) was reconstituted. On 20 January 2006 the town was officially made bilingual in German and Polish, and in May its German name was made official alongside the Polish Dąbrowice.

References

{{Gmina Chrząstowice Villages in Opole County