Zmiany nazw miejscowych na Śląsku Opolskim po 1945 r.
Changes of place names in Opolian Silesia after 1945

Summary/Abstract: After the end of the war in the Western and Northern Territories, there was a lack of many rules relating to individual important expressions of life, among others, naming conventions, which demanded total harmonisation. There was a need to rename towns, villages, settlements, farms, mountains, lakes and rivers, all of which functioned under official German names. The article presents and evaluates the process of determining place names in Opolian Silesia after 1945. The study is divided into several parts and discusses, among others, the following issues: the origin and history of the Commission for Determining Place Names, convened in January 1946 by the Ministry of Public Administration; the contribution of the Commission of the Silesian Institute in Katowice, which played a key role in the Recolonization of Silesian nomenclature, as Silesia had a rich archive of historical documents at its disposal; the Recolonization of place names in Opolian Silesia rooted in the reconstruction of former Polish names based on historical records; the Polonization of the names of places which before 1945, had German names from their beginnings; temporary names (pre-commission stage) given spontaneously by local and migrant people; changes in naming after 1989 effected at the behest of rural residents. To this end, the Commission for Determining Place Names adopted a policy to govern the process of submitting requests through local authorities.

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