BO LARSSON Lund University Memories of the vanished people in Černivci, L´viv and Wrocław — an issue for urban planning Background and main research questions Th is article aims to discuss the role and practice of urban planning in three East and Central European cities, hit by war genocide and forced migration dur- ing and aft er World War II, in relation to memories of earlier urban life and population, refl ected in the city environment. Th e article refers to an on-going, interdisciplinary project, also including Wrocław1 in Poland, dealing with three main questions of relations between the built environment and the memory of the vanished population groups:2 (1) Th e built environment as a refl ection of the earlier urban life of the van- ished population. Th is is mainly studied by inventories on sight, archive docu- ments, old photos and maps and by interviewing old persons who have personal memories of interwar, war and early post-war time in the cities. (2) Interviews and surveys among the present population about their know- ledge of, interest in and attitudes to the vanished population groups and their refl ections in the urban environment. 1 Former German Breslau. In this city 95% of the population was forced to leave for the dimi- nished Germany aft er World War II. 2 Th is contribution is based on the achievements of the fi rst half of a research project “Memo- ry treatment and urban planning with reference to the vanished population groups in Chişinău, Černivci, L´viv and Wrocław”. Th e main focus of the project is to investigate how the urban life, the vanished population and the city environment before and during World War II were remembered in the communist and post-communist time and treated in urban planning. Th e starting point for the project is a study of the very subject of memory management which is the physical and social structure of the cities in the 1930s and earlier and during World War II. Forum Socjologiczne 6, 2015 © for this edition by CNS fforum_socjologiczne6.inddorum_socjologiczne6.indd 114343 22016-09-12016-09-12 110:45:410:45:41 144 Bo Larsson (3) Offi cial treatment of the heritage and memories of the vanished population in urban planning and preservation policy, as well as in museums, tourist guides and other city presentations — in communist and post-communist years. How is this heritage treated politically and culturally? What is highlighted, what is concealed and what is ignored? Th is article focuses on the built environment and its treatment in urban plan- ning in relation to the memory of the vanished population groups. The choice of cities Th e three cities analysed are L’viv and Černivci3 in Ukraine and Wrocław in Poland. Aft er World War II, L´viv (Lwów, Lemberg) was ceded to the Soviet Union from Poland and Černivci (Cernăuţi, Czernowitz) from Romania. Wrocław (Bres- lau) was ceded to Poland from Germany. In addition to the radical demographic changes during and immediately aft er the war, the new national contexts and a profound new, communist, societal system implied entirely new basic condi- tions, very much aff ecting urban planning. Planning was a crucial part of the new national, political and social projects, while the remaining old buildings and city structures represented the previous order. But still today, in all the three cities studied, old urban environments remain, largely representing a lost population and a lost political and national context. Th is article gives an overview of war destruction as well as a preserved built heritage, representing the vanished population. It includes investigations of the fi rst urban renewal planning in the perspective of memory treatment aft er the war and also roughly during the decades up to the present time. Today there is a growing interest in and understanding of historical monuments and cultural values associated with the lost population, but also confl icting interests and opin- ions with respect to this memory. Th e Jewish heritage and memories are especially highlighted in L’viv and Černivci, having an evident signifi cance and connection with the urban environ- ment in these cities, before as well as during the war. Wrocław (Breslau) also had many Jewish inhabitants considerably infl uencing the city’s development and environment. Apart from this the Polish heritage obviously is central in L’viv as well as the combined German, Romanian and Polish heritage in Černivci and the German heritage in Wrocław. 3 Or Chernivtsi in the standard English transcription of Cyrillic letters. I have consequently chosen to use the “Czech” way of transcription of Cyrillic letters, because it is closer to the origi- nal and to Slavonic spelling traditions, and because it is frequently used in academic writing, re- gardless of the language of the text (English, German, French etc.). Forum Socjologiczne 6, 2015 © for this edition by CNS fforum_socjologiczne6.inddorum_socjologiczne6.indd 114444 22016-09-12016-09-12 110:45:410:45:41 Memories of the vanished people in Černivci, L´viv and Wrocław 145 Urban environment as a historical narrative Urban planning is an expression of the current societal system and of eco- nomic and political power that can be strong enough to carry out extensive and rapid changes. It is sometimes directly used as a means to express political and economic power in relation to the previous structures, e.g. by erasing parts of his- tory regarded as disruptive to the current rulers’ own historical self-image. Th e aim can be to spread forgetfulness of the periods of negative charge. Financial interests may cause demolitions simply because historic structures are perceived as obstacles to profi t or due to the lack of knowledge of and interest in the his- torical heritage. Urban planning ideologies diverge between visionary ideas and pragmatic improvements and between rationalistic and romantic concepts. Th ey refl ect diff erent attitudes towards history and future. Historic ties in the urban environment can be studied as diff erent environment layers4. In spite of political diff erences, there were evident parallels between urban planning ideals in the communist countries and non-totalitarian Europe, with the exception of Stalinist classicism. Th e dominant trend aft er the war was the functionalist and modernist movement, based on a positivist scientifi c view, rationalism, strong development optimism and a belief in the possibilities of modern technique. Historic and cultural heritage was more or less regarded as an obstacle to development. In war-damaged areas it was close at hand to construct radically new urban structures, according to the new political and ideological aims. Practical and eco- nomic considerations sometimes led to preservation, although not always in line with ideological aims. Th e diff erence between ideology and practice is mirrored in many plans not implemented5. Th e analyses of genius loci and existing values of architecture, urban image, cultural heritage and sites of memories have since the 1980s generally had an in- creasing signifi cance in urban planning in many European countries6. Th ere has lately, however, also appeared a resistance and criticism among architects against adapting to the special feature and identity of the site. Th is has been regarded as limitation of architectural freedom. It expresses a belief that it is impossible 4 An interesting example is the thesis Monument og Niche by Carsten Juel Christansen, descri- bing how diff erent structures, representing diff erent historical phases and cultures meet and cross each other in the urban environment (Juel Christiansen 1985). 5 Th e reconstruction of the older Polish urban environments in Warsaw and Gdańsk are exceptional, being associated with a national policy to restore the Polish heritage. However, in the former German city of Breslau/Wrocław there was a rather similar policy for the rehabilitation of historic urban environments, although this in fact concerned the German heritage. It was legiti- mized by its connection with the also existing Polish history of the city. 6 A basic work is Ch. Norberg-Schulz, Genius Loci, Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture. New York: Rizzoli, 1980. Forum Socjologiczne 6, 2015 © for this edition by CNS fforum_socjologiczne6.inddorum_socjologiczne6.indd 114545 22016-09-12016-09-12 110:45:410:45:41 146 Bo Larsson to work in a creative way and “express our time” if historical values are to be respected. But exactly this can be seen as a challenge, also aff ecting the cities studied here: To interpret the special quality of the site, consider the surrounding cultural heritage and embedded memories and still contribute something new. Černivci — Cernăuţi — Czernowitz Historical background The period up to World War I Th e 600-year-old city is situated where traditional Romanian (Moldovan) and Ukrainian (Ruthenian) settlement areas meet and overlap. Aft er being under Ottoman suzerainty from the 16th century, the small Moldovan town experi- enced a rapid growth under Austrian rule 1774–1918, especially as a capital of the crown land Bukovina aft er 1849. In this development as a contemporary Euro- pean capital, as a “small Vienna”, Černivci/Cernăuţi/Czernowitz was a melting pot of cultures, receiving Germans, Poles, Armenians and Jews and other set- tlers, with a remarkably high level of cultural, academic and commercial life. In 1910 the population was 87,000, 33% Jewish (this share increased to 47% in 1919), 17% Ukrainians, 17% Poles, 15% Romanians and 14% Germans. Th ere were also Armenians, Czechs, Hungarians, Greeks and others. No ethnic group was in ma- jority. German was a kind of lingua franca, a mother tongue of around 40% of the population, including modern, Europe-oriented “emancipated” Jews, who had a crucial position in the city within business such as industry, craft s, trade, hotel and restaurant; as well as among professors, lawyers, doctors and artists.