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Medieval Socialist Artefacts: Architecture and Discourses of National Identity in Provincial Poland, 1945–1960
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
Extract
Many things allow us to recognize that the Poles have a greater and fuller affinity with the Poznań Land than the Germans, even today. It is interesting, for example, with what confidence Polish architects, in contrast to their German counterparts, incorporate historical and regional characteristics in their designs.
Moritz Jaffé
The Archive of the Town Curator of Monuments in the Polish city Poznań contains material about streets, monuments, Old Town Square, the cathedral, and other valuable constructions there. A folder labeled Nowy Ratusz (New Town Hall) attracted my attention, because I knew nothing about such a building. The folder contained photographs of a large neo-Gothic building. It looked like a typical Prussian public building, similar to hundreds of other postal, school, and government offices throughout the Prussian/German state. But what of this building? Had it been another casualty of the Second World War? The postwar images showed, that although seriously damaged, the building still stood in the ruins of the Old Town Square.
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1. Jaffé, Moritz, Die Stadt Posen unter preuβischer Herrschaft. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des deutschen Ostens (Leipzig: Duncler & Humblot 1909), p. 409.Google Scholar
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3. A good work about this revolt is Antoni Czubiński, ed., Powstanie Wielkopolskie 1918–1919. Zarys dziejów (Warsaw: PWN, 1988).Google Scholar
4. There is much important literature on Prussian Poland and the resistance of its (Polish nationalist) inhabitants to the Prussian boot. The (German) nationalist movements in Poznań are well studied too. The formation of national consciousness—or the defense of an alleged pre-existing one—the loyalty of Poznań Poles to the King/Kaiser, and the many labile, neutral identities have received little attention. As examples of exceptional treatments of theses themes see: Rudolf Jaworski, Handel und Gewerbe im Nationalitätenkampf: Studien zur Wirtschaftsgesinnung der Polen in der Provinz Posen (1871–1914) (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1986); and Niendorf, Mathias, Minderheiten an der Grenze. Deutsche und Polen in den Kreisen Flatow (Złotów) und Zempelburg (Șpolno Krajeńskie) 1900–1939 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1997).Google Scholar
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25. The church was a nationalistic force by itself but it is interesting to see how a communist government promoted the publication of Polish-language prayer books, as a means to inculcate Polishness. See AAN, Ministerswo Administracji Publicznej 774, p. 103.Google Scholar
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27. There are many works on the reconstruction but most are out of date. No good new analysis of the whole process exists. Jan Górski's book on Warsaw (Warszawa w latach 1944–49. Odbudowa [Warsaw: PWN, 1988]) is a well-documented work about the most important example of reconstruction. The best understanding of the phenomenon is Konstanty Kalinowski, “Der Wiederaufbau der Altstädte in Polen in den Jahren 1945–1960,” Österreichische Zeitschrift für Kunst und Denkmalpflege, Vol. 23, 1978, pp. 81–93. See also David Crowley, “People's Warszawa/Popular Warszawa,” Journal of Design History, Vol. 10, No. 2, 1997, pp. 203–223. (I am in debt to Mr Crowley for sending me his valuable piece.) A recent contribution in English is Kenney, Padraic, Rebuilding Poland: Workers and Communists, 1945–1950 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1997).Google Scholar
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32. An important contribution to the literature is Madajczyk, Czesław, Die Okkupationspolitik Nazideutschlands in Polen, 1939–1945 (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1987).Google Scholar
33. For example, Zieliński, Zbigniew, an engineer working in 1945 at Poznań's municipal government, who had also worked there during the occupation, described this work as zniemczenia (germanization) and spoke of pseudo-giant works and of the beginning of the restoration of the Old Town with disastrous consequences. See Archiwum Państwowe miasta Poznania [hereafter APP], Zarza̦d Miejski m. Poznania, Wydział Budownictwa, t. 85, p. 2: Uwagi do planu zabudowania m. Poznania. Speer's monumental neoclassical style remained dominant in Nazi plans for Poznań, but also in the Old Town there were traces of German folk architecture (the so-called Heimat style).Google Scholar
34. Cited by Hartenstein, Michael A., Neue Dorflandschaften. Nationalsozialistische Siedlungsplanung in den “eingegliederten Ostgebieten” 1939–1944 (Berlin: Verlag Dr. Köster, 1998), pp. 445–446.Google Scholar
35. Hitler has been quoted as saying that a people lives so long as the products of their culture live. See Zachwatowicz, Jan, Przeszłość w służbie nowego życia, Skarpa Warszawska, No. 2, 1945, p. 7.Google Scholar
36. In the middle of the year 1944, Wolna Polska, the newspaper of the Union of Polish Patriots (a Polish exiles' organization in the U. S.S. R.), began dealing with the problem of reconstruction in a context where “Poland can not be as it was in the past if we are not to repeat the experience of 1939 again.” See, for example, Wolna Polska, No. 17, 1944, p. 2.Google Scholar
37. “Socialist reconstruction” was the key phrase of the epic Soviet industrialization in the 1930s.Google Scholar
38. See, for example, Zachwatowicz, , Przeszłość.Google Scholar
39. See Rymaszewski, Bohdan, O przetrwanie dawnych miast (Warsaw: Arkady, 1984), pp. 92–93; and Marta Leśniakowska, Polska historia sztuki i nacjonalizm, in Dariusz Konstantinow, Robert Pasieczni and Piotr Paszkiewicz, eds, Nacjonalizm w sztuce i historii sztuki 1789–1950 (Warsaw: IS PAN, 1998), pp. 33–59, here pp. 58–59. In addition to the political or architectonic discussion there was also the perception of the unnecessary economic expense in a collapsed country.Google Scholar
40. Piwocki, historian of architecture, responded to his critics in “Uwagi o odbudowie zabytków,” Biuletyn Historii Sztuki i Kultury, Nos 1–2, 1946, pp. 53–59. Wyka was a famous literary and art critic. See his polemic “Miecz Syreny,” Odrodzenie, No. 22, 1945, p. 8.Google Scholar
41. A recent exhibition catalogue includes interesting biographic and pictorial material on Zachwatowicz. The new official version of history, however, attempts to turn him into a sort of resister of communism, which he was not, and of Warsaw's reconstruction, an epic odyssey of national renaissance opposing the “perverse communists” who really wanted to eliminate Old Warsaw. See Zachwatowicz, Jan. W stulecie urodzin (Warsaw: Zamek Królewski w Warszawie, 2000). See also “Walka o pomniki kultury,” AAN Ministerstwo Informacji i Propagandy, t. 697, pp. 14–20.Google Scholar
42. AAN, Ministerstwo Informacji i Propagandy, t. 697, p. 16. The article deals with Warsaw's reconstruction but it can be understood in a more general sense.Google Scholar
43. Art historian Michał Walicki polemised about this with both Kazimierz Wyka and Edward Osmańczyk, a journalist and, before the war, a nationalist activist. See Skarpa Warszawska, No. 1, 1945, pp. 5–6; and Odrodzenie, No. 23, 1945, p. 7.Google Scholar
44. AAN, Ministerstwo Informacji i Propagandy, t. 697, p. 18.Google Scholar
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49. Majewicz, Jerzy and Markiewicz, Tomasz, Warszawa nie odbudowana (Warsaw: Wydawnictwo DiG, 1998), a book with abundant photographic documentation. This work, however, lacks real understanding of the architectonic decisions and priorities of the early postwar moment.Google Scholar
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56. There were five special reconstruction organizations (in Gdańsk, Poznań, Wrocław, Warsaw, and Szczecin) as well as the first special organization, the famous B. O.S. (Biuro Odbudowy Stolicy). See APP, Poznańska Dyrekcja Odbudowy, t. la (hereafter PDO). This folder contains a really good report written in 1947 by Witold Maisel—an official in the P. D.O.—about the organization of the whole process of reconstruction.Google Scholar
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66. The verticality of Germanness is again a reference to the churches of the German post-unification style and of historicist (neo-Gothic) constructions. Gothic was considered the “most German” of all styles. See Francastel's known critical work (published in 1945!), “The History of Art, Instrument of German Propaganda,” which was published in 1970 with a new title “Frontiers of Gothic.” Francastel, Pierre, l'histoire de l'art, instrument de la propagande germanique (Paris: Libr. de Médicis, 1945).Google Scholar
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71. APP, Zarza̦d Miejski m. Poznania, Wydział Budownictwa, t. 42, pp. 47–52.Google Scholar
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77. Karczewska-Markiewicz, Zofia, “Miasto leczone sercem ludu,” Skarpa Warszawska, No. 8, 1945, pp. 1–2, here p. 2. The Ratusz acquired its principal aspect after a fire in 1536. The Italian Giovanni Baptista Quadro rebuilt it between 1550 and 1560 as a beautiful example of the Polish Renaissance. See Henryk Kondziela and I. Jasiecka, Przegla̦d zabytków miasta Poznania (Poznań, 1965), pp. 19–20; and Teresa Jakimowicz, Jan Baptysta Quadro z Lugano—Architek (Poznań, 1998).Google Scholar
78. This was the title for a planned exhibition in Poznań, which was to present the eternal enmity between the two peoples (the title comes from a book by Zygmunt Wojciechowski, a pre-war nationalist and the Western Institute's first director). The exhibition never took place but it is considered a precedent to the later, famous Exhibition of the Recovered Lands in Breslau. See Jakub Tyszkiewicz, Sto wielkich dni Wrocławia. Wystawa Ziem Odzyskanych we Wrocławiu a propaganda polityczna Ziem Zachodnich i Północnych w latach 1945–1948 (Wroclaw: Arboretum, 1997) pp. 71–11; and on Wojciechowski, see Marian Mroczko, Zygmunt Wojciechowski jako historyk polskich ziem zachodnich oraz stosunków polsko-niemieckich, Przegla̦d Zachodni, No. 1, 1985, pp. 98–113.Google Scholar
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93. The same Sławski designed what could be called Prussian-style buildings. See Irma Kozina, Styl około 1800. Styl narodowy czy nowa rzeczywistość w architekturze Górnego Śla̦ska? in Konstantinow, Dariusz, Pasieczni, Robert and Paszkiewicz, Piotr, eds, Nacjonalizm, pp. 171–183, here p. 180.Google Scholar
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95. Report about the Old Town from 1946. “Stare Miasto Poznania. APP, Zarza̦d Miejski m. Poznania, Wydział Budownictwa, t. 86, pp. 20–23, here p. 23.Google Scholar
96. On the Piasts and their mythology, see Jerzy Strelczyk, Die Piasten. Tradition und Mythos in Polen, von Saldern, Adelheid, ed., Mythen in Geschichte und Geschichtsschreibung aus polnischer und deutscher Sicht (Münster: Lit, 1996), pp. 113–131.Google Scholar
97. The alleged sarcophagus of the first Piasts, Mieszko I and Bolesław Chrobry, are preserved in the Golden Chapel of the cathedral. The construction of this monument was an early sign of Poznań's Polish nationalists. See Sven Ekdahl, Denkmal und Geschichts-ideologie im polnisch–preußischen Spannungsfeld, Historische Kommision zu Berlin, ed., Zum Verständnis der polnischen Frage in Preuβen und Deutschland 1772– 1871 (Berlin: Colloquium, 1987), pp. 127–218.Google Scholar
98. See the article signed W. M.—possibly Witold Maisel, P. D.O.'s chief—Odbudowa katedry Poznańskiej, APP, PDO, t. 16, pp. 17–19.Google Scholar
99. Ros, Jerzy, Poznańskie refleksje, Życie Warszawy, 8 April 1948, p. 3.Google Scholar
100. On the cathedral, see Nowacki, Józef, Kościół katedralny w Poznaniu. Studium historyczne (Poznań: Ksi̦garnia Św. Wojciecha, 1959); and Staniszlawski, Jan, ed., Piastowska Katedra w Poznaniu (Poznań: Ksi̦garnia Św. Wojciecha, 1990).Google Scholar
101. Założenia ogólne dla odbudowy Starego Rynku w Poznaniu, APP, Miastoprojekt, t. 317a.Google Scholar
102. APP, Miastoprojekt, t. 317a.Google Scholar
103. See Kondziela, , Stare Miasto, p. 68.Google Scholar
104. APP, Zarza̦d Miejski m. Poznania, Wydział Budownictwa, t. 92, pp. 1–19.Google Scholar
105. Ibid., p. 14.Google Scholar
106. Ibid., p. 13.Google Scholar
107. APP, PDO, t. 16, p. 1–4, here p. 4.Google Scholar
108. APP, Zarza̦d Miejski m. Poznania, Wydzial Budownictwa, t. 113, pp. 1–2.Google Scholar
109. See Kondziela, and Jasiecka, , Przegla̦d zabytków, p. 20.Google Scholar
110. Important documents of the Town Curator and of the Pracownia Konserwacji Zabytków (Workshop of Conservation of Monuments) are allegedly not completely catalogued or at least not available.Google Scholar
111. The scheme approved by the expert commission in November 1945 did contain a Town Scale's plan; APP, Zarza̦d Miejski m. Poznania, Wydział Budownictwa, t. 85. See also a 1946 report about the Old Town; APP, Zarza̦d Miejski m. Poznania, Wydział Budownictwa, t. 86, pp. 20–23. However, Witold Maisel affirms that this idea of rebuilding the Town Scale was victorious only in 1956. See Witold Maisel, Ewolucja planów, p. 16.Google Scholar
112. See the folder on Waga Miejska in the Archiwum Konserwatora Zabytków miasta Poznania.Google Scholar
113. See, for example, Głos Wielkopolski, 23 October 1948, p. 3.Google Scholar
114. Poznań. Przewodnik, p. 81.Google Scholar
115. See APP, Zarza̦d Miejski m. Poznania, Wydział Budownictwa, t. 113, pp. 1–2. Drawings and blueprints in APP, Zarza̦d Miejski m. Poznania, Wydział Budownictwa, t. 114, pp. 8–10.Google Scholar
116. APP, Prezydium Miejskiej Rady Narodowej (Poznań), Wydział Architektoniczno-Budowlany, t. 146, pp. 22–26. Protocol of the session of the Town Commission of Urban Planners and Architects, 1956. The project was elaborated by Z. Zieliński and J. Cieślinśki. There is no concrete description of such material.Google Scholar
117. See the investment plan of 23 September 1946. On other plans, APP, Zarza̦d Miejski m. Poznania, Wydział Budownictwa, t. 113, pp. 1–2 (protocol of 25 February 1948). On actual use, see Głos Wielkopolski, 18–19 September 1960. The Western Institute is well known; today it is almost exclusively concerned with German studies.Google Scholar
118. Linette, Eugeniusz, Studium historyczno-urbanistyczne. Poznań—Stare Miasto (Poznań: 1966), p. 31, typewritten copy. I found this study in the Archive of Greater Poland's Centre for Study and Defense of the Culture Environment (Wielkopolski Ósrodek Studiów i Ochrony Środowiska Kulturowego) in Poznań.Google Scholar
119. Christine Boyer, M., The City of Collective Memory. Its Historical Imagery and Architectural Entertainments (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1994), p. 2.Google Scholar
120. See Latour, Stanisław, Rozwój architektury i urbanistyki na ziemiach zachodnich po II wojnie światowej,” in Nauk, Polska Akademia, ed., Architektura i urbanistyka w Polsce (Warsaw: PWN, 1989), pp. 61–81.Google Scholar
121. “We live in a town where the past was reconstructed … we move in the circle of a copied tradition and a controlled fantasy.” Kazimierz Brandys's refined and ironic literary exposition of the problem in “Letters to Mrs. Z,” in Listy do Pani Z (Warsaw: PIW, 1965), pp. 42–43.Google Scholar
122. After this article was completed, the frieze was covered up with enormous abstract pictures, reflecting another rewriting of history.Google Scholar
123. On Wroclaw, see Thum, Gregor, Cleansed Memory; and Bollwerk Breslau.Google Scholar
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