Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Contested Histories: Heritage and/as the Construction of the Past: An Introduction
- 1 ‘Caught in the Ferris-wheel of History’: Trianon Memorials in Hungary
- 2 Public Sculpture in Cluj/Kolozsvár: Identity, Space and Politics
- 3 Interrupted Histories: Collective Memory and Architectural Heritage in Germany 1933–1945–1989
- 4 History Revised: National Style and National Heritage in Polish Architecture and Monument Protection – Before and After World War II
- 5 Polish and German Heritage in Danzig/Gdańsk: 1918, 1945 and 1989
- 6 Heritage and the Image of Forgetting: The Mausoleum of Georgi Dimitrov in Sofia
- 7 Athens: The Image of Modern Hellenism
- 8 Cosmopolitan versus Nationalist Visions: Rem Koolhaas’ Exhibition The Image of Europe
- List of Contributors
- Index
4 - History Revised: National Style and National Heritage in Polish Architecture and Monument Protection – Before and After World War II
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 February 2023
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Contested Histories: Heritage and/as the Construction of the Past: An Introduction
- 1 ‘Caught in the Ferris-wheel of History’: Trianon Memorials in Hungary
- 2 Public Sculpture in Cluj/Kolozsvár: Identity, Space and Politics
- 3 Interrupted Histories: Collective Memory and Architectural Heritage in Germany 1933–1945–1989
- 4 History Revised: National Style and National Heritage in Polish Architecture and Monument Protection – Before and After World War II
- 5 Polish and German Heritage in Danzig/Gdańsk: 1918, 1945 and 1989
- 6 Heritage and the Image of Forgetting: The Mausoleum of Georgi Dimitrov in Sofia
- 7 Athens: The Image of Modern Hellenism
- 8 Cosmopolitan versus Nationalist Visions: Rem Koolhaas’ Exhibition The Image of Europe
- List of Contributors
- Index
Summary
Introduction
‘In what style should we build?’ The much-cited title of the essay by the German architect Heinrich Hübsch, published in 1828, counts as one of the central questions that have shaped architectural debates in several European countries since the first half of the 19th century (Hübsch 1992). Initially it mainly concerned the search for an appropriate historical style for specific building types. With the development of modern nationalism, however, the focus increasingly shifted to the search for a national style that would represent the specific characteristics of a people. This search involved the question of the pertinent historical dress for new buildings, as well as that of the preferred style for restoration and reconstruction projects. Eras and motifs from the history of architecture deemed particularly characteristic of the national culture were valued more highly, while other elements of architectural heritage that were seen as less specifically national were neglected or even destroyed.
In late 19th- and early 20th-century Europe the construction of national styles, achieved through the employment of historical forms in contemporary architecture or through the selective restoration and reconstruction of architectural monuments, took on an important function in the politics of national identity. After World War I this task gained a new significance under changed political conditions, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe, where the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy and the territorial losses of Germany and Russia led to the birth or rebirth of states. Henceforth, the propagation of national styles not only served the strengthening of cultural identity but also legitimised newly attained or regained state sovereignty. After the change of political system and the redrawing of borders that occurred in the wake of World War II, the construction of national styles now occurred predominantly in the Soviet-controlled part of Europe, this time under the banner of Socialist Realism.
Poland is an exceptionally productive example of the impact of the national style paradigm through history and across different systems. The national codification of contemporary and historical architecture was already playing a leading role in shaping a historical visual culture in the decades before World War I.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Heritage, Ideology, and Identity in Central and Eastern EuropeContested Pasts, Contested Presents, pp. 93 - 114Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2012