| Conventional Long Name: | Province of Lower Silesia |
| Common Name: | Lower Silesia |
| Subdivision: | Province |
| Nation: | Prussia |
| Life Span: | 1919 - 1938 1941 - 1945 |
| P1: | Province of Silesia |
| Flag P1: | Flagge Preußen - Provinz Schlesien.svg |
| S1: | State of Brandenburg (1945–1952)State of Brandenburg |
| Flag S1: | Flag of Brandenburg (1945-1952).svg |
| S2: | SaxonyState of Saxony |
| Flag S2: | Flag of Saxony.svg |
| S3: | District of Lower Silesia |
| Flag S3: | Flag of Poland (1927–1980).svg |
| Image Map Caption: | Province of Lower Silesia (red) within the Free State of Prussia. |
| Image Map2: | RBNSlez1922.png |
| Capital: | Breslau (Wrocław) |
| Year Start: | 1919 |
| Date Event1: | 1938 - 1941 |
| Year End: | 1945 |
| Stat Year1: | 1925 |
| Stat Area1: | 26616 |
| Stat Pop1: | 3,132,135 |
| Today: | Germany Poland |
The Province of Lower Silesia (German: Provinz Niederschlesien; Silesian German: Provinz Niederschläsing; Polish: Prowincja Dolny Śląsk; Prowincyjŏ Dolny Ślōnsk) was a province of the Free State of Prussia from 1919 to 1945. Between 1938 and 1941 it was reunited with Upper Silesia as the Province of Silesia. The capital of Lower Silesia was Breslau (now Wrocław in Poland). The province was further divided into two administrative regions (Regierungsbezirke), Breslau and Liegnitz.[1]
The province was not congruent with the historical region of Lower Silesia, which now lies mainly in Poland. It additionally comprised the Upper Lusatian districts of Görlitz, Rothenburg and Hoyerswerda in the west, that until 1815 had belonged to the Kingdom of Saxony, as well as the former County of Kladsko in the southeast.
The province was disestablished at the end of World War II and with the implementation of the Oder–Neisse line in 1945, the area east of the Neisse river fell to the Republic of Poland. The smaller western part was incorporated into the German states of Saxony and Brandenburg.
During the Polish post-war census of December 1950, data about the pre-war places of residence of the inhabitants as of August 1939 was collected. In case of children born between September 1939 and December 1950, their origin was reported based on the pre-war places of residence of their mothers. Thanks to this data it is possible to reconstruct the pre-war geographical origin of the post-war population. The same area corresponding to pre-1938 Province of Lower Silesia east of the Oder-Neisse line (which became Polish in 1945) was inhabited in December 1950 by:
| Autochthons (1939 DE/FCD citizens) | 120,885 | 6,1% | |
| Polish expellees from Kresy (USSR) | 696,739 | 35,3% | |
| Poles from abroad except the USSR | 91,395 | 4,6% | |
| Resettlers from the City of Warsaw | 61,862 | 3,1% | |
| From Warsaw region (Masovia) | 69,120 | 3,5% | |
| From Białystok region and Sudovia | 23,515 | 1,2% | |
| From pre-war Polish Pomerania | 54,564 | 2,8% | |
| Resettlers from Poznań region | 172,163 | 8,7% | |
| Katowice region (East Upper Silesia) | 66,362 | 3,4% | |
| Resettlers from the City of Łódź | 16,483 | 0,8% | |
| Resettlers from Łódź region | 96,185 | 4,9% | |
| Resettlers from Kielce region | 141,748 | 7,2% | |
| Resettlers from Lublin region | 70,622 | 3,6% | |
| Resettlers from Kraków region | 156,920 | 7,9% | |
| Resettlers from Rzeszów region | 110,188 | 5,6% | |
| place of residence in 1939 unknown | 26,586 | 1,3% | |
| Total pop. in December 1950 | 1,975,337 | 100,0% |
|---|