Introduction

The city of Gdańsk has a complex history. During the 20th century a fight for the ‘national affiliation’ of the town took place between Poles and Germans, in which the city’s historic and cultural heritage was used as a weapon. The struggle for ‘ownership’ of Gdańsk was characterised in particular by a number of turning points in the city’s history which included, first, the period after World War I, when, as a result of Polish–German controversy, the international community decided to create a neutral Free Town and, second, the period following World War II, when Gdańsk was finally acknowledged as belonging to Poland. Another crucial moment in the city’s history was connected with the collapse of Communism, which was followed by attempts to create a new vision of the history of Gdańsk that avoided the nationalistic claims so dominant before. The main goal of this chapter is to show how, in those decisive moments of the city’s history, political conflict was expressed in the visual arts, in architecture and in the construction of the city’s heritage. First, however, it is important to explore some basic aspects of the history of the town.

A city between Germany and Poland

Gdańsk was founded at the beginning of the 10th century as a town of the Slavic dukes of Pomerania. Although the dukes aligned themselves politically with the Polish Kingdom, for economic reasons they were well disposed towards the affluence of German settlers who, beginning from the 13th century, started to settle in Gdańsk in great numbers. In 1308 the town, together with the whole region, fell under the reign of the German Order of Teutonic Knights, who ruled it until the middle of the 15th century. By that time Gdańsk had become one of the most important members of the German Hanseatic League. In the 14th and 15th centuries the majority of the inhabitants of Gdańsk were ethnically German, although this did not prevent the citizens of the town from sympathising, for example, with the Polish king Casimir Jagiello in his struggles against the Order of Teutonic Knights during the second half of the 15th century.