Multicultural Wrocław 1871–1939
An analysis of the problem of multiculturalism and the myth of multiculturalism of Wrocław used by the city authorities to pursue specific objectives. Wrocław is said to have a multicultural past, as, like many other European cities, it has long been an attractive place to live for an ethnically, linguistically and culturally diverse population. What is controversial, however, is the focus of the local authorities in their historical policy on the Prussian and inter-war period in the history of Wrocław. Paradoxically, it was precisely in this period that the cultural unification of Wrocław’s urban population was at its strongest. Wrocław was culturally fairly uniform; minority groups were either too small and economically and culturally too weak, or differed from the Germans primarily in terms of their religion. Eastern Jews did not have full citizen rights in Germany. The reference to the multicultural Wrocław of 1871–1939 in local historical policy is not very well justified in the light of the historical data and literature on the subject commenting on the functioning of ethnic minorities in German Wrocław. It would be more correct to point out the city’s cultural diversity in its marketing strategies at most, but marketing values of such a message would be much lower.