Volksabstimmung und Aufstände in Oberschlesien in der Vierteljahresschrift „Schlesien” (1956–1996)

The article attempts to characterize magazine “Schlesien” [Silesia] (1956–1996, published and edited by Karl Schodrok and later Eberhard Günter Schulz) from a perspective of political struggles – plebiscite, uprisings – tacking place in Upper Silesia in 1919–1921. The majority of them are historical texts, popular science articles, excerpts from scientific treatises, parts of lectures, epilogues, source texts with comments that were published on the anniversary of the individual historical regional events. The largest part is made up of contributions that were presented to German readers in the 26th year of the publication of quarterly “Schlesien”, exactly fifty years after the plebiscite and the outbreak of the third Silesian uprising. Apart from the cultural-political orientation of the text, all of them contain statements and impressions of contemporary witnesses and present scientifically sound perspectives from researchers, historians, lawyers and locally publicists. In a certain sense they reflect the tendency in the way in which certain historical events are presented from the perspective of the Germans, especially those who were forced to leave their Upper Silesian homeland in the 1920s and 1940s.