Kolberg wrote in his list of travels that in 1842 he visited Wrocław on his way to Lądek Zdrój, where he went with his mother. It is possible that he collected some material during this trip. Some of the materials from the region of Silesia come from the vicinity of Wrocław.

In the material from this region Kolberg focused on the problem of the Polish language. According to his manuscripts, “Some 40 or even 30 years ago (i.e. at the beginning of the 19th century) it was possible to communicate in Wrocław in the Polish language, without knowing any German. The reason for that was the fact that all servants, especially the female ones came from Upper Silesia, especially from the region of Opole. In addition, every shop had a person who spoke Polish to communicate with Polish travellers. Half a mile from Wrocław in the direction of Upper Silesia, by the rivers Odra and Ołtawa, starts the land of Polish villages. Some of them are Ścinawa (Steinau), Wielkie and Małe Nadłowice (Gross u. Klein Naedlitz) etc. Three miles from Wrocław there is a Polish congregation which includes a dozen Polish villages, such as Laskowice and Jalec”.

In Wrocław on Szczytnicka street 11, there is the Office of the Executive Board of the Polish Ethnological Society. In 1962 the society established the Editorial Office of CWOK with the registered office in Poznań. The office’s task was to publish the work of Oskar Kolberg to commemorate the 1000th Anniversary of the State of Poland. The editor-in-chief at that time was the professor Józef Burszta. In 1997, the institution was renamed the Oskar Kolberg Institute. It has continued the work of the Editorial Office up to now.