www.kunsttexte.de/ostblick 3/2019 - 1 Niels Gutschow 3reface Notes on tracing documents and tangible heritage testifying to the Germanization of 3olish territory It has never been a secret that I am the son of the ar- an undreamt-of scale and to join and materialize the chitect Konstanty Gutschow, who played a major role will of the S0 to Germanize occupied territories. in Nazi planning and architecture. He is usually listed @uring the war my father negotiated with the +irt- as one of the !rchitects of the "ührer $"ührerarchi- schaftsverwaltungshauptamt of the 00 regarding the te%t&' who in '()) acted as a %ind of deputy beside supply of bric%s by the Concentration Camp at Neu- *udolf Wolters, the head of the Task Force for the Re- engamme in Hamburg, his brother in fact signed the building of -ombed Cities $!rbeitsstab +iederaufbau contract to establish the bric% factory with the 00 e> bombenzerst/rter 0t1dte&. His offices were in Ham- officio as a high officer of the local government. 6y burg and at +riezen at the *iver 2der. ,here the offi- father was a staunch opponent of *obert Ley’s ces of the *eichsministerium 0peer had ta%en refuge *eichskommissarit für den 0ozialen +ohnungsbau in '()) in temporary shelter. He was certainly a Nazi, but absolutely loyal to !lbert 0peer, whom he admired. not because he joined the Nazi 3arty in 1937, similar !fter my father died in 1978, I started to study his to his colleagues *udolf Hillebrecht, Hans 0tosberg files. For my first interview I met Wolters in Coesfeld in and +ilhelm +ortmann, but because he was convin- 0eptember '(5C and in my last interview the son of ced that rendering service to the ,hird *eich needed Hubert *itter, Hans *itter, a member of my generati- a formal affirmation. It was an avowal and also a to- on, on 6ay 23, '((D in 6unich. !lmost twenty years %en of the sharing in power. *ecently, 6agnus of searching and finding the protagonists of Nazi -recht%en made it a point to answer the 7uestion planning was 7uite fruitful because for everybody I 8+ho is a Nationalsocialist9: by saying; 8! Nazi is the was 8the son” and that ensured from the beginning a one who acts nationalsocialistic:.< =oining the party credit of trust. I was invariably welcomed to listen to was in no way an opportunistic act and it was also not personal stories and to ta%e along documents. Hans re7uired, as is often asserted. !rchitects such as *u- 0tosberg, the planner of the city of !uschwitz, was dolf +olters and "riedrich ,amms, for e>ample, never the only one who rejected any personal contact but joined the party. ,amms even reached the rank of 8di- seven wee%s before he died in 2ctober '(C( he sent vinely gifted: $gottbegnadet& in order to be freed of his !uschwitz file as a %ind of legacy. No doubt, he any military service, in the company of Ernst Neufert was - like all the other architects - proud of his work. and Clemens Klotz. Nationalsocialism is not easily de- In '(CD I first established contact with architects in fined but the fiery nucleus of the -ewegung as a se- 3oland with the help of -arbara Klain: I met Zygmunt cular religion was no doubt the "ührer who enjoyed a 0%ibniewski, 0tanisław @ziewulski, 0tanisław =an%ow- %ind of sacrocanctity. -eside its racist nature Natio- ski and even -ohdan Lachert in his celebrated house nalsocialism developed many facets and remained in Praga. In 1989 I started to work at the 0tate !rchive largely undefined till 1939. ,his very character allowed in +arsaw and in 1990 to 1992 at the archives in 3oz- the elite and among them the architects to be enga- nań, ŁódK, Katowice, Ciechanów, Białysto%, Oświęcim ged and to receive in turn the e>pected appreciation and Cracow as well as at the -undesarchiv in Ko- by the party. ,his rather short characterization of Na- blenz. ,he chapter on !uschwitz in 2rdnungswahn tionalsocialism may sound daring but it e>plains the was written in November '((' at my desk in -ha%ta- unquestioned preparedness of planners to design in pur Nepal.4 ,he distance was chosen intentionally. Niels Gutschow 3reface %unstte>te.deNostblic% 4N2019 - < ,he final boo% publication gained form in <GG' only obliged to trace documents that testify to the process because 3eter Neitz%e, the editor of the -auwelt "un- of Germanization. damente was insisting. ,he boo% ended up as a re- mainder in a few boo%shops and I bought hundred copies to be given away to interested friends. +hen I Actors in the field of Germanization lectured for the first time on the issue of Germanizati- [Eindeutschung], 1939 on on "ebruary 23, <G'< at the -ayerische !%ademie ,he first franatically optimistic yet private announce- der 0chönen Künste at 6unich in the conte>t of 8!r- ment regarding the new formation of German land chitecture and Crime:, I was utterly speechless be- $Neugestaltung deutschen Landes& may be con- cause the large auditorium was filled with an au- sidered the personal statement of Ewald Liedec%e, dience. 0omething must have happened to open up who was in charge of regional planning at the office of one more window into an unknown and often ignored the governor $2berpr1sident& of East 3russia $2st- past. preußen&. 2n 'st 0eptember '(4( he wrote with the 0imilarly, interest in the legacy of Germanization beginning of the Second World War: grew in 3oland, with Hanna Grzeszczuk--rendel, pu- 8Instead of the usual partial approach, a total act of blishing on wartime housing estates in 3oznaH Osince colonization is asked for, which embraces the entire <GG)P) and =ace% 3urchla O<GGQP focussing on Hubert territory $of 3oland&. It will have to be reallocated and *itter and his plans for Cracow.Q I met Hanna first in newly settled along German visions. ,his will have to +rocław on <5th 6ay <GG4 and again in 2015. hazard the conse7uence to sacrifice, where neces- !le%sandra 3aradowska and Karolina =ara were sary, so-called economic assets as represented by guests at my tiny little village near Heidelberg, with buildings and farms, in the interest of a definite Ger- unhindered acces to my files and my library. man creation of this territory”.D Having said that I have to admit that I feel like a ve- Liedec%e became a prominent e>ponent of Ger- teran, only too happy to see the ne>t generation filling manization, publishing his drastic hate speech in ar- the present publication with the results of recent rese- chitectural magazines and boo%s. In @ecember '(4( arch, now not only covering the Germanization of 3o- he was invested with the task of regional planning lish territories but in an obvious logic the architectural $Generalreferent für *aumordnung& in the newly cre- heritage of the ,hird *eich in a territory that in '()Q ated Gau Danzig-Westpreußen and established his of- emerged as a new Poland. fice at Gdynia [Gotenhafen&. I have to add that I created files since '(5C in con- ,hree wee%s later Heinrich Lauter asked *udolf tinuation of files my father started in 1938. 2ccasio- +olters in a letter dated <<nd 0eptember '(4(; T!re nally I worked with that material. you already wor%ing on an urban plan for +arsaw95 0ince '(5C I devoted much of my energy and time Lauter met +olters first '(4< in Nowosibirsk where to the field of town planning in Europe during the 0e- both of them were wor%ing as architects in the service cond +orld +ar. -ut since '(5G I spent much and in of the 0oviet Union. In '(4( Lauter was acting as the the early 1990s most of my time far away from the city architect in 0tade. His friend +olters was depart- haunting German past, the world of my father and his menal chief at the office of the Generalbauinspe%tor colleagues. I turned to =apan, India and Nepal as an for the capital of the *eich. +ith 8you” he addressed architectural historian and a self-proclaimed architec- the staff of the office of !lbert 0peer which was tural anthropologist. !t the core of my interest stands provided with e>traordinary power and planning man- Urban 0pace and *itual - the city used as a stage for dates. Lauter‘s 7uestion was much more than a joc- meaningful performances. ose comment in advance of the city’s capitulation on I ta%e the liberty to present this personal bac%- <5th 0eptember. ,he profession of planners obviously ground at length in order to demonstrate how my ge- enjoyed a rapture in 0eptember 1939. Lauter’s 7ues- neration struggles with the Nazi legacy and to e>plain tion can indeed be understood as a warning; -e alert why I, with two great-grandmothers from IJdK, felt and ready to capture new mandates before other Niels Gutschow 3reface %unstte>te.deNostblic% 4N2019 - 4 power centres around Heinrich Himmler or *obert Ley '()4 to complete a military basic training at 6odlin, would occupy such promising assignments. Hubert GroS was deputed from the army to work for In her constribution, =agoda ZaFMska-Kacz%o ar- the German -uilding !dministration $@eutsche gues that at Gdańsk $@anzig& Tarchitects loyal to the -auverwaltung& in +arsaw in @ecember '(4( to pro- Nazis strove to appeal to their taste8. I do not %now duce his infamous plan for the deconstruction $!bbau an opposition of architects, being either 8loyal” or der Polenstadt& of the city. 8disloyal”. !t least I have never met anyone in person @ecisive for further deputations was a letter from admitting a former disloyalty and I never came across the 6inistry of Interior dated 0eptember 2, 1939, ask- a document stating disloyalty - apart from the few ing the provincial governments to ask the municipalit- prominent emigrants and architects of =ewish origin ies to provide e>pert personal for the administration of who were forced to emigrate in order to preempt their the municipalities of the 8occupied territories in the deportation.