A document in the Silesian Museum in Görlitz testifies to the acquisition of the village of Gleinitz by the brothers Nikolaus, Georg and Ladislaus von Niebelschütz in 1446. It was only by chance that the descendent of the Niebelschütz family, Harald von Niebelschütz, then 15 years old, saved the document in 1945 and donated it to the museum in 2017.
On January 24, 1945, a freezing cold winter day, 15-year-old Harald von Niebelschütz undertook a reconnaissance ride in the vicinity of his hometown 
Glinica
deu. Gleinitz

Gleinitz is a village inhabited by 140 people in Lower Silesia, a voivodeship in southwestern Poland. The distance from the village to Wroclaw is about 30 km.

Glinica at Google Maps
 to find out how far the Red Army had advanced. He discovered that the Soviets were already on the north bank of the Oder, less than 10 km from Gleinitz, and were preparing to cross the river by means of a floating pontoon bridge. He returned home as fast as he could. He arrived to find that everybody had already hurriedly packed, loaded a large farm wagon and stretched canvas over it, while Harald's mother Irmingard von Niebelschütz, together with some neighbors, took a seat in a closed carriage drawn by four Arabian mares. Thus, befitting their status – although not really well equipped for the situation – the von Niebelschütz family began their escape from Gleinitz, almost 500 years after their ancestors had arrived.
Gleinitz Castle 2014. The late Renaissance moated castle, rebuilt in the 19th century, remained undestroyed in the war and was inhabited until the 1980s. Since then, it has fallen into disrepair. Arne Franke, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Gleinitz Castle 2014. The late Renaissance moated castle, rebuilt in the 19th century, remained undestroyed in the war and was inhabited until the 1980s. Since then, it has fallen into disrepair. Arne Franke, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Coat of arms of the von Niebelschütz family on the church of Jakobskirch (Jakubów), 8 km south of Gleinitz. The Niebelschütz owned the patronage of this church and had their family crypt here. Schlesisches Museum zu Görlitz, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Coat of arms of the von Niebelschütz family on the church of Jakobskirch (Jakubów), 8 km south of Gleinitz. The Niebelschütz owned the patronage of this church and had their family crypt here. Schlesisches Museum zu Görlitz, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Harald von Niebelschütz (left) with Stanisław Czerwinski, the pastor of St. James Church, (right) and Hendryk Karas, the president of St. James Brotherhood during a visit to Jakobskirch in 2010. Schlesisches Museum zu Görlitz, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Harald von Niebelschütz (left) with Stanisław Czerwinski, the pastor of St. James Church, (right) and Hendryk Karas, the president of St. James Brotherhood during a visit to Jakobskirch in 2010. Schlesisches Museum zu Görlitz, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
For on Friday of Sunday Judica (April 1) 1446, at the seat of his dominion 
Głogów
deu. Glogau, deu. Groß-Glogau

Glogów (Polish Głogów) is a city in western Poland. It is situated in the Lower Silesia Voivodeship (Polish dolnośląskie) and is inhabited by just under 67,000 people. Glogau is situated about 100 km north of the capital of Lower Silesia, Wrocław/Breslau.

Głogów in the Online Encyclopedia of the Culture and History of the Germans in Eastern Europe (German)
Głogów at Google Maps
 Duke Wladislaus of 
Cieszyn Silesia
ces. Těšínské Slezsko, ces. Těšínsko, pol. Śląsk Cieszyński, deu. Teschener Gebiet, deu. Teschener Land, deu. Teschener Raum, deu. Teschener Schlesien, deu. Olsa-Gebiet

The Teschen Silesia is a historical landscape in the northeast of the Czech Republic. The landscape lies on the border between the southern Polish Silesian Voivodeship and the northeastern Czech region of Moravskoslezský kraj.

Teschener Schlesien in the Online Encyclopedia of the Culture and History of the Germans in Eastern Europe (German)
 approved the sale of the village of Gleinitz to the brothers Nikolaus, Georg and Ladislaus von Niebelschütz and had a document confirming the sale issued. The red wax seal of the duke has also survived, albeit broken and fitted into a modern case. In the course of the high medieval settlement in the East, the noble family of Niebelschütz had spread over 
Silesia
deu. Schlesien, ces. Slezsko, pol. Śląsk

Silesia (Polish: Śląsk, Czech: Slezsko) is a historical landscape, which today is mainly located in the extreme southwest of Poland, but in parts also on the territory of Germany and the Czech Republic. By far the most significant river is the Oder. To the south, Silesia is bordered mainly by the Sudeten and Beskid mountain ranges. Today, almost 8 million people live in Silesia. The largest cities in the region are Wrocław, Opole and Katowice. Before 1945, most of the region was part of Prussia for two hundred years, and before the Silesian Wars (from 1740) it was part of the Habsburg Empire for almost as many years. Silesia is classified into Upper and Lower Silesia.

Schlesien in the Online Encyclopedia of the Culture and History of the Germans in Eastern Europe (German)
Schlesien at Google Maps
, starting from its ancestral seat of the same name near Kamenz in
Upper Lusatia
deu. Oberlausitz, ces. Horní Lužice, . Górna Łužyca, pol. Łużyce Górne, . Hornja Łužica

Upper Lusatia, formerly a margraviate taking its name from neighboring Lower Lusatia, is now a cross-border historical landscape. While most of it belongs to the state of Saxony and a very small part to Brandenburg, about one third, namely the area between the Lusatian Neisse and the Queis (Kwisa in Polish), is Polish. Important cities on the German side are, for example, Bautzen, Zittau and Görlitz, and on the Polish side Zgorzelec, Lubań (Lauban) and Bogatynia (Reichenau).

Oberlausitz in the Online Encyclopedia of the Culture and History of the Germans in Eastern Europe (German)
Oberlausitz at Google Maps
. From 1289, the Lords of Niebelschütz can be traced in the retinue of the Dukes of Glogau and they owned numerous estates in this duchy. Among them was Gleinitz, located 11 km southwest of Glogau.
The deed was almost left in the castle during the hasty departure in 1945. But Mrs. von Niebelschütz sent her son back for a box of silverware that had been left behind. Next to the box lay the deed, which he slipped into his jacket. Decades later, he still remembers the farewell to Gleinitz in vivid detail: "Sitting up again outside on the castle bridge, my gaze fell on the saying carved in stone above the courtyard door, which had been inscribed towards the end of the Thirty Years' War: 'NOBODY SHOULD BOAST / THAT HIS GOOD FORTUNE RESTS ON FLOWERS / A FROST WILL COME OVERNIGHT / THAT DESTROYS THE FLOWERS'. ... For an uninterrupted period of 499 years the Niebelschütz family had had its seat in Gleinitz. Now it was time to say goodbye." In 2017, Harald von Niebelschütz-Gleinitz donated the document detailing the acquisition of Gleinitz by his ancestors to the Silesian Museum.
English translation: William Connor
Markus Bauer
Go to author biography
Citation
Zitierempfehlung
License
Geographical context
People and organizations
Key words
Historical events
Time periods
Subject areas

Siehe auch
Introduction

Jews in Twentieth Century Eastern Europe

A History Told in Six Female Jewish Voices
The twentieth century brought monumental changes and unprecedented challenges to the East-European Jewry. Its story is told here in the voices of six Jewish women, whose lives were marked by its turbulent course.
Magdalena Waligórska
Biography

Expulsion from Wünschelburg in Silesia to Bredelar in Sauerland

A diary transcript documents the stations on the journey of Eva S.
Johanna Stevanin
Biography

On foot and by train from Silesia to West Germany

In a report, 24-year-old Hilda J.-S. describes her resettlement from Rohnstock (Silesia) to Rosellen on the Lower Rhine area in the summer of 1946.
Johanna Stevanin
Biography

Two German-Baltic noblemen and a Polish coachman fleeing from Wartheland to Hesse, early 1945

A typewritten report from the refugee journey, several letters and a general map give an insight into how the noblewomen Irmela von Manteuffel, Adline von Campenhausen and their coachman Johann Borowczyk fled westward from the Soviet Army in early 1945.
Christian Lotz