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USC Digital Voltaire

Wroclaw (Breslau)

Breslau (Modern Day: Wroclau)[1]

Breslau (Modern Day: Wroclau) is the largest city in south-western Poland. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, roughly 350 kilometres (220 mi) from the Baltic Sea to the North, and 40 kilometres (25 mi) from the Sudeten Mountains to the south. It is an important node of road and rail communications and river port on the Oder.

It was settled during the Stone Age, and it was on a trade route between the Roman Empire and the Baltic Sea. Founded as a town in 1000 AD by King Boleslaw I the Brave[2] (967-1025) it became the Capital of Silesia from 1163 until destroyed by Tartars in 1241. The home of many German immigrants since 13th century, it was ruled as a duchy by the Piast dynasty. It was attached to Bohemia in 1335 and to the Habsburg domain in 1526.

It was annexed by Prussia in 1742 as a result of the Treaty of Breslau, a preliminary peace agreement signed on 11 June 1742 following long negotiations by emissaries of Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria and Frederick II of Prussia, ending the First Silesian War.

The Battle of Breslau (also known as the Battle on the Lohe) was a battle fought on 22 November 1757 during the Third Silesian War (part of the Seven Years’ War). A Prussian army of 28,000 men fought an Austrian army of 84,000 men. The Prussians held off the Austrian attack, losing 6,000 men to the Austrians’ 5,000 men. But one day later the Prussians beat a retreat. Breslau's garrison surrendered on 25 November 1757. Nonetheless, as a result of Frederick’s Siege of Breslau (7 December 1757 - 19 December 1757), this territory was reclaimed by Prussia.

Breslau was returned to Poland following the Potsdam agreements (1945). The German population was evacuated and the town was repopulated by Poles. Damaged by the Russian & Nazi sieges of 1945, it was rebuilt including its Cathedral (Gothic period, 1271-1341) and several other ancient churches. It is today an administrative and industrial center (metallurgy, mechanics, electronics, chemistry, clothing).

Danielle Mihram, August 2018.

Sources Davies, Norman. “Centuries of Change: Wroclaw - Breslau – Vratislavia.” European Review, vol. 23, no. 1, 2015, pp. 1-11.
Redman, Herbert J. Frederick the Great and the Seven Years’ War, 1756-1763
McFarland & Company, Inc., 2014.

Images:
South Breslau. Drawing: Carl Würbs (1807–1876); engraving: Jobst Riegel (1821–1878) - Digital Library of Silesian Voivodeship.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stammbuch_Johann_Gottfried_Rüde_Illustration_Breslau_1760.jpg#/media/File:Breslau_von_der_Südseite.jpg

Battle of Breslau, by Johann Gottfried Rüde
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stammbuch_Johann_Gottfried_Rüde_Illustration_Breslau_1760.jpg

Wroclau Cathedral, (13^th century; rebuilt in 18^th century)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Breslauer_Dom_Werner.png

[1] Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names: Breslau - ID: 7007601
http://www.getty.edu/vow/TGNFullDisplay?find=wroclaw&place=&nation=&prev_page=1&english=Y&subjectid=7007601

[2] King Boleslaw I the Brave was Duke of Poland from 992 to 1025, and the first King of Poland in 1025.

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Frederick to Voltaire - 1766 September 1 in Breslau, 1st September 1766

Letter from the king
of Prussia to
M^r de Voltaire
     E/
1         You will have read, in my previous letter[1], that
2         peaceful philosophers should expect to be
3         well-received by me. I have neither seen nor spoken to the son
4         of the modern Hippocrates. I do not know what can have
5         happened to the plans of your philosophers; I wash
6         my hands of it. I am here in a province where
7         physics are preferred to metaphysics; people cultivate their fields,
8         they have rebuilt 8,000 houses, and they bring forth thousands of children
9         annually, to replace those which the frenzy of politics
10         and warfare have caused to perish.
11                   I do not know whether, all things well considered, it is not
12       more advantageous to labor at population-building than
13       at the creation of bad arguments. The lords and the
14       people, caught up in their own restitution, live in
15       peace; and they are so consumed by their own work that
16       no one pays attention to the belief system of his neighbor.
17       The sparks of religious hatred, which often were revived
18       before the war[2], are extinct; and the spirit
19       of tolerance is gaining ground daily in the
20       ways of thinking of the people. Please believe that
21       idleness gives rise to most disputes.

[Page break]

22       To extinguish them in France, you need but renew
23       the time of the defeats of Poitiers and Agincourt[3]; your
24       churchmen and your parliaments totally preoccupied
25       by their own affairs, would think only of themselves,
26       and would leave the public and the government alone.
27       This is a proposition to be made to these gentlemen;
28       However, I doubt that they will agree to it.
29                   Your works are widespread here, and in the
30       hands of everyone. There is no region,
31       no people that has not heard your name, nor
32       is there any civilized society in which your fame does not shine brightly.
33       Enjoy your glory, and enjoy it for a long
34       time. Whereupon I pray God that he keep you in
35       his holy and august protection . /.

                                                F

[1] The previous letter to which Frederick is referring was written on August 20, 1766 (EE: D13508). In this letter, he assures Voltaire that the philosophers are welcome at his estate: “Il ne dépend que des philosophes de partir & d'établir leur séjour dans le lieu de mes états qui leur conviendra le mieux” (“It is entirely up to the philosophers to leave and establish their residence in the location in my estates which suits them best”).

[2] In the time of the War of Austrian Succession and continuing on in the Seven Years War, the town of Breslau and the greater Silesia region were constantly fought over, making it a highly turbulent environment. For more information see Breslau.

[3] Both the battle of Poitiers (19 September 1356) and the battle of Agincourt (25 October 1415) were devastating defeats for the French against the English during the Hundred Years’ War. Between these two battles alone, almost 9,000 French soldiers were killed. (See: The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide, Helicon, 2010).