Warsaw 1945: A Guide to a City of Ruins Hashtag (topic) #architecture #heritage Nagłówek super artykułu Title on page in header Warsaw 1945: A Guide to a City of Ruins Image or video warszawa-budowa-forum2.jpg Podpis dla multimediów Warsaw, Junacy from Łódź demolishing the ruins of tenement houses on Marszałkowska Street, 1946, photo: Edward Falkowski/CFK/Forum Header text color rgb(255, 255, 255) Enable audio for video Off Negative header audio button Wyłączony Negative side audio button Wyłączony Zawartość (treść strony Super Artykułu) Columns style both columns static Left column 'They said: There is no Warsaw. Right column ‘Warsaw is Free!’, the front page of the Życie Warszawy (Life of Warsaw) newspaper, 18 January 1945, photo: National Library / Polona.pl Fullscreen gallery items Text An aerial photo of Warsaw. Pictured: a destroyed city centre (Śródmieście). In the upper right hand of the photograph the ruins of the Warsaw Ghetto are also visible, as well as St Augustine’s Church (48/50 Nowolipki St) in the Muranów district. Podpis obrazka photo: audiovis.nac.gov.pl / NAC Text position left top Text 1 August 1945: the anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising – a crowd gathered around a street altar erected in front of the destroyed building of the Co-operative Bank (the so-called House ‘Under the Eagles’ at 1 Jasna Street on the corner of Zgoda Street). Visible fragment of the philharmonic building. Podpis obrazka photo: audiovis.nac.gov.pl / NAC Text position left top Text A funeral on Górski Street, 1946 Podpis obrazka photo: Edward Falkowski / CFK / Forum Text position left top Columns style both columns static Left column Warsaw is left with 20 million cubic metres of debris and 45 tons of explosives and mines left behind by the Nazi Germans. 85% of the buildings on the left-bank of the river are destroyed. Right column The corner of Śniadeckich & Koszykowa Streets, photo: Wacław Żdżarski / audiovis.nac.gov.pl / NAC Fullscreen gallery items Text This systematic destruction also affected urban fauna and flora. Trees burned down along with the buildings; urban sparrows and pigeons disappeared. Instead, western jackdaws, kestrels and falcons made their nests in the debris. Rats were the real plague. Podpis obrazka Ruins in the Powiśle district, photo: Wacław Żdżarski / audiovis.nac.gov.pl / NAC Text position left top Text Buildings in ruin Podpis obrazka photo: Wacław Żdżarski / audiovis.nac.gov.pl / NAC Text position left top Text Removing debris from the street, 1946 Podpis obrazka photo: Wacław Żdżarski / audiovis.nac.gov.pl / NAC Text position left top Columns style both columns static Left column Józef Sigalin, one of the chief architects of Warsaw’s reconstruction, wrote about Nowy Świat Street in January 1945 stating that what was left resembled ‘a ravine instead of Nowy Świat’ (‘A terrible sight. There is nothing here. A sinister canyon.’). Right column A girl on the roof of the house at 5/7 Stawki Street looks out upon Warsaw in ruins, photo: Bettmann Archive / Getty Images Fullscreen gallery items Text People walking from the Wilanów train in the direction of Unii Lubelskiej Square, 1945, Warsaw Podpis obrazka photo: Maria Chrząszczowa / Maria Jarecka Text position left top Text Spring 1945: people returning to city after the liberation of Warsaw from under the Nazi German occupation on 17 January 1945, pictured: the corner of Marszałkowska Street and Jerozolimskie Avenue Podpis obrazka photo: PAP Text position left top Tekst Polish novelist Maria Dąbrowska, who returned to the capital in February 1945, wrote about her feelings in My First Walk Around Warsaw: I stand with tears in my eyes for a long time, my thoughts are shattered like the city, my heart is crushed. (...) I pass a house only partly burned. Before it, a stick shoved in a pile of debris and snow with a piece of paper saying: ‘We serve hot soup, coffee, appetizers’. Inside, people are hustling about (...). I'm smiling. No, there is no death for Varsovians. In this graveyard of a city, every smallest manifestation of what felt like a ‘return to normality’ was thoroughly enjoyed: a booth with dumplings, a florist's stall, a running tram, a street cleared of rubble. Important addresses and phenomena – join us on a walk through Warsaw of 1945. Text size standard fonts size Fullscreen gallery items Text The sign reads: ‘Lunches, coffee, tea, pastries, hot dishes, heated premise, 25/14 Marszałkowska Street, through the courtyard, on the ground floor’, Marszałkowska Street, 1945 Podpis obrazka photo: Stanisław Urbanowicz / PAP Text position left top Text Autumn 1945: a kiosk in the ruins Podpis obrazka photo: CAF / PAP Text position left top Text A street hairdresser on the corner of Marszałkowska & Wspólna Streets Podpis obrazka photo: Wacław Żdżarski / audiovis.nac.gov.pl / NAC Text position left top Text March 1945: everyday life of the capital in ruins – selling bread Podpis obrazka photo: CAF / PAP Text position left top Columns style both columns static Left column Between 1944 and 1945, the centre of Warsaw relocated to the Praga District. Right column Children playing the accordion and tambourine to make some money on Targowa Street, 1945, photo: Stanisław Dąbrowiecki / PAP Columns style both columns static Left column It’s in Praga, that the post-war history of theatre in Warsaw begins. Right column Syrena cinema at 4 Inżynierska Street, 1946, photo: PAP Columns style both columns static Left column ‘Dear God, Rebuild the Capital’ In post-war accounts, one of the most frequently recurring themes are the long walks: to get water, to go shopping or to a city office... Some of these walks began on the way back to the city – kilometres away. Right column Public transportation on the corner of Marszałkowska Street & Jerozolimskie Avenue, Warsaw, 1945, photo: Polpress / PAP Fullscreen gallery items Text March 1945: boats replace bridges destroyed during the war Podpis obrazka photo: CAF / PAP Text position left top Text Dr Aleksander Pacho described the reaction of Praga’s residents when they saw trams for the first time: 'A funeral procession continued along Ząbkowska Street towards Targowa Street. (...) All of a sudden, from the depths of Ząbkowska Street (...) an operating tram emerged – a red Warsaw tram, an indispensable element of the reviving landscape of our city. People reacted enthusiastically upon seeing the tram. Pedestrians on the sidewalks stopped, others ran towards the wagon cheering and clapping loudly. And surprisingly, even a funeral procession stopped, those escorting the deceased turned to the streetcar and finally, enveloped by the enthusiasm, also began to clap'. Podpis obrazka The first trams on the streets of Warsaw, photo: CAF / PAP Text position right top Text People envied Praga, but on 15 September 1945, two tram lines appeared on Warsaw’s left bank. During the year, two communication novelties would appear on the streets of the city: Moscow trolleybuses (trajlusie) and London double-deckers (piętrusie). However, the true love of Varsovians was the chausson, a French bus bought for Silesian coal; it appeared in 1947. Podpis obrazka November 1945: trams, which had been stolen from Warsaw and taken to Germany, return to the capital, photo: Jerzy Baranowski / CAF / PAP Text position left top Text Traffic in the centre of the city Podpis obrazka photo: Polpress / PAP Text position left top Text Fallen spans of the railway bridge at the Citadel, behind it, a makeshift wooden railway bridge is visible Podpis obrazka photo: CAF / PAP Text position left top Columns style both columns static Left column Modernist buildings from the 1930s were among the best preserved in the city – they were protected from complete destruction by solid, reinforced concrete structures. Right column An identification card from the Office for the Reconstruction of the Capital (Biuro Odbudowy Stolicy), photo: Biblioteka Narodowa / Polona.pl Fullscreen gallery items Text Grzegorz Piątek in the book The Best City in the World: Rebuilding Warsaw 1944-1949 wrote: ‘Demolitions cause a sensation, they are spectacles that attract onlookers’. Architect Jerzy Hryniewiecki described a walk through the streets of Warsaw as watching an ‘action film’, ‘a wonderful live show ‘, ‘an American film that has come to life but the actors have no backup like the tricks of camera’. The actors are acrobats from the demolition brigades. According to Hryniewiecki, this way they provided themselves with a dose of adrenaline, which they became addicted to during the war. Podpis obrazka The demolition of remaining ruins, photo: audiovis.nac.gov.pl / NAC Text position left top Text Demolition of a destroyed buiding on Marszałkowska Street, 1945 Podpis obrazka photo: audiovis.nac.gov.pl / NAC Text position left top Columns style both columns static Left column In turn, architect Jan Knothe wrote: Right column The installation of Finish houses on the premises of the former Ujazdowski Hospital, April 1945, photo: CAF / PAP Columns style both columns static Left column ‘New City’ While BOS was still in the midst of doing inventory and planning, residents and merchants began rebuilding what they could on their own. Right column Trade on Wilcza Street, 1945, photo: CAF / PAP Fullscreen gallery items Text Hotel Polonia (pictured) is the Polish capital’s most representative building, as the writer Zofia Nałkowska said, ‘this bit of Europe is only recognisable as such due to a few tenement buildings that hadn’t been destroyed’. This was where diplomatic missions were located, where foreign correspondents were quartered and grand banquets held. Currency dealers, unemployed musicians searching for some sort of engagement with dancing orchestras, and Polish women referred to as ‘Polonists’ spent a lot of time in the crowded lobby. Of course, it was also swarming with Secret Police. Podpis obrazka Traffic on Jerozolimskie Avenue, Hotel Polonia and Poznańska Street are on the left, Spetember 1945, photo: Karol Szczeciński / PAP Text position left top Text Ruins of the Main Railway Station; the south side of Jerozolimskie Avenue with the building at 37 Jerozolimskie Ave. & Hotel Polonia at 39 Jerozolmiskie Ave. visible Podpis obrazka photo: audiovis.nac.gov.pl / NAC Text position left top Columns style both columns static Left column Improvised trading points and eateries were located in absolutely fantastic places: on the corner of Marszałkowska and Skorupki streets, hot soup was being served from a derailed and overturned tram. Right column Trade, Warsaw 1945, photo: Maria Chrząszczowa / Maria Jarecka Fullscreen gallery items Text Stanisław ‘Wiech’ Wiechecki wrote in a post-war column: ‘And, in general, everything has been improved. Mister, you want a manicure or a pedicure, you don't need to go far, there’s a booth standing right in the middle of the street; you’ll get your hands and feet all cleaned up so that even your closest family won’t recognise you (...)’ Podpis obrazka ‘Manicure, pedicure’, photo: Zofia Chomętowska / Fundacja Archeologia Fotografii / the Chomętowski family Text position left top Columns style both columns static Left column It’s not only commercial life that has returned to Marszałkowska – cultural life returns too. On 10 March 1945, in the former hot chocolate café Plutos on 119 Marszałkowska Street, ‘the first artistic joint in Warsaw’ is established. Right column Café Fogg, 1945, photo: PAP Columns style both columns static Left column The Mały Theatre (at 81b Marszałkowska St.), the Music and Opera Stage and the first post-war cabaret, Klub Satyryków Kukułka (Cuckoo’s Club of Satirists), are also being built on Marszałkowska. Its founder, Janusz Odrowąż, wrote: Right column A street bookseller on Marszałkowska Street, with Polonia Cinema in the background, photo: PAP Fullscreen gallery items Text Not all of Śródmieście was transforming at the same pace. Warecki Square, the calling card of the city centre in the 1930s, becomes a cemetery and wasteland after the uprising. In August 1945, Jerzy Waldorff wrote that when he visited the square, the silence was broken only by croaking frogs sitting in a bomb crater and the murmurs of looters combing through the surrounding cellars. ‘Years will pass, people will begin to forget about the war, but they will continue sniffing around basements, blinded by their passion, always with the hope of winning the looter’s lottery – of finding gold and jewels hidden somewhere between the walls’. Podpis obrazka Napoleon Square (later Warecki Square, today Powstańców Warszawy Square) and the destroyed building of the Main Post Office, photo: PAP / Reprodukcja Jan Morek Text position left top Text In the background you can see the skeleton of the Prudential Building, the tallest skyscraper of the pre-war capital. Miron Białoszewski, then a journalist of the newspaper Wieczór Warszawy (Warsaw Evening) took part in an expedition to the top floor, which he reported in a photo reportage On the Dangerous Edge of the Capital’s Highest Peak: ‘Using the stairs from the Świętokrzyska Street side, we got to the fifth floor quickly. Here, however, the real climbing began. The stairs were collapsed. We knew about other stairs on the opposite side of the building. But to get to them, we had to cross on narrow beams hanging over the abyss?’ At the top, it turned out that they were not the first ones there: groups of looters had been there and even left their signatures on the tiles. Podpis obrazka A wintry view from Chmielna Street looking out onto Szpitalna Street. The Prudential building on Napoleon Square is visible in the background, photo: PAP / Reprodukcja Jan Morek Text position left top Columns style both columns static Left column ‘Warsaw Accuses’ With an exhibition under this eloquent title, the National Museum in Warsaw inaugurated its post-war activity on 3 May 1945. Right column The National Museum in Warsaw. General Dwight David Eisenhower, the commander of the American Armed Forces in Europe, visits the ‘Warsaw Accuses’ exhibition alongside Dr Stanisław Lorentza, the director of the museum & General Marian Spychalski, in the so-called ‘Destruction Hall’, 21 September 1945, photo: Jerzy Baranowski / MNW Podpis obrazka The ‘Warsaw Accuses’ exhibition at the National Museum in Warsaw, 3 June 1945 - 28 January 1946; the ‘Destruction Hall’ with a collection of ruined artwork from the Polish Painting Gallery; vintage furniture, 1945, photo: MNW Podpis obrazka The ‘Warsaw Accuses’ exhibition at the National Museum in Warsaw, 3 June 1945 - 28 January 1946; the ‘Destruction Hall’ with ruined vintage furniture, a piano and sculptures from the destroyed churches of Warsaw, 1945, photo: MNW Columns style both columns static Left column The ‘Documentation Hall’ presents the pre-war activity of the Museum and the heroic attempts to save the collection by director Stanisław Lorentz and employees. Right column The ‘Warsaw Accuses’ exhibition at the National Museum in Warsaw, 3 June 1945 - 28 January 1946; part of the exhibition with ancient artwork, the words ‘Survived forty centuries – destroyed by German hands’ above it, 1945, photo: MNW Fullscreen gallery items Text The ‘Warsaw Accuses’ exhibition at the National Museum in Warsaw, 3 June 1945 - 28 January 1946; the ‘BOS Hall’ with the ‘Map of the Destruction of Warsaw’, 1945 Podpis obrazka photo: MNW Text position left top More Super Articles Title A Dream City Refound: Białystok through the Lens of Augustis URL /en/interrupted-country/a-dream-city-refound-bialystok-through-the-lens-of-augu… Thumbnail Image URLhttps://api.culture.pl/sites/default/files/2019-10/boleslaw_augustis_81._.jpg Hashtag (topic) #photography Title Witkacy's ‘Madness’: The Lost Manuscript of a Total Artist URL /en/superarticle/witkacys-madness-the-lost-manuscript-of-a-total-artist Thumbnail Image URLhttps://api.culture.pl/sites/default/files/images/imported/_sara/witkacy%20alternatywna%20biografia/multiple%20self%20portrait%20witkacy_7097723.jpg Hashtag (topic) #photography & visual arts Title The Silesian Museum: The Architecture of Identity URL /en/interrupted-country/the-silesian-museum-the-architecture-of-identity Thumbnail Image URLhttps://api.culture.pl/sites/default/files/2019-09/muzeum_slaskie_projekt_nac.jpg Hashtag (topic) #architecture Introduction The story of life returning to a lifeless city. Not standard color version Off Series label Begin Summary The story of life returning to a lifeless city. Cover Thumbnail size default [360 px] Thumbnail budowa_warszawy_foru_mniatura.jpg
Image URLhttps://api.culture.pl/sites/default/files/images/imported/_sara/witkacy%20alternatywna%20biografia/multiple%20self%20portrait%20witkacy_7097723.jpg
