Wrocławscy posłowie do śląskiego sejmu prowincjonalnego (1824–1921) — ewolucja?
Wrocław deputies to the Silesian provincial assembly (1824–1921) — an evolution?

Summary/Abstract: The paper focuses on the personal profile, professional background, and length of tenure of deputies to the provincial assembly in Silesia representing the province’s capital almost throughout the entire period of the assembly’s functioning, i.e. from its establishment in 1824 until the end of the term of the last Landtag of Imperial Germany. The observations and inquiries contained in the paper make it possible to present the life stories of the deputies to the provincial Landtag in Silesia. The background of these life stories was provided by significant transformations of the political system in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. The fate of the Landtag was part of the general history of Germany, especially Prussia and as a result the systemic transformation of the analysed institution stemmed straight from these events; these were not rapid changes, but a process unfolding across over one hundred years. The subject matter and chronological framework of the paper have not been chosen accidentally. So far authors of the literature on the subject have been interested mainly in the administrative apparatus of the executive power in Prussia in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; the system of self-government and its legislative bodies, that is provincial assemblies, has not attracted much interest of scholars. Only partial studies have been published, examining selected aspects of the history of parliamentarism in Prussian provinces in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. That is why the author has chosen to follow the functioning of the personal profile, shaped in the 1810s, as well as major manifestations of the activity of Wrocław deputies to the provincial assembly in Silesia. Yet no evolution of deputies, mentioned in the title, has been demonstrated. In the three periods of the Landtag’s existence they were municipal officials and representatives of the economic elite.

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