Sakralizacja dyskursu politycznego w okresie polsko-niemieckiej rywalizacji o Górny Śląsk po I wojnie światowej (1918–1922)
Sacralisation of political discourse during the Polish–German struggle for Upper Silesia after World War I (1918–1922)

Summary/Abstract: The Polish–German political and armed struggle for Upper Silesia in the years 1918–1922 took place in the complicated cultural space of this region. One of the aspects of this space was religion, hence the parties to the conflict often resorted to arguments related to the past and future of the faith in Upper Silesia. They also included political narration in the form of symbols, ideas, concepts, and cultural patterns derived from religious tradition. The diversity of religious references appearing in political discourse was enormous. Among the motifs employed were: the continual invocation of God as the master of the world’s fate, images of Our Lady, both of Częstochowa and Piekary, figures of saints, a form of prayer or 10 commandments that served to convey political and social information, biblical symbols, or attempts to portray the Silesian uprisings and plebiscite as a moral or sacred problem (“holy uprising”, “holy plebiscite”). All of them testify to the vitality of religious ideas in Upper Silesian society of the day. Religious references performed a myriad of social functions – they connected, mobilized, persuaded, and explained reality. The intensity of the Upper Silesian conflict and its radicalisation, which went as far as the use of violence; unfortunately, that led to the sacralisation of political discourse often remaining merely a persuasive phenomenon.

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