Wartime Losses of the Main Town Hall in Gdańsk
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Ratusz G ł ó wne g Katarzyna Darecka, Anna Frąckowska o Mias t a w Wartime losses G of the main Town Hall dańs in Gdańsk k u Translation: Anne-Marie Fabianowska A K a n t n a a r z F y r n ą a c k Ratusz Głównego D o a w r e s c k k a a Miasta w Gdańsku STRATY WOJENNE Gdańsk 2020 — Katarzyna Darecka Anna Frąckowska Katarzyna Darecka, Anna Frąckowska Wartime losses of the main Town Hall in Gdańsk he Main Town Hall in Gdańsk was its heyday, at the turn of the 16th and 17th T built at the end of the 14th century century, the interiors on the first floor of the as the official building of the municipal -au Gothic part of the Town Hall were refur- thorities. The most important public offi- bished and given a more stately appearan- ces were located here, such as: the Kämme- ce, as were some of the rooms on the second rei-Kasse (Pol. Kamlaria, city finance offi- floor and in the Renaissance wings. They ce) the chancellery, the municipal archives included primarily: the Great Hallway, the containing the most important documents, Great Council Hall, the Small Council Hall and the Weta Court. The Municipal Coun- and the Kamlaria. Several outstanding ar- cil, the City Civil-Criminal Court, and the tists were engaged to work on decorating Third Order (Pol. Trzeci Ordynek), i.e. repre- the halls in the Town Hall. It is particularly sentatives of the common people of Gdańsk worth mentioning the painters: Hans Vrede- in the municipal authorities, also used to man de Vries, Anton Möller, Izaac van den hold meetings here. The Town Hall was the Blocke; the sculptor Willem van der Meer, seat of the municipal authorities from the and the woodcarver, Simon Hörl. The Gre- 14th century up until the beginning of the at Council Hall, above all, acquired an ela- 20th century without interruption. During borate decor, worthy of Gdańsk’s high rank this time it was enlarged and rebuilt several and standing. In the second half of the 18th times. The decor and furnishings changed century this decor was further supplemen- in line with the changing styles in art and ted with paintings by Beniamin Schmidt. architecture. These consisted of details and In the 19th and early 20th centuries the works of art of the highest order, as well as Town Hall’s interiors also housed histo- other more modest pieces which bore wit- ric details transferred from townhouses in ness to the skills of the former craftsmen, Gdańsk that were being rebuilt at the time, as well as to the prevailing tastes of the resi- thus enabling these details to be preserved. dents of Gdańsk. They included a stone portal and arcade The furnishings in the rooms of the Town from a townhouse located at ul. Chlebnicka Hall were changed, supplemented, moved 11, and a carved wooden door-leaf from the around and adapted several times in order Ferber family townhouse at ul. Długa 28. 1 to meet its current needs and functions. In 1857; Puttner 1906; Mellin 1966, pp. 279–291; Domagała 1978, pp. 25–64; Klamann 1980, pp. 36–43; Iwanoyko 1 For the more important literature in which the furnishings 1986; Betlejewska 2001; Grzybkowska 2003, pp. 31–56. and decor of the Town Hall are described, see: Hoburg » 2 « Katarzyna Darecka, Anna Frąckowska Wartime losses of the main Town Hall in Gdańsk… The representative part of the Town Hall: the city’s monuments.4 He recognized that the Great Hallway, the Great and Small Co- the only way to achieve this was by disman- uncil Halls (popularly known as the Red tling the works of art and the decor and Hall and Winter Hall), the Great Hall of Ju- transporting them to places located outside stice (formerly the Great Weta Hall), the of Gdańsk. In his recommendations, he in- former Kamlaria and Cash Depository, were dicated which objects would be dismantled open to visitors, for a small fee, througho- and the specifications that should be met in ut almost the entire 19th century.2 At the the designated storage sites. He also speci- same time, they still served as the seat of the fied how photographic documentation, dra- municipal authorities. The part open to the wings and moulds should be prepared and public was often referred to as the ‘Muni- how objects to be dismantled should be mar- cipal Museum’ (Ger. Stadtmuseum) becau- ked so that they could be easily reassembled se in the years 1863–1870 the Society of the at a later stage. He recommended that deta- Friends of Art in Gdańsk (Ger. Kunstvere- ils of the permanent decor which could not in zu Danzig) also displayed here the col- be dismantled should be secured in situ, or lections it had purchased for a future mu- they were to be enclosed or walled up. The seum which was eventually established in architect Jakob Deurer (1897–1960) became the buildings of the former Franciscan Mo- the representative of Keibel’s team, having nastery and City Gymnasium. arrived in Gdańsk in June 1943. He colla- borated with Erich Volmar (1887–1975) – Evacuation also an architect and the principal conserva- During the Second World War, due to fear tor from the Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia that allied air strikes might target the city area. The safeguarding work undertaken in and because of the bad experiences of other Gdańsk lasted from October 1943 to Janu- cities (including Cologne, Lübeck and Ro- ary 1945; approximately twenty employees stock), the German authorities appoin- were involved. Twenty-four volumes of do- ted a special team responsible for drawing cumentation were drawn up, some of which up and implementing a plan to protect contained photographs of where the histo- Gdańsk’s cultural heritage from wartime ric objects were hidden. Willi Drost (1892– damage. The team was officially nominated 1964), the then-director of the Municipal in 1942 and, on behalf of the Prussian Mi- Museum (Stadtmuseum, now the National nistry of Finance, was tasked with safegu- Museum), and conservator of art and de- arding the city against the effects of possi- corative arts (Denkmalpfleger für Werke der ble bombing raids.3 It was headed by Fritz Bildenden Kunst und des Kunstgewerbes) in Keibel, the then-chief government advisor the Free City of Danzig (Freie Stadt Dan- of state and building superintendent, who zig), was also involved in the work of safe- drew up guidelines outlining how to save 4 A copy of Keibel’s typescript is housed in the collec- 2 Gliński mps. tion of the Library of the Polish Academy of Sciences in 3 Domańska 1979, pp. 127–130; Bakun 2015, pp. 155–157. Gdańsk, see Keibel 1942. » 3 « Katarzyna Darecka, Anna Frąckowska Wartime losses of the main Town Hall in Gdańsk… guarding the artworks of Gdańsk. The di- many photographs of various views of the smantled artefacts were numbered on the Hallway and the spiral staircase. The Great back with red paint; sometimes additional Council Hall, being the most representative notes were attached. They were then pac- room of all, was documented by Drost in the ked into wooden crates and transported out greatest detail since it contained the most va- of Gdańsk – to Kaszuby and Żuławy (the luable and elaborate furnishings in the entire historic Eastern Pomerania regions of north- building. All the details: the paintings, por- -western Poland). Part of the documentation tals, cornices, benches, and in turn the frag- drawn up at that time was destroyed during ments of the walls, were photographed to- wartime activities in Gdańsk; some copies gether with the cards containing handwrit- were taken to Germany where they were ten numbers. In the remaining rooms: the kept by Jakob Deurer’s son – Wolfgang, Hallway, the Winter Hall, part of the Kamla- who gave them to Poland in 1977 and 1978.5 ria and Cash Depository, the negatives show Many of the pre-war photographs of historic paintings and elements of the woodwork and objects in Gdańsk were taken to Germany carvings which were made in the 16th–17th in 1945, chiefly to Marburg. centuries. From the detailed photographs it It may seem strange that the documenta- can be concluded that the dismantling of the tion and lists that are currently available con- historic objects, at least those in the Red tain no mention of the evacuation of histo- Hall, was carried out in accordance with the rical objects from the Town Hall. This may aforementioned guidelines. However, there be because it was still being used as an admi- are no descriptions of the photographs, no nistrative building at that time (due to dif- list of the dismantled objects, no inventory ficult conditions caused by the war and the drawings or diagrams indicating their pla- approaching front-line, the authorities’ main cement within the rooms. This part of the priority was to maintain an efficiently opera- documentation may not have been prepared ting administrative system and not the safe- due to the speed at which the work had to be guarding of works of art and monuments) carried out, or it may have been lost or it may or the fact that the decor was dismantled at be in one of the archives; however, it has not the very last minute, without full documen- yet been found.7 tation being prepared (?). Surviving photo- After the details in the Red Hall were di- graphs of this operation testify to at least smantled, they were marked with red paint some partial documentation about the eva- 7 It is worth noting that the above-mentioned documentation compiled by Jakob Deurer included 24 numbered volumes cuation being prepared.