Double rebuilding
Retrieving the identity in post-war reconstruction of Main Town Gdańsk
K.J. Kurzacz (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
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Abstract
As a result of the war, the city center of Gdańsk was almost destroyed. The degree of its destruction was estimated at nearly 90%. With the war’s end, a new stage in the history of Gdańsk began. New inhabitants appeared; some came from other regions of former Poland, e.g., Vilnius and Lviv. It is hard to imagine, but the decision to rebuild the city in its historical shape was not evident. Eventually, the authorities of the time were persuaded to this concept. The impact of economic, political, and social changes was significant in rebuilding the city physically and in terms of Polish identity. The reconstruction became a source of actual, and not merely propaganda, pride for multiple generations of Gdańsk citizens, and therefore also one of the significant aspects in the crystallization of local identity in the post-war decades.