Originally published on Fingertips on 07/12/09
Perched in the north of Poland on the Baltic coast, Gdańsk is arguably Poland’s most politically and historically resonant city.
It is where the communist dictatorship over Europe began to topple, firstly with the strikes in the Lenin Shipyard and the creation of Solidarność (Solidarity) in August 1980, and then with the re-legalisation of Solidarność in April 1989 after its banning under martial law in December 1981. This was followed by the first semi-free elections since World War II in communist Europe in June 1989, when Solidarność took 99 of the 100 seats it competed for in the Senate.
Gdańsk is also where World War II began on 1st September 1939, when the Germans bombarded the Westerplatte peninsula – as documented in Günter Grass’ “The Tin Drum”. Back then the city was called Danzig by its mostly German-speaking population and was annexed by Nazi Germany.
It only became known as Gdańsk again after its liberation in March 1945 and return to Poland as part of the post-war Potsdam Agreement.
All of these upheavals make Gdańsk something of an epitome of the trials Poland suffered in the 20th century, and it is therefore somewhat appropriate that the city also stands out as the embodiment of everything good that is happening to the country in the 21st century.
It blends its history – the tall and narrow merchants’ houses – with the capitalism that is prospering in Poland in the face of the global financial crisis. A recent survey by CB Richard Ellis ranked Poland as the fourth best place for retail expansion in Europe, the Middle East and Africa in 2010, and Gdańsk is very much at the heart of that, with a glut of shopping complexes spreading from its centre down the coastline to its Tricity partners Sopot and Gdynia.
It is one of Poland’s host cities for the Euro 2012 football championships, and its top drawer transport infrastructure – trams, multi-lane roads (a rarity in Poland), ferries, and a train station throbbing with national and international connections – is what Poland’s other major cities all aspire to.
The city is also a candidate for the 2016 European Capital of Culture, is saturated in art – both in its museums and in its streets – and its Open’er music festival offers four days of live music for the bargain price of €76. The last few years have seen performances from the Arctic Monkeys, Björk, Sonic Youth, Erykah Badu and Kanye West to name but a few, and this year it made the final of the UK Festival Awards in the Best Overseas Festival category.
It is also one of Poland’s greenest cities, boasting 250 square metres of greenery per inhabitant and has a thorough cycling route reaching the other parts of the Tricity. The city’s eco-credentials are further boosted by its participation in the European Week of Balanced Transport, European Car Free Day and the Clean up the World campaign.
As Poland strides confidently into the next decade, the boots with which it strides are strapped firmly onto the feet of Gdańsk.
What makes these boots so remarkable is that they were once the boots that Orwell immortalised in “1984”, the boots “stamping on a human face – forever.”
Gdańsk pushed those boots from its face in 1989, squashed the final word in Orwell’s sentence with them, and now moves forward with a swagger in its step.
It is where the communist dictatorship over Europe began to topple, firstly with the strikes in the Lenin Shipyard and the creation of Solidarność (Solidarity) in August 1980, and then with the re-legalisation of Solidarność in April 1989 after its banning under martial law in December 1981. This was followed by the first semi-free elections since World War II in communist Europe in June 1989, when Solidarność took 99 of the 100 seats it competed for in the Senate.
Gdańsk is also where World War II began on 1st September 1939, when the Germans bombarded the Westerplatte peninsula – as documented in Günter Grass’ “The Tin Drum”. Back then the city was called Danzig by its mostly German-speaking population and was annexed by Nazi Germany.
It only became known as Gdańsk again after its liberation in March 1945 and return to Poland as part of the post-war Potsdam Agreement.
All of these upheavals make Gdańsk something of an epitome of the trials Poland suffered in the 20th century, and it is therefore somewhat appropriate that the city also stands out as the embodiment of everything good that is happening to the country in the 21st century.
It blends its history – the tall and narrow merchants’ houses – with the capitalism that is prospering in Poland in the face of the global financial crisis. A recent survey by CB Richard Ellis ranked Poland as the fourth best place for retail expansion in Europe, the Middle East and Africa in 2010, and Gdańsk is very much at the heart of that, with a glut of shopping complexes spreading from its centre down the coastline to its Tricity partners Sopot and Gdynia.
It is one of Poland’s host cities for the Euro 2012 football championships, and its top drawer transport infrastructure – trams, multi-lane roads (a rarity in Poland), ferries, and a train station throbbing with national and international connections – is what Poland’s other major cities all aspire to.
The city is also a candidate for the 2016 European Capital of Culture, is saturated in art – both in its museums and in its streets – and its Open’er music festival offers four days of live music for the bargain price of €76. The last few years have seen performances from the Arctic Monkeys, Björk, Sonic Youth, Erykah Badu and Kanye West to name but a few, and this year it made the final of the UK Festival Awards in the Best Overseas Festival category.
It is also one of Poland’s greenest cities, boasting 250 square metres of greenery per inhabitant and has a thorough cycling route reaching the other parts of the Tricity. The city’s eco-credentials are further boosted by its participation in the European Week of Balanced Transport, European Car Free Day and the Clean up the World campaign.
As Poland strides confidently into the next decade, the boots with which it strides are strapped firmly onto the feet of Gdańsk.
What makes these boots so remarkable is that they were once the boots that Orwell immortalised in “1984”, the boots “stamping on a human face – forever.”
Gdańsk pushed those boots from its face in 1989, squashed the final word in Orwell’s sentence with them, and now moves forward with a swagger in its step.
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