Polish Central Museum Repository for Gdańsk Voivodeship
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Muz., 2018(59): 175-184 Rocznik, eISSN 2391-4815 received – 07.2018 reviewed – 07.2018 accepted – 07.2018 DOI: 10.5604/01.3001.0012.4334 POLISH CENTRAL MUSEUM REPOSITORY FOR GDAŃSK VOIVODESHIP. PART 1. ORIGIN Lidia Małgorzata Kamińska Department of the Collections of Modern Art at the Museum of Art in Łódź Independent culture manager, Warsaw Abstract: The article – a successive text on this topic penetrating areas outside towns in a search for hidden published in “Muzealnictwo” – is the first part of a broader cultural goods, and the establishment of repositories, study on relocations of cultural goods after World War II, warehouses and lapidaria for cultural goods saved from and in particular on the functioning of the repositories – the rubble left behind by the moving front and the Red established and operated by the Polish administration Army and for those evacuated from towns by the German on territories liberated by the moving front – in which monument protection service. The article lists locations they were stored. This time the discussion concerns in Gdańsk voivodeship where the German administration repositories in Gdańsk Pomerania, with the first part deposited assorted monuments. Collections of concealed presenting issues connected with the geopolitical situation movable monuments of art survived wartime hostilities and in Gdańsk voivodeship, especially the city of Gdańsk. The – unless plundered by the local population or Soviet Army article outlines the historical circumstances in which Polish commands – were salvaged and transported to repositories administration carried out the so-called recovery campaign. set up by delegates of the Ministry of Culture and Art. The Attention is drawn to the emergence of Polish authorities second part of the article will describe the organisation and the impact of their activity upon the achievement and functioning of Polish repositories and the fate of the of formulated objectives: the organisation of social life, monuments amassed in them. the rescue of artworks despite insufficient means and by Keywords: repositories of cultural goods, Polish repositories, German repositories, Gdańsk voivodeship, Polish administration, Jan Kilarski, Michał Walicki. This article is a successive attempt at describing the activity Gdańsk, its representatives, delegated by Edward Ochab, of Polish museum and conservation repositories established Minister of Public Administration, arrived in Gdańsk via Toruń after the Second World War.1 The text pertains to the and Kartuzy to organise civilian ”Polish authorities”.3 A decree terrain of Gdańsk and Gdańsk Pomerania and is a synthetic on the establishment of the voivodeship of Gdańsk was issued presentation of events preceding the appearance of on 30 March 1945, the day of the liberation of Gdańsk.4 This repositories in Sopot and Oliwa, whose characteristics, was also the date of the town’s incorporation into Poland.5 together with an examination of the results of the so- On the following day operational groups of assorted called transport campaign conducted in the vovivodeship ministries,6 including that of the Ministry of Culture and of Gdańsk, call for a separate discussion. Art, whose task was securing cultural goods,7 appeared The campaign in question was – similarly as in, e.g. Silesia in Gdańsk. The Polish arriving population is passive. The and other parts of the country within the new frontiers – an majority is attracted by the port (…) there is a distinctive element of undertakings comprising a so-called recovery albeit slight influx of earnest and ideological people drawn campaign conducted by the government.2 On 31 March 1945, by the conception of the Polonisation of Gdańsk and the i.e. barely a day after the line of the front shifted beyond creation of conditions enabling Poland to achieve firm 110 MUZEALNICTWO 59 museum exhibits provenance studies footing along the Baltic coast as well as the establishment of Museum,19 whose staff was at the time composed exclusively a sensible Polish administration representing a high level and of employees of the German Stadtmuseum, whose director cultivating Polish culture, wrote the President of Gdańsk.8 was Prof. Willy Drost.20 Upon their arrival in Gdańsk representatives of the Polish The successive central administration team, this time administration discovered Red Army commands, from which known as ”Warsaw”, was headed by Professor Dr Michał they were to gradually take over power in accordance with an Walicki,21 custodian at the National Museum in Warsaw. Act of the State Defence Committee of the USSR and an Act Delegated to the voivodeship of Gdańsk on 13 April 1945 passed by the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Poland by Władysław Kowalski, Minister of Culture and Art, to carry of 14 March 1945 on the Organisation of the Recovered out activities mentioned in a written instruction issued by Territories.9 Upon this foundation civilian authorities in the Ministry of Culture and Art, Prof. Walicki remained at Gdańsk were formally entrusted to President Franciszek the disposal of the voivode of Gdańsk.22 His task involved Kotus-Jankowski.10 The Municipal Board was constituted at becoming familiar with the situation of monuments in the end of April 1945. Owing to the scale of the damage Gdańsk Pomerania and eventually searching for German incurred in Gdańsk11 the Voivodeship Office and the County repositories.23 The team headed by Prof. Michał Walicki Starosta Office were located in Sopot12 together with the was composed of Professor Jerzy Sienkiewicz, Dr Władysław main repository of secured monuments13. On 29 April Frąckiewicz, Bogusław Kopydłowski, Józef Kojdecki, and an act passed by the Council of the Municipal Board Dr Ksawery Piwocki. Walicki, similarly to Kilarski, was entitled established the basic core of the municipal organisational to expropriate, transfer, and store all artworks in the county status and initial rules for members of the Municipal Board. of Sopot.24 In this manner, two centres: that of the Ministry The two main established institutions were the Presidium of Education and the Ministry of Culture, together with newly and Control Departments and four offices: economical, emergent Gdańsk self-government authorities commissioned technical, social, and police. The main institutions are their emissaries to carry out overlapping tasks, which caused directed by the President of the Town, and the offices – by competence chaos, rivalry, and mutual animosity.25 four vice-presidents.14 The President of the City of Gdańsk recorded in his report of During the first post-liberation months Gdańsk was the 1 May 1945: While taking its first steps,the self-government site of three centres of authority: Soviet war commands, in Gdańsk was compelled to pave a path in extremely central administration operational groups, and emergent unfavourable conditions. Initiating their activity, municipal self-government authorities.I established contact with Soviet institutions encountered assorted operational groups military authorities immediately upon my arrival in Gdańsk. engaged in identical work and not revealing a tendency I maintain close and steady contact, both official and political, towards self-dissolution, and thus creating an undesired two- with them in an atmosphere of friendship. Upon the occasion fold effect. Only the intervention of the Voivode of Gdańsk of expanding official activity, however, I encountered great made it possible to start relieving those groups of their duties. obstacles due to the attitude of the military authorities and Nonetheless, despite the accomplished dissolution material managed to take over administration with great difficulty. The already accumulated by some groups had not been handed Russian authorities are slowly withdrawing from this terrain. over to the Municipal Board, whose work, consequently, must Economic access, however, is still the domain of the Army, be now conducted from the beginning.26 which considers all economic goods in Gdańsk to be wartime Regardless of the above-mentioned controversies, the trophies. Food and all other commodities, machinery, tools, greatest difficulty faced by the localisation and protection furniture and home outfitting are at the disposal of the Army, of movable monuments performed in the discussed terrain which grants the Municipal Board exemptions only in rare by Polish specialists was the competing activity of the Soviet cases and, moreover, according to a complicated procedure. team of the Committee of the Arts of the Council of Ministers Military authorities carted away great amounts of this of the USSR under Leoniy Denisov,27 which searched – at the property from Gdańsk and even from houses taken over by same time and in the same locations as the Poles – for cultural the Poles upon the basis of permits issued by the Municipal goods concealed by the German service for the protection of Board, and they appropriated the most valuable furniture monuments and evacuated from Gdańsk and its environs. as well as other objects and equipment. It has become Owing to the advancing Eastern Front, the Office of necessary for the central authorities to intervene for the Prof. Erich Volmar – Gau-Konservator28 for Gdańsk and sake of an exact determination what comprises war spoils, West Pomerania29 – ordered already in 194230 to prepare otherwise it is feared that even the equipment of public utility plans for the evacuation of movable cultural goods and enterprises will be seized.15 to inaugurate the measurement and