Anna Caban State Archive in Opole Archive traces of the drama of war. Sources for investigation into the daily life of the inhabitants of cities in the Opole District in the archival fonds of the State Archive in Opole Abstract: The collection of archival materials serves as a silent witness of the history of the Opole region from the point of general mobilization to the signing of the armistice� It provides information on the wartime economy, the organization of life on areas not covered by warfare, espionage and support for East Prussia, as well as a range of other topics� The storm which started in summer 1914 reversed the earlier arrangement of po- litical powers, and destroyed the economy and transformed the social structures of both sides of the ensuing global conflict� The Great War opened the door to the formation of nation states and new political systems� The centenary of this breakthrough event served as a pretext to begin extensive research into the ar- chival fonds of the State Archive in Opole to identify new, unknown and hitherto unstudied materials� The identified materials complement existing records and enrich the image of the Opole District, known from historical studies as a direct military supply base, with a panorama of the everyday life of citizens in the face of war� The archival materials presenting this event cover the period from the outbreak of war in August 1914 to the signing of the armistice in November 1918� On the outbreak of war, the Opole District covered an area of 13 thousand square kilometers and comprised 18 village districts1 and 8 independent munici- pal districts2� The seat of the authorities of the Opole District (Regierungsbezirk 1 The village districts in the Opole district: Bytom, Gliwice, Głubczyce, Grodków, Katowice, Kluczbork, Koźle, Lubliniec, Niemodlin, Nysa, Olesno, Opole, Prudnik, Pszczyna, Racibórz, Rybnik, Tarnowskie Góry, Toszek, Zabrze� These areas were ad- ministered by “landrat” – starosts (Landratsamt) and district areas (Kreisausschuss) they ruled cf� Mendel, Edward: Polacy na Górnym Śląsku w latach I wojny światowej. Położenie i postawa� Wydawnictwo “Śląsk”: Katowice 1971, p� 17� 2 The municipal districts of the Opole district were established through designation of areas around cities with more than 20 thousand inhabitants� These were: Opole, Gliwice, Bytom, Królewska Huta (Chorzów), Katowice, Zabrze, Nysa, Racibórz, loc�cit� Elbieta Katarzyna Dzikowska, Agata G. Handley and Piotr Zawilski - 9783631806777 Downloaded from PubFactory at 09/23/2021 07:05:35PM via free access 94 Anna Caban Oppeln) was established in 1815 in Oppeln (Polish: Opole)3� The District’s au- thority covered 46 cities, 1482 communes and 1102 townships (Gutsbezirk)4� Before the outbreak of the Great War, this area was well developed, with a diver- sified economy and varied social aspects� The most industrialised and urbanised part of the district was the South-East area near the cities of Myslowitz (Polish: Mysłowice), Tarnau (Polish: Tarnowskie Góry), Gleiwitz (Polish: Gliwice), Rib- nik (Polish: Rybnik), and the industrial region of Upper Silesia, where the min- ing and metallurgy industry was located5� Outside this region, industrial plants were located in larger cities� In Opole itself, the cement industry was booming6� However, crafts played an important part in the economy of Upper Silesia and provided employment for hundreds of thousands of people7� A significant part of the province was used for agriculture and forests8� According to the national census of 1 December 19109, the Opole District was inhabited by 2,207,981 peo- ple10� This number also includes 12,22711 soldiers stationed in the area� According to the official statistics of the time, over 53% of the local population was Polish, 3 The Opole district was established pursuant to the act of 30 April 1815 and came into being on 7 May 1816� Throughout its existence, the district changed its scope and ad- ministrative structure several times, cf� Czapliński, Marian: “Kancelaria i registratura Rejencji Opolskiej”. Sobótka (2/1961), pp� 179–183� 4 Mendel, Edward: op� cit�, p� 17� 5 Czapliński, Marek: “Dzieje Śląska od 1806 do 1945 roku”. In: Czapliński, Marek/ Kaszuba, Elżbieta/ Wąs, Gabriela et al� (eds�): Historia Śląska. Wydawnictwo Uniwer- sytetu Wrocławskiego: Wrocław 2007, pp� 300–310; cf� Mendel, Edward, op� cit�, p� 18� 6 Borkowski, Maciej: “Życie codzienne w Opolu w latach Wielkiej Wojny (1914–1918)”� In: Linek, Bernard/ Rosenbaum, Sebastian/ Struve, Kai (eds�): Koniec starego świata – początek nowego. Społeczeństwo Górnego Śląska wobec pierwszej wojny światowej. (1914–1918) Źródła i metody. Gliwice 20–22 June 2013, Opole 2013, [PDF�], p� 90; cf � Czapliński, Marek: op� cit�, pp� 300–310� 7 Ibid�, p� 306� 8 Mendel, Edward: op� cit�, pp� 18–22� 9 Statistik des Deutsche Reichs. Die Volkszählung im Deutschen Reiche am 1 Dezember 1910, Berlin 1914� 10 Mendel, Edward: Dzień powszedni na Śląsku Opolskim w czasie I wojny światowej� Opole 1987, p� 7; cf� Gehrke, Roland: “Od Wiosny Ludów do I wojny światowej (1848– 1918)” � In: Bahlcke, Joachim/ Gawrecki, Dan/ Kaczmarek, Ryszard (eds�): Historia Górnego Śląska. Polityka, gospodarka i kultura europejskiego regionu� Dom Współpracy Polsko-Niemieckiej: Gliwice 2011, pp� 202–203� 11 Mendel, Edward: op� cit�, pp� 24–25� Elbieta Katarzyna Dzikowska, Agata G. Handley and Piotr Zawilski - 9783631806777 Downloaded from PubFactory at 09/23/2021 07:05:35PM via free access The daily life of inhabitants of cities in the Opole District 95 with slightly fewer Germans and the remainder comprising other nationalities12� Apart from the population growth, there were no other changes in the national or social structure of the district following the outbreak of war� Presentation of archival materials of 1914–1918 Only part of the holdings of the State Archive in Opole relating to the period of the Great War has been preserved� An analysis of the introductions to the fonds shows that only a small percentage of the archival material has been preserved, although it is difficult to determine exactly how much; it is unclear whether this is due to the effects of World War II itself or to the negligence of the following years� The majority of files from the municipal and district authority offices of that period has been preserved to a similar degree� World War II had a significant impact on the preservation status of the files which had been started by the Opole District� Despite the evacuation and scattering of archival files over the Upper Silesia region, many materials have been lost and it is impossible to determine how much of this fonds has been preserved13� Currently, most of the fonds use a basic inventory system that enables the identification of individual files, although the file title does not always indicate its actual content� Fortunately, almost all the fonds that provided the archival materi- als covered by this text have been inventoried14� As a consequence, the archival materials and research works concerning this period of Silesian history are now available to any interested parties� So far the archival materials concerning the Great War stored in the State Ar- chive in Opole have received little interest from users and researchers� Available publications indicate that they are confined to political, national and military is- sues� Many monographs and other similar publications have been devoted to the 12 pIbid�, p � 25–26; cf� Gehrke, Roland: op� cit�, pp� 202–203� 13 State Archive in Opole (Archiwum Państwowe w Opolu subsequently referred to as APO), Rejencja Opolska (Regierung Oppeln subsequently referred to as RO) – Wstęp do inwentarza, pp� 8–9� 14 The personal files of the fondsRejencja Opolska (Opole District) are an exception as they have not yet been subjected to a full inventory of the archival units� The inventory works within this area are in progress� We will be able to familiarize ourselves with their final results after completion of all the works� Elbieta Katarzyna Dzikowska, Agata G. Handley and Piotr Zawilski - 9783631806777 Downloaded from PubFactory at 09/23/2021 07:05:35PM via free access 96 Anna Caban subject of the three consecutive Silesian Uprisings15 and the Silesian plebiscite16� In these publications, the Great War functions only as a prelude to later events which are depicted in Polish historiography as the most important stages in the struggle for national independence, and in German hagiography, as a rebellion against the homeland which was losing its blood in the war� In his book, Ryszard Kaczmarek presents an interesting fragment of everyday life observed from the perspective of a trench17� The author painstakingly studies the lives of Polish citi- zens from Upper Silesia� The life and living conditions of an “everyman” from the area, which during the Great War served only as a background to the main events, have not aroused great interest in researchers until now� The only attempt to study the subject of the everyday life of the population of Upper Silesia of that time and to determine directions for further investigation took place at a confer- ence held in Gleiwitz on the eve of the centenary of the Great War18� The materials published after the conference will be a good indication of how much remains to be done in this area� The subject matter of the preserved archival materials Archival documents are usually silent witnesses of history� During an analysis of the preserved archival materials from the Great War period, it is easy to see that 15 The