Find Old Schlesien Photos at Wratislaviae Amici Portal.
The Wratislaviae Amici portal features nearly one million photographs, maps, headstones, advertisements, and articles about Breslau (now Wrocław) and Schlesien (Lower Silesia). More than 28,000 users are registered at the site. If you have Prussian ancestors from this region that now is Poland, this site provides interesting and valuable images.
The Stowarzyszenie Wratislaviae Amici (Wratislaviae Amici Association) operates the Wratislaviae Amici portal, sharing photographs, graphics, and text about the city and the region. So as the project grew, members of the Association consulted with Wrocław historians and architects. Their interviews were then published at Wratislaviae Amici portal.
Searching the Breslau and Lower Schlesien Photo Archives
Search Tip #1:
Use your ancestors’ geographic locations/place names to retrieve images of the places they lived. This is not a site indexed by surnames, unless the name appears in the photograph, such as headstones or advertisements.
Search Tip #2:
Search both the Polish and Prussian places names for your ancestors’ towns. If your search results say “Objekt nicht gefunden” (object not found) look for alternative names for the location your seeking.
Use Kartenmeister.com, the database compiled by Uwe-Karsten Krickhahn, to determine the geographic name used today in Poland. If you’re unsure if your place name is Polish or German, Uwe’s site can also sort you out.
Search Tip #3:
Use Google Translate, either as a browser extension or on the web. (The abbreviation ul. stands for ulica or street.) Search results for specific geographic locations are returned using a gallery layout. When you click the ones of interest, a full screen image opens, complete with metadata and related images. Save and then open the image and cut and paste the information in Polish located below the image into metadata.
Search Tip #4:
Register. It’s free. You can then upload images yourself, comment on others, or contribute to the forum. The Wratislaviae Amici portal is actively moderated, insuring that submitted files and comments meet their criteria for relevance, content, image size, etc.
Sample Images from the Breslau and Lower Schlesien Photo Archives
The featured image above is of Oppeln’s main square, circa 1895. Here are some other examples of images from Wratislaviae Amici portal:
Namslau, Schlesien, Prussia. As seen above, the portal also includes GPS mapping links.
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