Germany’s lost cities : a tour of Gdańsk (Danzig)

[Adam Carr]

As this plaque records, in 1970 rioting broke out in Gdańsk and in other cities on the Baltic coast, mainly in protest against increasing prices. On 15 December a rioting crowd burned this building down. The rioting was suppressed by force, with hundreds of deaths. Among those rioting was the young Lech Wałęsa, later leader of Solidarity and President of Poland.

[Adam Carr]

As well as the public buildings generally shown so far, hundreds of private homes from the prewar era have survived in the older parts of Gdańsk. Many were damaged in 1945 and only partly repaired in the decades of austerity which followed under communist rule. Today many are abandoned and others are dilapidated, but it is still possible to see that they were once fine homes in what was then a prosperous German port city. This one is in Ulica Rzeźnicka (Fleischer Gasse), near the National Museum

[Adam Carr]

This one is Ulica Łąkowa (Weiden Gasse), on the eastern side of the Motława.

[Adam Carr]

Finally, this fine old building on Ulica Elżbietańska (Elizabethkirche Gasse), now the offices of the House of the Pelplin Abbots, a Catholic organisation. (Pelplin Abbey is about 50km south of Gdańsk.) Its façade tells a story. Above and to either side of the door are two small plaques bearing the Latin motto “Pro Lege, pro Grege” (For the law, for the flock).

[Adam Carr]

But above that are three plaques which have escaped the attention of the postwar Polonisers of German Danzig. They bear the German words: “Im Jahre 1912 erneut” (Renewed in the year 1912). And above that again, above the second floor windows, are three more plaques, with the German motto: “Gott schütze die Stadt” (God protect the city). Which seems a good note on which to end.

[AvB]

Wow thanks for posting. Great tour, and I'm really eager now to visit the city myself!

[wm]

The rioting was suppressed by force, with hundreds of deaths.

More correctly, there were hundreds of injured, the number of killed was 49.

[Moltke44]

Would love to have either the time or especially the money to do this. I've always wanted to go on just this trip. Thanks for posting! Look forward to the other cities, especially Breslau and Konigsberg.

[Adam Carr]

I have a lot of photos of Breslau, but having now read Richard Hargreaves's book on the siege of Breslau, I realise there were a lot of places I missed, so I won't do a "tour of Breslau" until I have been back there, which I hope to do this northern autumn. While I'm in Silesia I also want to visit the Annaberg Thingplatz site at Góra Świętej Anny. I'm also hoping to go to Moscow, St Petersburg and Kaliningrad, so this trip should generate lots of photos.