Der Wiederaufb au von Ratibor und Gleiwitz nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg – die Suche nach einem spezifi schen Nationalstil?

Abstract

Th e reconstruction of Racibórz and Gliwice aft er World War II – searching for the national style?

The starting point of the article is the thesis proposed by the Polish- German art historian Tomasz Torbus that the reconstruction of the old towns of historical cities in the so-called Regained Territories after 1945 constituted the continuation of searching for the national style, which started in the interwar period. Architectural drawings preserved in the State Archive in Katowice, made in the office “Miastoprojekt Katowice”, confirmed the deliberate elimination of projects relating to the original architecture. Both in Racibórz and in Gliwice, the accepted projects used the motif of attic, which before the war was considered a feature of Polish architecture. As it seems, there existed another aspect. Persons responsible for taking decisions concerning the reconstruction of the country from war damage were advised by a team of art historians who preferred the Renaissance, Mannerism and Baroque, rejecting the profusion of decorations of the period of Historicism. It can be assumed that the manneristic style of the reconstructed old city centres in Upper Silesia, typical of socialist realism, was influenced by a variety of factors, which very oft en resulted from restorers’ subjective predilections defining political prerogatives in this field.