Originalveröffentlichung in: Acta historiae artium Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, 49 (2008), S. 294-303 MALGORZATA OMDLANOWSKA* THE QUESTION OF NATIONAL AND REGIONAL IDENTITY ON THE EXAMPLE OF POLISH AND GERMAN INTERPRETATIONS OF GDANSK ARCHITECTURE IN THE 19th AND 20th CENTURIES Abstract: The architectural heritage and the mode of its analysis arid interpretation, specially in the perspective of na­ tional and regional question, can and often becomes the issue prone to manipulation. The attempts to define national and regional identity by means of cultural legacy have been accompanying the research into art and also the creation of modem architecture in the spirit of national Historieism already since the 19'1' century. The architecture of Gdansk has for years been the subject of a heated debate'of both German and Polish architects, historians of architecture, and conservators. In the recent years also politicians have joined in the debate, and so have writers. The paper analyses the issue of the relation of architectural forms and rhetorical formulas, namely the combination of architecture and specific contents treated as signs of local identity, as well as changeability and interpretational flexibility of those issues with regard to the needs of political circumstances (idioms versus interpretational variants, stereotypies, research myths, likings versus scholarly idiosyncrasies). Special attention will be paid to the Gdansk architecture of the 2nd half of the 19* century and its contemporary and later in­ terpretations in the perspective of regional and national identification. Keywords: architecture of the 19. and 20. centuries, national identification, Neo-Renaissance, Danzig, Gdansk, history of architecture The architectural heritage and the mode of The major problem concerning Gdansk and its analysis and interpretation, specially in the interesting in the context of the topic of the pres­ perspective of national and regional question, ent Symposium does not only touch on the very is­ can and often becomes the issue prone to manip­ sues of national and local interpretation of the his­ ulation. The attempt's to define national and re­ tory of architecture of the city by art historian, but gional identity by means of cultural legacy have first of all the translation of those interpretations been accompanying the research into art and into arcliitecttrre raised in the city in the 19th and also the creation of modern architecture in the 20' centuries by German architects until 1944 spirit of national Historieism already since the and the Polish ones after 1945, which in conse­ 19th century. The place where the phenomena quence means the translation of those interpreta­ can be observed in a particularly acute way is tions into the processes of restoration, conserva­ Gdansk, a city of extremely complicated identity, tion, and reconstruction of Gdansk monuments. multicultural structure, and a rich architecftiral Architectural heritage of the old Gdansk, this output, the latter having been on a number of oc­ meaning the main sphere of interest of the re­ casions a subject to national interpretations or searchers into medieval and early modem art over-interpretations.1 and the architectural cityscape that it shaped was dominated by buildings raised during the period when Gdansk belonged to the Polish * Malgorzata Omilanowska, Instimte of Art of the Polish crown. Naturally, already during the Teutonic Academy of Sciences - Warsaw, History of Art Dept. Univer­ lh sity of Gdansk; E-mail: malgi [email protected], times: in the 13* and 14 centuries and in the th Fax: +48-22-831-31-49 first half of the 15 century, a number of impor- Acln Historiae irtium, fomus 49.200o OO01-583O/2OO8/$2O.O0©Akad6miaiKiad6, Budapest M. OMILA.NOW SKA. GDANSK ARCHITECTURE 295 tant lay and sacral edifices had already been German art was started really early.2 The best ac­ built, yet many of them, e.g. the Town Hall of the complished Gdansk buildings could be found al­ main city in the course of time underwent sub­ ready among the prints of Georg Moller's portfi >li< > stantial alterations or were added extensions sig- published in 1821, whereas the publications nificant for their external reception, such as a from the 1850s, 1860s, and 1870s, mainly by Wil- huge tower added onto the Marian Church. In ef­ helm Liibke, consolidated in the general German fect, only one important symbol of the city, awareness the image of Gdansk architecture of namely the Crane Gate, dating from the Teu­ the Renaissance as one of the better examples of tonic period has, apart from churches, survived German architecture.4 unaltered until the modern times. Views of Polish scholars on the architecture The most attractive, and as the time has of Gdansk (I do not deal here with some detailed shown most important buildings in the perspec­ topographic studies) began to appear at tin; be­ tive of the reception of Gdansk architecture in ginning of the 20 century.'' The researchers later centuries were either created or thoroughly traced in it first of all Netherlandish and Italian altered in the second half of the 15 century, influences, at times literally denying any connec­ throughout the 16'1' century, and in the first half tion that it may have had with German art. It is of the IT1'1 century. The buildings of the Great Ar­ enough to mention in this respect controversies moury, the Green, High, and Golden Gates, the regarding the terminology with reference to the Old Town Hall, and the Court of the Brother­ architecture of the 16 and IT"1' centuries. The hood of St. Ceorge, as well as of the altered Main Germans defined those buildings as raised in the Town Hall and the Artus Court have become the style of German Renaissance and Baroque. The icons of the city. The character of the city is also Poles, in turn, preferred the term Northern Ren­ shaped by dozens of tenement houses of typical aissance and Mannerism, eagerly emphasizing narrow facades crowned with gables and pre­ the main feature of this architecture, namely its ceded by perrons. The profile of the city domi­ relations with Netherlandish architecture, some­ nated by edifices from High Middle Ages, Renais­ times even excessively promoting the concept of sance, Mannerism, and Baroque was additionally Netherlandism in the context of Gdansk.1' consolidated by a construction stagnation w hich The 18 century brought no essential alter­ lasted through the 18* century and the majority ations in Gdansk's townscape. After 17()8, of the 19th century. Gdansk was encompassed within the boundaries Anyone at least rudimentarily familiar with of Prussia, whereas during the Napoleonic wars the facts from the Polish-German relations finds it suffered enormous devastation, losing for some it absolutely obvious that the artistic legacy of decades to come almost completely any eco­ Gdansk was bound to turn to he almost from the nomic importance, at the same time starling the very beginning of the research into it a sphere of period of stagnation w hich also affected the cre­ controversy and exttemely differentiated inter­ ation of new buildings. It was only once a new pretations between the Polish and German art West Prussian Province had been formed post historians. For the German scholars Gdansk ar­ 1878, namely after the establishment of the Ger­ chitecture constituted an integral part of the Ger­ man Empire, when Gdansk was elevated to the man cultural legacy, yet the Poles regarded the status of the capital of the province, that a new buildings from the period when the city belonged momentum in the development of the city was to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as a gained, the economic growth accelerated, and a part of their own tradition, interwoven, whether stimulus formed for the expansion of the city and we want it or not, with various influences result­ enriching it with new public buildings. Histori- ing from a peculiar character of a multi-denomi­ cism of the second half of the 191'1 century deter­ national, multi lingual, and multi-cultural state. mined the choice of a style from the past for The present is not an appropriate opportunity them. The decision was made to follow the Ger­ to discuss in detail the German and Polish state of man No<(-Renaissance, already popular in the ar­ research into the architecture of Gdansk. Let me chitecture of many German towns.' remind, however, that the German research into In 1880-1887, several projects were imple­ Gdansk architecture as seen in the perspective of mented in Gdansk, these being first and fore- Icta Hist. Irt.. Tom. 49, 200b 296 CIHA NATIONAL - POS T-NATIONAL trimmer—I m-i w- Py- ;U IHffilBI ~r" J —-rr' rr—jr i - ~C 3— rxFErr rrrv fti rr.' lilfs rr 1 -n~ nix fort Tft-re> ^•.^•ji-tr"tttt SL-^r":^b H - LTi' .. & ffi as ^ a A, RFR : I? QLi|n t i &4 rr re: ^ rr -Lis h. • u& y as s is vwamiis - jminrain. L'i'iiumi] =03 CD Ti r rr rm- :cj£i£.o rn;aa-:yB- ;.rrn no am SW, Oft flfftfi 3ES=u /wg. /. Gdansk, Supra-Presidency and Western Prussian Public Notary' (Oberprasidial- und Regiarungsgebaudej. Karl Friedrieh Endell, 1879-1886, repr.: Zeitschrift fur Bauwesen, 1889, Bl. 1. most the buildings of the Supra-Presidency and the same time the latter also raised two other im­ Western Prussian Public Notary (Oberpixisidial- portant edifices in Gdansk: the Great Synagogue und Regierungsgebdude, Fig. 1) designed by the and the building of the Saving Bank (Sparkasse). Berlin architect Karl Friedrieh Endell and of the In professional media in which all the designs Governance of the Western Prussia Provinces were published it was emphasized that the build­ (Landeshaus, Fig. 2) designed by the Berlin ar­ ings stylistically adhered to German Neo-Renais- chitectural company Ende & Bockmann.