As a Prussian province, Silesia became part of the German Empire during the unification of Germany in 1871. There was considerable industrialization in Upper Silesia, and many people migrated there. The overwhelming majority of the population of Lower Silesia was German-speaking and most were Lutheran, including the capital of Breslau. Areas such as the District of Oppeln (then Regierungsbezirk Oppeln) and rural parts of Upper Silesia, featured a larger minority or even majority were Slavic-speaking Poles and Roman Catholics. In Silesia as a whole, ethnic Poles comprised about 23% of the population, most of whom lived around Kattowitz (Katowice) in the southeast of Upper Silesia. In whole Upper Silesia Poles comprised 61,1% of the population in 1829, but due to state policy of forced germanization their numbers decreased to 58,6% of population 1849. The Kulturkampf set Catholics in opposition to the government and sparked a Polish revival, much of it fostered by Poles from outside of Germany, in the Upper Silesian parts of the province. The first conference of Hovevei Zion groups took place in Kattowitz (Katowice), German Empire in 1884.