Prudnik

The first human traces in the present town area, confirmed by archaeological excavations, are dated to the Paleolithic times. Local early Slavs maintained trade contacts with Rome, which is confirmed by Roman coins found here dating back to 700 BC–1250 AD.[11]

14th-century seal showing Prudnik's coat of arms

Prudnik Castle

The area of present Prudnik was located at the border of Golensizi and Opolans.[12] Between the years of 1255 and 1259 the Czech knight Wok of Rosenberg founded in the defensive bend of the Prudnik river a castle, and his son Jindřich obtained the city rights in 1279. In 1337 it became a part of the Duchy of Opole,[13] and remained under the rule of local Polish dukes of the Piast dynasty until the dissolution of the duchy in 1532, when it was incorporated into the Austrian-ruled Bohemian (Czech) Crown. It was located on a trade route between Wrocław and Vienna.[14]

The oldest known form of Prudnik's coat of arms comes from a 1399 wax seal.[15] A knight Maćko of Prudnik participated in the Battle of Grunwald fought on 15 July 1410 during the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War. Maćko fought together with the troops of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland.[16][17]

On 23 March 1464, Prudnik and villages around it were excommunicated by Pope Alexander VI. Although archbishop Alfons Nossol claimed that the town is no longer excommunicated in 2001, the Pope never revealed a document that lifted the curse.[18]

Model of Prudnik in 1626

In 1562, the Austrian-ruled Duchy of Opole and Racibórz passed a resolution that obligated Jews to sell their houses, pay their debts, and leave the duchy in a year. On the basis of this resolution, in 1564, Jews were ordered to leave Prudnik, but Krzysztof Prószkowski, who leased the land there, let them stay until 1570.[19] The town was captured and plundered by the Swedes in 1632, during the Thirty Years' War. In 1645 along with Opole and Racibórz it returned to Poland under the House of Vasa, and in 1666 it fell to Austria again.

View of Prudnik (Neustadt) from 1819

In 1742 the town was incorporated into Prussia. During the Seven Years' War it was the scene of a bloody surprise attack upon the Prussians as they were marching out of the city. The London Gazette of 25 March 1760 reported "General Laudohn, who had set out from his Quarters on 14th with Palfy's Regiment of Cuirassiers, Lowenstein's Dragoons, 500 Hussars of Nadaski, 500 of Kalnocki, 2000 Croats and 14 Companies of Grenadiers, marched all Night with a View to surprise our Troops at Neustadt. The latter were scarce out of the Gates, when they were surrounded by those of the Enemy. General Jacquemin was posted with the Regiment of Lowenstein near Buchelsdorff on the road to Steinau, General Laudohn followed with the Regiment of Palfy and 2000 Croats, supported by 14 Companies of Grenadiers; a thousand of their Hussars were upon our right flank, the advanced Guard of which consisted of 100 Men under Capt. Blumenthal of the Regiment of Manteuffel. Capt Zitzewitz commanded the Rear Guard, consisting of the same number; and the rest of the aforesaid regiment, with a Squadron of Dragoons of Bareith under Capt. Chambaud, followed with the Baggage. General Laudohn summoned out Troops twice, by Sound of Trumpet, to lay down their Arms; which they not complying with, he ordered all his Cavalry to advance: Whereupon General Jacquemin fell upon the advance Guard, while General Laudohn himself attacked the Rear, and the Hussars, in Platoons, flanked the Baggage. The Captains Blumenthal and Zittzwitz formed their small Force in a Kind of Square, from whence they kept a continual fire. The enemy's Cavalry nevertheless advanced six Times on a Gallop, to within ten Paces of our Troops; but perceiving many fall on their Side, among whom were several Officers, they retreated in great Disorder... The Loss of the Austrians however greatly exceeds ours; they buried above 300 Men, in different Places, and sent 500 Wounded to Neustadt. Besides which we have taken 25 Prisoners, amongst whom are several Officers. We had 35 men killed, and four Officers and 65 private Men wounded, in Manteuffel's Regiment, as also one Lieutenant, with three Dragoons in Bareich's... The Officers, taken Prisoners, by our Troops, commend highly the Bravery of the Regiment of Manteuffel upon this Occasion."[20]

In the subsequent years, the area developed into a significant centre of handcraft, in particular cloth production and shoe-making.[8] In the 19th century, the surrounding factories continued the local tradition of handicraft.[8] The indigenous Polish population was subject to Germanisation policies. Due to the lack of Polish schools, local Poles sent their children to schools in so-called Congress Poland in the Russian Partition of Poland.[21] Local Polish activist, publicist and teacher Filip Robota, was investigated by the local Prussian administration and police for writing about this practice in the Gazeta Toruńska, a major Polish newspaper in the Prussian Partition of Poland.[21]

German military parade in Neustadt

Prudnik remained part of Germany after Poland regained independence in 1918, however, Polish organizations still operated in the town in the interbellum, including the Union of Poles in Germany and the Polish-Catholic School Society.[14] Polish Prime Minister Ignacy Jan Paderewski proposed to incorporate Prudnik into Poland in his unrealized political concept of the United States of Poland, which was presented to the US President Woodrow Wilson. In a secret Sicherheitsdienst report from 1934, Prudnik was named one of the main centers of the Polish movement in western Upper Silesia.[22] Nazi Germany increasingly persecuted local Polish activists since 1937, and carried out mass arrests in August and September 1939.[23] On 7 September 1938, Prudnik was visited by Adolf Hitler along with Hermann Göring, Heinrich Himmler, Gerd von Rundstedt, Erhard Milch, Hans-Jürgen Stumpff, Josef Wagner and Hellmut Körner.[24][25]

During World War II the Germans established four forced labour camps and four working units for British and Soviet prisoners of war.[14] On 26 September 1944, a sub-camp of Auschwitz in Prudnik / Neustadt O.S' was founded in the Schlesische Feinweberei AG textile mill (now ZPB "Frotex").[26] Neustadt was a stopping place on a death march during final months of World War II, for prisoners-of-war transferred by the Nazis from all over Europe to stalags built in occupied Poland. About 30,000 Allied PoWs were force-marched westward across Poland, Czechoslovakia and Germany in winter conditions, lasting about four months from January to April 1945.[27] The Red Army captured Neustadt on 18 March 1945.

Anti-communist demonstrations in Prudnik

After the end of the Second World War in 1945, Neustadt was transferred from Germany to Poland according to the Potsdam Conference, and given its original Polish name of Prądnik. The remaining German population was expelled and replaced by Polish settlers and refugees transferred from the Kresy in the former Polish eastern territories annexed by the Soviet Union. The city's name was changed to Prudnik in 1946.[10]

In September 1980, 1500 workers of ZPB "Frotex" and firefighters from Prudnik's fire brigade went on the biggest anti-communist strike in Opole Voivodeship. The strike lasted 5 days (5–10 September).

• Publiczne Przedszkole nr 1 (5 Mickiewicza Street)
• Zespół Szkolno-Przedszkolny nr 2 (12 Szkolna Street)
• Publiczne Przedszkole nr 3 (69 Piastowska Street)
• Publiczne Przedszkole nr 4 (9 Mickiewicza Street)
• Publiczne Przedszkole Specjalne nr 5 (1 Młyńska Street)
• Publiczne Przedszkole nr 6 (9a Podgórna Street)
• Publiczne Przedszkole nr 8 (1 Ogrodowa Street)
• Niepubliczne Przedszkole "Skrzat" (66 Grunwaldzka Street)

• Publiczna Szkoła Podstawowa nr 1 (9 Podgórna Street)
• Zespół Szkolno-Przedszkolny nr 2 (12 Szkolna Street)
• Publiczna Szkoła Podstawowa nr 3 (12 Szkolna Street)
• Publiczna Szkoła Podstawowa nr 4 (2 Dąbrowskiego Street)
• Publiczna Szkoła Podstawowa Specjalna nr 5 (1 Młyńska Street)

• Publiczne Gimnazjum nr 1 (1 Armii Krajowej Street)
• Publiczne Gimnazjum nr 2 (2 Dąbrowskiego Street)
• Publiczne Gimnazjum Specjalne nr 3 (1 Młyńska Street)

• I Liceum Ogólnokształcące (2 Gimnazjalna Street)
• II Liceum Ogólnokształcące (55 Kościuszki Street)
• Liceum Ogólnokształcące dla dorosłych (5 Podgórna Street)
• Zespół Szkół Medycznych (Medical School) (26 Piastowska Street)
• Zespół Szkół Rolniczych (76 Kościuszki Street)
• Zespół Szkół Zawodowych (5 Podgórna Street)
• Państwowa Szkoła Muzyczna I st. (36 Traugutta Street)
• Szkoła policealna dla dorosłych (26 Piastowska Street)

Prudnik Deanery

• Saint Michael the Archangel parish (Plac Farny 2)
  • Saint Michael the Archangel church (Plac Farny 2)
  • Saints Peter and Paul church (6 Piastowska Street)
  • Saint Joseph church (Prudnik-Las, 5 Józefa Poniatowskiego Street)
• God's Mercy parish (35 Skowrońskiego Street)
  • God's Mercy church (35 Skowrońskiego Street)

• Zbór Syloe (40A Kolejowa Street)

• zbór Prudnik (Kingdom Hall, 22A Piastowska Street)

• Cmentarz Komunalny (19 Kościuszki Street)
• Jewish cemetery (40 Kolejowa Street)

• Football pitch (Kolejowa 7)
• Football pitch (Włoska 10)
• Sports Hall OSiR Prudnik
• Orlik 2012 field
• Summer swimming pool

• KS Pogoń Prudnik (basketball)
• MKS Pogoń Prudnik (football)
• KS Obuwnik Prudnik (archery)
• LKS Zarzewie Prudnik (karate, chess)
• LKJ Olimp Prudnik (equestrianism)
• Stowarzyszenie Sportowe „Tigers" Prudnik (football, parkour, freerunning)
• SPPS Ro-Nat GSM Prudnik (volleyball)

• Nicholas Henel (1582–1656), historian, receiver, biographer and a chronicler
• Matthäus Apelles von Löwenstern (1594–1648), psalmist, musician and statesman
• Shmuel of Karov (c. 1735–1820), Polish Hasidic rebbe
• Karl Dziatzko (1842–1903), scholar
• Karl Heinisch (1847–1923), painter
• Eugen Fraenkel (1853–1925), pathologist and bacteriologist
• Max Pinkus (1857–1934), industrialist and a bibliophile
• Otto von Garnier (1858–1947), German General of the Cavalry during World War I
• Wilhelm Siegmund Frei (1885–1943), dermatologist
• Ludwig Hardt (1886–1947), actor
• Felice Bauer (1887–1960), fiancée of Franz Kafka
• Hellmuth Reymann (1892–1988), officer in the German Army during World War II
• Dietrich von Choltitz (1894–1966), German General, the last commander of Nazi-occupied Paris
• Kurt Wintgens (1894–1916), German World War I pilot
• Hans Hoffmann (1902–1949), lyrical tenor and musicologist
• Karl Streibel (1903–1986), commander of the Trawniki concentration camp
• Bernd Scholz (1911–1969), composer
• Margarete Müller (born 1931), politician
• Jan Góra (1948–2015), youth activist
• Joanna Helbin (born 1960), archer
• Tadeusz Madziarczyk (born 1961), politician
• Maria Koc (born 1964), politician
• Aleksandra Konieczna (born 1965), actress
• Jarosław Wasik (born 1971), singer-songwriter
• Peter Peschel (born 1972), football player
• Krzysztof Szafrański (born 1972), racing cyclist
• Grzegorz Kaliciak (born 1973), Colonel of Polish Armed Forces
• Lukasz Gadowski (born 1977), entrepreneur and investor
• Ewa Plonka (born 1982), operatic soprano
• Michał "Z.B.U.K.U" Buczek (born 1992), rapper
• Tomasz Pusz (born 1997), musician

Memorial plaque at the former home of Filip Robota

• Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher (1742–1819), field marshal
• Samuel Fränkel (1801–1881), industrialist
• Filip Robota (1841–1902), local Polish activist, publisher and teacher
• Paul Ehrlich (1854–1915), Nobel Prize-winning physician and scientist
• Kazimierz Raszewski (1864–1941), lieutenant general of the Polish Army
• Paul Heinrich Theodor Müller (1896–c. 1945), Concentration Camp Operational Leader at Auschwitz concentration camp
• Stefan Wyszyński (1901–1981), archbishop
• Franz Augsberger (1905–1945), SS commander
• Władysław Lemiszko (1911–1988), Ice Hockey player, Olympian, football manager
• Harry Thürk (1927–2005), writer
• Gerard Bernacki (1942–2018), bishop
• Jadwiga Szoszler-Wilejto (born 1949), archer
• Stanisław Szozda (1950–2013), Olympic cyclist
• Andrzej Zając (born 1956), Paralympian
• Krzysztof Pieczyński (born 1957), actor
• Janusz Zarenkiewicz (born 1959), boxer
• Lukas Klemenz (born 1995), association football player