Gregor Thum
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691140247
- eISBN:
- 9781400839964
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691140247.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
With the stroke of a pen at the Potsdam Conference following the Allied victory in 1945, Breslau, the largest German city east of Berlin, became the Polish city of Wroclaw. Its more than 600,000 ...
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With the stroke of a pen at the Potsdam Conference following the Allied victory in 1945, Breslau, the largest German city east of Berlin, became the Polish city of Wroclaw. Its more than 600,000 inhabitants—almost all of them ethnic Germans—were expelled and replaced by Polish settlers from all parts of pre-war Poland. This book examines the long-term psychological and cultural consequences of forced migration in twentieth-century Europe through the experiences of Wroclaw's Polish inhabitants. The book tells the story of how the city's new Polish settlers found themselves in a place that was not only unfamiliar to them but outright repellent given Wroclaw's Prussian-German appearance and the enormous scope of wartime destruction. The immediate consequences were an unstable society, an extremely high crime rate, rapid dilapidation of the building stock, and economic stagnation. This changed only after the city's authorities and a new intellectual elite provided Wroclaw with a Polish founding myth and reshaped the city's appearance to fit the postwar legend that it was an age-old Polish city. The book also shows how the end of the Cold War and Poland's democratization triggered a public debate about Wroclaw's “amputated memory.” Rediscovering the German past, Wroclaw's Poles reinvented their city for the second time since World War II. The book traces the complex historical process by which Wroclaw's new inhabitants revitalized their city and made it their own.Less
With the stroke of a pen at the Potsdam Conference following the Allied victory in 1945, Breslau, the largest German city east of Berlin, became the Polish city of Wroclaw. Its more than 600,000 inhabitants—almost all of them ethnic Germans—were expelled and replaced by Polish settlers from all parts of pre-war Poland. This book examines the long-term psychological and cultural consequences of forced migration in twentieth-century Europe through the experiences of Wroclaw's Polish inhabitants. The book tells the story of how the city's new Polish settlers found themselves in a place that was not only unfamiliar to them but outright repellent given Wroclaw's Prussian-German appearance and the enormous scope of wartime destruction. The immediate consequences were an unstable society, an extremely high crime rate, rapid dilapidation of the building stock, and economic stagnation. This changed only after the city's authorities and a new intellectual elite provided Wroclaw with a Polish founding myth and reshaped the city's appearance to fit the postwar legend that it was an age-old Polish city. The book also shows how the end of the Cold War and Poland's democratization triggered a public debate about Wroclaw's “amputated memory.” Rediscovering the German past, Wroclaw's Poles reinvented their city for the second time since World War II. The book traces the complex historical process by which Wroclaw's new inhabitants revitalized their city and made it their own.
Gregor Thum
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691140247
- eISBN:
- 9781400839964
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691140247.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter begins with Joanna Konopinka's account of her arrival in Wroclaw. Her words illustrate vividly the enormous discrepancy between the actual experiences of Polish settlers and the ...
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This chapter begins with Joanna Konopinka's account of her arrival in Wroclaw. Her words illustrate vividly the enormous discrepancy between the actual experiences of Polish settlers and the patriotic appeals of the government, which spoke of the western territories as ancient Polish soil, a land of milk and honey that was to be resettled after centuries and that promised prosperity to all comers. Polish settlers arriving in the western territories were initially struck by a strong sense of foreignness. The land was foreign, and so were the people they met there, Germans and Poles alike. The settlers had left behind the familiarity of their homes and social surroundings only to find themselves in a kind of no man's land that no longer appeared to belong to Germany but was not yet a part of Poland.Less
This chapter begins with Joanna Konopinka's account of her arrival in Wroclaw. Her words illustrate vividly the enormous discrepancy between the actual experiences of Polish settlers and the patriotic appeals of the government, which spoke of the western territories as ancient Polish soil, a land of milk and honey that was to be resettled after centuries and that promised prosperity to all comers. Polish settlers arriving in the western territories were initially struck by a strong sense of foreignness. The land was foreign, and so were the people they met there, Germans and Poles alike. The settlers had left behind the familiarity of their homes and social surroundings only to find themselves in a kind of no man's land that no longer appeared to belong to Germany but was not yet a part of Poland.
Gregor Thum
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691140247
- eISBN:
- 9781400839964
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691140247.003.0011
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter discusses how historians like Karol Maleczynski probably has a greater impact on Wroclaw's postwar history than all of the city's mayors prior to 1989 taken together. It was their ...
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This chapter discusses how historians like Karol Maleczynski probably has a greater impact on Wroclaw's postwar history than all of the city's mayors prior to 1989 taken together. It was their writings, both popular and scholarly, that shaped the perception of Wroclaw as the “age-old Polish” city. Not least due to Maleczynski's efforts, it was only a few years before studies of local Wroclaw history appeared in a scope that eclipsed everything that had been produced in the previous centuries. But the residents of Wroclaw were not interested in learning everything about their city's past. They wanted to know what was Polish about it, what justified their presence in Wroclaw, and what might kindle the hope within them that one day they would feel at home in this place.Less
This chapter discusses how historians like Karol Maleczynski probably has a greater impact on Wroclaw's postwar history than all of the city's mayors prior to 1989 taken together. It was their writings, both popular and scholarly, that shaped the perception of Wroclaw as the “age-old Polish” city. Not least due to Maleczynski's efforts, it was only a few years before studies of local Wroclaw history appeared in a scope that eclipsed everything that had been produced in the previous centuries. But the residents of Wroclaw were not interested in learning everything about their city's past. They wanted to know what was Polish about it, what justified their presence in Wroclaw, and what might kindle the hope within them that one day they would feel at home in this place.
Gregor Thum
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691140247
- eISBN:
- 9781400839964
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691140247.003.0013
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter discusses how the Polish state and the people who came to Wroclaw after the Second World War managed to rebuild and revive this city. Considering the situation at the end of the war—the ...
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This chapter discusses how the Polish state and the people who came to Wroclaw after the Second World War managed to rebuild and revive this city. Considering the situation at the end of the war—the devastation, the complete collapse of the previous order, the evacuation of its entire population—this achievement borders on a miracle. If that were not enough, after overcoming its tremendous postwar challenges Wroclaw has gone on to become more than simply a functioning Polish city. The secret capital of the western territories ranks next to Warsaw and Krakow as one of Poland's leading cultural metropolises. Furthermore, Wroclaw's cultural life extends beyond the reach of direct state sponsorship. The chapter also shows how, in the 1980s, Polish inhabitants of the western territories began to show a growing interest in the silenced history of their homeland.Less
This chapter discusses how the Polish state and the people who came to Wroclaw after the Second World War managed to rebuild and revive this city. Considering the situation at the end of the war—the devastation, the complete collapse of the previous order, the evacuation of its entire population—this achievement borders on a miracle. If that were not enough, after overcoming its tremendous postwar challenges Wroclaw has gone on to become more than simply a functioning Polish city. The secret capital of the western territories ranks next to Warsaw and Krakow as one of Poland's leading cultural metropolises. Furthermore, Wroclaw's cultural life extends beyond the reach of direct state sponsorship. The chapter also shows how, in the 1980s, Polish inhabitants of the western territories began to show a growing interest in the silenced history of their homeland.
Alessandro Brogi
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807834732
- eISBN:
- 9781469602950
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807877746_brogi.9
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter discusses the Cold War communist peace campaign that officially began in August 1948 with the Wroclaw World Congress of Intellectuals for Peace. But the Parti Communiste Franȱais (PCF) ...
More
This chapter discusses the Cold War communist peace campaign that officially began in August 1948 with the Wroclaw World Congress of Intellectuals for Peace. But the Parti Communiste Franȱais (PCF) had already mobilized a few months earlier under the drive of Resistance leader Charles Tillon, who, through contacts with prominent French intellectuals, helped found Combattants de la Liberte, later renamed Combattants de la Paix. These initiatives followed Soviet directives. At the Cominform's founding meeting, Moscow decided that disarmament propaganda would become its main anti-American offensive in the West. Orchestration from the Kremlin, however, did not exclude a symbiotic relationship that the Partito Comunista Italiano and especially the PCF sought to establish between their subordination to Moscow and their quest for international prominence. The Soviet Union found Paris, with the PCF's sponsorship, to be the best venue to regroup the pacifist offensive.Less
This chapter discusses the Cold War communist peace campaign that officially began in August 1948 with the Wroclaw World Congress of Intellectuals for Peace. But the Parti Communiste Franȱais (PCF) had already mobilized a few months earlier under the drive of Resistance leader Charles Tillon, who, through contacts with prominent French intellectuals, helped found Combattants de la Liberte, later renamed Combattants de la Paix. These initiatives followed Soviet directives. At the Cominform's founding meeting, Moscow decided that disarmament propaganda would become its main anti-American offensive in the West. Orchestration from the Kremlin, however, did not exclude a symbiotic relationship that the Partito Comunista Italiano and especially the PCF sought to establish between their subordination to Moscow and their quest for international prominence. The Soviet Union found Paris, with the PCF's sponsorship, to be the best venue to regroup the pacifist offensive.