Schlesierland. Testimony

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Synopsis
Schlesierland. Testimony is a book that takes on Silesia as the territory of home. Vast and separate. Physical, historical, civilizational, cultural, spiritual territory. Today we lack a pocket map – one that would be with us every day – to get to the size and quality of home. We lack the experience of the whole, to which only fragments of descriptions lead, scattered records of experiences, sounds of memories, less and less distinct traces of achievements, blurred images, and concepts, clumsily scattered photographs and postcards carrying places that are moving away from us, erasing home from our imagination. There remain collected fragments of observation spread over the observer's life, containing references to the lives of ancestors, there remains weakened intergenerational memory. Despite this fragmentation, the quality and individuality of Silesia are strangely evoked. This book grows out of the desire to return seriousness and presence to the heritage and spiritual model of Schlesierland. It does not fit into a coarse educational story, it does not harmoniously blend with the narrative of politicians and constructors of administrative and economic reality. We propose a separate, documented story about Schlesierland in three versions. First, we will look at Schlesierland as a testimony and spiritual testament. Then, we will delve into Schlesierland through Walter's life, extracting a specific theocentric treatise introducing Silesian connections between Nature, Ζωη(zōē), peace. Finally, we will focus on Schlesierland in the version of Robert's life, leading to the Silesian treatise on brotherhood in arms and the house, in which the idea of Kameradschaft, war, and longing resonate. The whole will be anchored in rich source material, including maps, documents, genealogies, photographs, notes, and chronicles, to precisely and in detail fill the spiritual home of Schlesierland.