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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

José M. Faraldo
José M. Faraldo*
Affiliation:
European University Viadrina, Frankfurt an der Oder
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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.

Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 29 , Issue 4 , December 2001 , pp. 605 - 632
Copyright
Copyright © 2001 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

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References

Notes

1. Jaffé, Moritz, Die Stadt Posen unter preuβischer Herrschaft. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des deutschen Ostens (Leipzig: Duncler & Humblot 1909), p. 409.Google Scholar

2. The richest view of Poznań's history—although unfinished—is contained in the volumes of Dzieje Poznania , edited by the late Topolski, Jerzy. Another useful source is the journal Kronika Miasta Poznania.Google Scholar

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

5. See Grot, Zdzisław, “Dzieje pomnika Mickiewicza w Poznaniu 1856–1939,” Przegla̦d Zachodni, No. 1, 1949, p. 457. This—and other similar monuments to Mickiewicz—were destroyed by the Nazis. In 1960 another statue was built, although with a very different form. See Irena Grzesiuk-Olszewska, Polska rzeźba pomnikowa w latach 1945–1995 (Warsaw: Neriton, 1995), pp. 280–281.Google Scholar

6. Skuratowicz, Jan, Architektura Poznania 1890–1918 (Poznań: Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM, 1991), pp. 208–242.Google Scholar

7. Poznań's International Fair of Industry and Commerce (MTP) played this function before the war in a similar way as it did it in socialist times. See Danielewski, Bohdan, Z dziejów Mi̦dzynarodowych Targów Poznańskich (1921–1971), Kronika Miasta Poznania, No. 2, 1971, pp. 15–32.Google Scholar

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10. A interesting comparative view of European interwar monumentalism is Franco Borsi, Die Monumentale Ordnung. Architektur in Europa, 1929–1939 (Stuttgart: V. Gerd Hatje, 1986).Google Scholar

11. During the war, Poznań lost between 45,000 and 50,000 Polish residents. See Świtala, Tadeusz, ed., Trud pierwszych dni. Poznań 1945. Wspomnienia Poznaniaków (Poznań: Wyd. Poznańskie, 1970), p. 27. The total number of inhabitants before 1939 had been around 275,000.Google Scholar

12. There are numerous new works on the establishment of the communist regime in Poland. Most of them present it exclusively as a foreign (Soviet) imposition, a thesis that is not entirely sustainable. The socialist system was not only part of Stalin's foreign politics; it had grassroots support, too. See Kersten, Krystyna, Mi̦dzy wyzwoleniem a zniewoleniem. Polska 1944–1956 (London: Aneks 1993); Andrzej Palczak, Procesy stalinizacji w Polsce w latach 1947–56 (Zabrze: Wyd. Apex, 1996); Janusz Wrona, System partyjny w Polsce, 1944–1950 (Lublin: Wyd. Uniwersytetu Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej, 1996). For a comparative perspective see Norman Naimark and Leonid Gibianskii, eds, The Establishment of Communist Regimes in Eastern Europe, 1944–1949 (Boulder: Westview Press, 1997); and Ulrich Herbert and Axel Schildt, eds, Kriegsende in Europa. Von Beginn des deutschen Machtzerfalls bis zur Stabilisierung der Nachkriegsordnung 1944–1948 (Essen: Klartext Verlag, 1998).Google Scholar

13. See Gomułka's early postwar writings, like Nowa karta dziejów Polski [discourse of July 1945]. See Władysław Gomułka, Artykuły i przemówienia, t. 1, 1943–45 (Warsaw: Ksia̦żka i Wiedza, 1962), pp. 310–338.Google Scholar

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15. On communism as a form of developmental nationalism, see Kula, Marcin, Komunizm (niekiedy) bardzo narodowy, Przegla̦d Polonijny, No. 2, 2000, pp. 7–24.Google Scholar

16. Zaremba, Marcin, Próba legitymizacji władzy komunistycznej w latach 1944–1947 poprzez odwołanie si̦, do treści narodowych,” in Polska 1944/45–1989. Studia i materiały, t. 2, 1997, pp. 35–62; “‘Polski naród socjalistyczny’—legitymizacja nacjonal-istyczna w okresie stalinowskim,” Kultura i Społeczeństwo, Vol. 41, No. 4, 1997, pp. 117–136.); and Piotr Madajczyk (“Polska Myśl Zachodnia w polityce komunistów polskich,” Przegla̦d Zachodni, No. 3, 1997, pp. 15–36) seem to prefer this interpretation. Indeed communist national rhetoric and tactics are a good partial explanation for concrete moments but not for the whole problem.Google Scholar

17. Western Thought (Myśl Zachodnia), a pre-war Polish nationalist movement that advocated Poland's expansion to the west, was assumed by the postwar Polish communists (see Madajczyk, Polska Myśl Zachodnia). Another example could be Bolesław Piasecki's postwar activities. Piasecki, a Polish fascist and anti-Semite, came to terms with the communist rulers after the war and became the leader of a national-catholic legal organization, Pax, which was very active in the 1968 anti-Semitic storm. See Lucian Blit, The Eastern Pretender (London: Hutchinson, 1965); and Dudek, Antoni and Pytel, Grzegorz, Bolesław Piasecki. Próba biografii politycznej (London: Aneks, 1990).Google Scholar

18. See Kaźmierska, Kaja, Doświadczenia wojenne Polaków a kstałtowanie tożsamości etnicznej. Analiza narracji kresowych (Warsaw: Wyd. IfiS PAN, 1999).Google Scholar

19. For the context, see Eberhart, Piotr, Mi̦dze Rosja̦ a Niemcami, Przemiany narodowościowe w Europie Środkowo-Wschodniej w XX wieku (Warsaw: PWN, 1996); for the Kresy, see Wojciech Wrzesiński, ed., Miedze Polská etńiczna a historyczna̦ (Wrocław: Ossolineum, 1988).Google Scholar

20. An important web of scientific institutes, state institutions, and even grassroots associations worked to “nationalize” the new territories through publications, activities, festivities and propaganda in every possible form. See, for example, Gluck, Leopold, Od ziem postulowanych do ziem odzyskanych (Warsaw: Instytut Wydawniczy Pax, 1971); and Małgorzata Ujdak, Udział Polskiego Zwia̦zku Zachodniego w rozwia̦zaniu kwestii narodowościowej na ziemiach odzyskanych (Katowice: Uniwersytet Śla̦ski: 1988).Google Scholar

21. See Strauchold, Grzegorz, Polska ludność rodzima ziem zachodnich i północnych. Opinie nie tylko publiczne lat 1944–1948 (Olsztyn: Ośrodek badań naukowych im. Wojciecha Ketrzyńskiego, 1995).Google Scholar

22. Pudło, Kazimierz, “Polityka państwa polskiego wobec ludności ukraińskiej (1944–1991),” Sprawy Narodowościowe, Vol. 2, No. 1, 1993; and Anna Adamus-Matuszyńska, “Influence of History on Social Consciousmess, Social Identity and Social Action: The Case of the Ukrainian Minority in Poland,” in Marek S. Szczepański, Ethnic Minorities and Ethnic Majority. Sociological Studies of Ethnic Relations in Poland (Katowice: Uniwersytet Śla̦ski, 1997), pp. 224–243.Google Scholar

23. See, for example, Nowych, Archiwum Akt, Warszawa (hereafter AAN), Ministerstwo Administracji Publicznej 774, pp. 89–90.Google Scholar

24. On “repolonization,” see Bernard Linek, “'Odniemczanie” województwa ślaskiego w latach 1945–1950 (w świetle materiałów wojewódzkich) (Opole: Instytut Śla̦ski, 1997); and Gregor Thum, “Cleansed Memory: New Polish Wrocław and the Expulsion of the Germans,” in Tooley, Hunt and Vardy, Stephen, eds, Ethnic Cleansing in Twentieth Century Europe (Boulder: East European Monographs, forthcoming, 2001).Google Scholar

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

26. On this process in the northern and western regions, see Strauchold, Grzegorz, “Próba stworzenia jednolitego społeczeństwa ziem zachodnich i północnych w powojennej dekadzie, Borussia, No. 22, 2000, pp. 73–80.Google Scholar

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

28. For West Germany, see for example, Sywottek, Arnold and Schildt, Axel, eds, Modernisierung im Wiederaufbau. Die westdeutsche Gesellschaft der 50er Jahre (Bonn: Dietz, 1993).Google Scholar

29. On scientists' and professors' Nazi engagement, see Aly, Götz and Heim, Susanne, Vordenker der Vernichtung (Frankfurt: Fischer, 1993).Google Scholar

30. On Ostforschung, see Michael Burleigh, Germany Turns Eastwards: A Study of Ostforschung in the Third Reich (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988). Zeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropaforschung, Vol. 46, No. 3, 1997 contains various articles on the subject.Google Scholar

31. There is very little literature on deutsche Kolonialkunst. See a definition of the concept by von Hoist, N., “Kunst des Baltenlandes—deutsche Kolonialkunst,” in Vol. 1, No. 3, Der Deutsche im Osten I:3, 1938–1939, p. 20. See also Adam S. Labuda, “Kolonizacja wschodnia i sztuka gotycka. Poj̦cia i rzeczywistość, Artium Quaestiones, No. 6, 1993, pp. 45–52.Google Scholar

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

45. Leśniakowska, , “Polska historia sztuki,” p. 45.Google Scholar

46. See Rymaszewski, , O przetrwanie, p. 95, Kalinowski, Konstanty, “Der Wiederaufbau,” p. 92 and Anders Åman, Architecture and Ideology in Eastern Europe during the Stalin Era (New York: MIT Press, 1992), especially chapter 6.Google Scholar

47. Kondziela, Henryk, Stare Miasto w Poznaniu (Poznań: Wyd. Poznańskie, 1971), p. 53.Google Scholar

48. On the first days of the new regime in Poznań, see Świtala, Trud and Kaczmarek, Ignacy, Na gruzach Poznania w roku 1945, Kronika Miasta Poznania, No. 2, 1958, p. 49–53.Google Scholar

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

50. For example, an unpublished memoir, housed at the Western Institute in Poznań (Pami̦tniki Mariana Rosady, signature P55, p. 3), claims that the situation in Poznań was more difficult than in Cracow.Google Scholar

51. Analysis of this is in Stanisław Waszak, Warunki mieszkaniowe w zniszczonym Poznaniu, Kronika Miasta Poznania, No. 3, 1948, pp. 215–225.Google Scholar

52. APP, Zarza̦d Miejski m. Poznania, Wydział Budownictwa, t. 85, pp 1–12.Google Scholar

53. See Kalinowski, Wojciech, ed., Zabytki urbanistyki i architektury w Polsce. Odbudowa i konserwacja, t. 1. Miasta historyczne (Warsaw: Arkady, 1986), p. 363.Google Scholar

54. Kalinowski, , Der Wiederaufbau, p. 81.Google Scholar

55. Like Gwiazdowicz, Michał, who arrived at Poznań with his group on 3 February and performed the functions of regional governor. See Bolesław Pleśniarski, W budynku dawnego gimnazjum przy ulicy Focha, in Świtala, Trud, pp. 227–248. Also: Eugenia Podbierowa, Ustrój władz miejskich miasta Poznania i główne kierunki ich działalności w latach 1945–50 (Poznań: Wyd. N. UAM, 1967).Google Scholar

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

57. The Ministry of Reconstruction was established by decree on 24 May 1945.Google Scholar

58. APP, PDO, t. 6, p. 27.Google Scholar

59. On urban planning in Poznań, see Maisel, Witold, Ewolucja planów urbanistycznych miasta Poznania w latach 1945–1957, Kronika Miasta Poznania, No. 3, 1958, pp. 5–37.Google Scholar

60. Report about P. D.O. activities from 1 October 1945 to 31 December 1946, APP, PDO, t. 16, pp. 1–4.Google Scholar

61. See APP, PDO, t. 7, p. 66.Google Scholar

62. APP, PDO, t. 20, passim.Google Scholar

63. APP, Zarza̦d Miejski m. Poznania, Wydział Budownictwa, t. 85, pp 1–12.Google Scholar

64. APP, Zarza̦d Miejski m. Poznania, Wydział Budownictwa, t. 85, pp. 3–4. That is one of the few mentions I have found of a planned devastation of Poznań. Was Zieliński trying to imitate the discourse about Warsaw, even unconsciously? Or were there Nazi plans to set Poznań on fire?Google Scholar

65. It was possibly very clear for Zieliński, as for the rest of Poznań's inhabitants, what a German building was: one constructed by Germans, inhabited by Germans, and used by Poznań's Germans. Surely, differences of style were very marked only in religious buildings, because most of the Germans were Protestants, which meant their churches were different than those of the predominantly Roman Catholic Poles.Google Scholar

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

67. APP, Zarza̦d Miejski m. Poznania, Wydział Budownictwa, t. 85, p. 4.Google Scholar

68. APP, Zarza̦d Miejski m. Poznania, Wydział Budownictwa, t. 85, pp. 5–6. Recovered Lands or North and West Lands refers to the former German lands that Poland acquired after the Second World War. Poznań was not actually part of them but because of its position between regained Pomerania and Silesia, some intellectuals from Poznań took to the idea.Google Scholar

69. In the sense of Dunham, Vera, In Stalin's Time. Middle Class Values in Soviet Fiction (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976).Google Scholar

70. On degermanization and polonization, see Gregor Thum, “Bollwerk Breslau. Vom ‘Deutschen Osten’ zu Polens ‘Wiedergewonnenen Gebieten,”’ in Helga Schultz, ed., Das Ende der deutsch–polnischen Nachbarschaft (Berlin: Verlag Berlin-Brandenburg, forthcoming 2001); and Nitschke, Bernadetta, Wysiedlenie ludności niemieckiej z Polski w latach 1945–49 (Zielona Góra: WSP, 1999), pp. 120–134.Google Scholar

71. APP, Zarza̦d Miejski m. Poznania, Wydział Budownictwa, t. 42, pp. 47–52.Google Scholar

72. APP, PDO, t. 6, pp. 3–9.Google Scholar

73. APP, PDO, t. 16, p. 7.Google Scholar

74. See Kersten, Krystyna, Mi̦dzy wyzwoleniem a zniewoleniem. Polska 1944–1956 (London: Aneks, 1993) p. 11.Google Scholar

75. Kondziela, , Stare Miasto, p. 12.Google Scholar

76. A brilliant study of the rich national tendencies in art and design in Poland before the Second World War is David Crowley, National Style and Nation-State. Design in Poland from the Vernacular Revival to the International Style (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1992).Google Scholar

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

79. The still popular novel was filmed in 1960 and, as a result, the story became even more popular. See Faraldo, José M., ‘The Teutonic Knights and the Polish Identity. National Narratives, Self-Image and Socialist Public Sphere,’ in Rittersporn, Gabor T., Behrends, Jan C. and Rolf, Malte, eds, Sphären von Öffentlichkeit in Gesellschaften sowjetischen Typs (Frankfurt/N. Y.: Peter Lang).Google Scholar

80. Cited in Sigalin, Józef, Warszawa 1944–1980. Z archiwum architekta, t. 1 (Warsaw: PIW, 1986), pp. 28–29.Google Scholar

81. Poznań. Przewodnik po mieście (Poznań: Wyd. Zachodnie i Morskie, 1949), p. 53.Google Scholar

82. See for example, APP, Zarza̦d Miejski m. Poznania, Wydział Budownictwa, t. 86, pp. 1–3, 4–8.Google Scholar

83. See Wielkopolski Słownik Biograficzny, p. 676; and, above all, Skuratowicz, Architektura, pp. 352–353.Google Scholar

84. Skuratowicz, , Architektura, p. 353 affirms that Sławski's pre-1914 designs were programmatically different from those of the Germans and this accounted for his popularity.Google Scholar

85. APP, Zarza̦d Miejski m. Poznania, Wydział Budownictwa, t. 86, pp. 7–8.Google Scholar

86. APP, Zarza̦d Miejski m. Poznania, Wydział Budownictwa, t. 85, pp. 13–16.Google Scholar

87. Kaczmarek, Ignacy, director of the third department at Poznań's municipal government. APP, Zarza̦d Miejski m. Poznania, Wydział Budownictwa, t. 42, pp. 8–12.Google Scholar

88. See AAN, Urza̦d Rady Ministrów, t. 5/492, pp. 1–32.Google Scholar

89. APP, Zarza̦d Miejski m. Poznania, Wydział Budownictwa, t. 86, p. 7.Google Scholar

90. APP, PDO, t. 54, p. 47.Google Scholar

91. On this issue, see Bettenstaed, Walter, Das Rathaus in Posen und seine Herstellung in den Jahren 1910–13 (Posen: 1913).Google Scholar

92. See van den Bruck, A. Möller, Der preuβische Stil (Munich: Korn, 1953).Google Scholar

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

94. All citations from APP, Zarza̦d Miejski m. Poznania, Wydział Budownictwa, t. 86, pp. 1–3. Although the typical Prussian public facilities had no rendered walls—a consequence of the industrialized use of bricks—the difference between residential buildings of pre-partition times in Greater Poland and, for example, in the “German” neighboring region of Brandenburg was not great.Google Scholar

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