Silesian Industry Fueled Wars and the Enlightenment, and Then Poisoned Its Own Crops and... Children. the History of the Szopienice Steelworks Is a Painful Reminder of the Hidden Price of Development.

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Prussian rearmament and Bismarck's wars of the second half of the 19th century fueled lead production in the Szopienice area. A century later, the same technological processes led to the mass poisoning of children and an ecological catastrophe. The history of the Szopienice Steelworks is a tale of an almost Faustian flaw embedded in the very foundations of the modern economy.