Ropa naftowa w Galicji – złoto i błoto?

This article gives a comparison of Polish, Ukrainian and German written oil-texts, that is fictional and non-fictional literary texts depicting the oil findings in Galicia in the late 19th century. It shows the key notions connected with oil as a source of wealth or poverty. National antagonisms between Jews and Ukrainians or Poles dominate the oil-texts by Ivan Franko and Artur Gruszecki, personal success or failure is pointed out by the Jewish author Hermann Blumenthal and the Polish writer Ignacy Maciejewski. For Stanisław Szczepanowski, himself an oil entrepreneur, this natural resource ensures progress and wealth of the whole society, whereas for Saul Raphael Landau, a Jewish activist, oil as a tool of modern capitalism enslaves Jewish proletarians.