Museum of World War II in Gdańsk
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Museum of the Second World War () is a state cultural institution and museum established in 2008 in Gdańsk,
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
which is devoted to the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
. Its exhibits opened in 2017. The ''Kwadrat'' architectural team won an architectural competition for the building of the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk.


History

The museum was created on 1 September 2008 by way of a regulation of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage under the name Westerplatte Museum in Gdańsk. On the same day, Prime Minister Donald Tusk appointed prof. dr hab. Paweł Machcewicz as his representative for the Museum of the Second World War. The team of the representative for the museum included dr hab. Piotr M. Majewski - historian from the Warsaw University and dr Janusz Marszalec, who was the head of the Public Education Department Office of the Institute of National Remembrance in Gdańsk from 2000 to 2007. The purpose of the team included i.e. the development of a Museum of the Second World War programme concept. The concept has been presented to the public on 6 October 2008 at the Chancellery of the President of the Council of Ministers in Warsaw during a discussion with historians and museologists. The text of the concept and record of the discussion have been published in print,„Przegląd Polityczny” nr 91/92, 2008 and is also accessible directly via the museum's website. Development of the concept and contents of the exhibitions were co-created by renowned scholars of WWII and totalitarianism, including: Norman Davies, Timothy Snyder, Tomasz Szarota,
Włodzimierz Borodziej Włodzimierz Borodziej (9 September 1956 – 12 July 2021) was a Polish historian and writer specializing in contemporary European history with particular focus on Polish-German relations. Borodziej was a professor of humanistic sciences, and for ...
and Jerzy Wojciech Borejsza. On 26 November 2008, the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Mr Bogdan Zdrojewski changed the name of this institution from the Westerplatte Museum to the Museum of the Second World War in Gdansk. At the same time, he defined the scope of tasks of the facility stating: “the object of the museum’s operations is to amass a collection pertaining to the history of World War II, safeguard it, and make it available, in particular by means of exhibition, popularisation, education, and publishing”. On 15 April 2016, the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Mr Piotr Gliński informed about combining the Museum of the Second World War and the Museum of Westerplatte and the War of 1939 (being organised), created in 2015. Mr Gliński's decision was influenced by the negative reviews of the Main Exhibit of the museum ordered by the ministry and penned by Jan Żaryn, Piotr Semka and Piotr Niwiński. At the end of 2016, the Voivodeship Administrative Court in Gdańsk questioned the decision of the minister of culture about combining the two and ordered works to that effect to be halted until the case is examined. The Ministry of Culture deemed the court's decision as invalid. In January 2017, the Supreme Administrative Court overruled the Voivodeship Administrative Court's decision. On 30 January 2017, the
Voivodeship administrative court Voivodeship administrative court ( pl, wojewódzki sąd administracyjny) is the first instance administrative court in Poland. The headquarters of the court departments are located in the cities of Białystok, Bydgoszcz, Gdańsk, Gliwice, Gorzów ...
in Warsaw halted the combining of the two museums until a lawful examination of the complaint filed by the museum's management and the Commissioner for Human Rights. On March 23, the museum was opened for the public. On April 5, the Supreme Voivodeship Court finally overruled the motion to suspend execution of the regulation of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage. On April 6, Dr Karol Nawrocki was appointed as acting director of the combined facilities. In September 2019, a statue of Witold Pilecki was erected in front of the museum, showing the cavalry captain in his uniform and a camp cap in hand. The piece's designer was Mr Maciej Jagodziński-Jagennmerr, and the casting and erection cost PLN 400,000.


Building

The Prime Minister of Poland, Donald Tusk, opened the architectural competition to design the main building of the museum. The judging panel included such experts as
Daniel Liebeskind Daniel Libeskind (born May 12, 1946) is a Polish–American architect, artist, professor and set designer. Libeskind founded Studio Daniel Libeskind in 1989 with his wife, Nina, and is its principal design architect. He is known for the design a ...
and Jack Lohman, the director of the
Museum of London The Museum of London is a museum in London, covering the history of the UK's capital city from prehistoric to modern times. It was formed in 1976 by amalgamating collections previously held by the City Corporation at the Guildhall Museum (fou ...
. The winning design was created by the Gdynia-based ''Kwadrat'' architectural studio. The seat of the museum faces the Motława River and is located on Wałowa Street in close proximity to the Radunia Canal and the historical Polish Post Office Building. The museum grounds cover an area of 2.5 acres and the building itself covers approximately 23,000 square metres. The building consists of three major spheres, which symbolically represent the connection between the past, present and future. The most distinctive part of the building is the 40-metre tall leaning tower with a glass
façade A façade () (also written facade) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a loan word from the French (), which means ' frontage' or ' face'. In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important aspect ...
, which houses a
library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vi ...
, reading and conference rooms as well as cafés and restaurants with a view of the panorama of Gdańsk.


Management

Dr Karol Nawrocki is the museum's director. Prof. dr hab Grzegorz Berendt and Dr Tomasz Szturo are his deputies. Prof. Dr hab. Paweł Machcewicz was the museum's director until April 5, 2017, and Dr Janusz Marszalec and Dr hab. Piotr M. Majewski served as his deputies. On 7 February 2018, the Minister of Culture and National Heritage and Deputy Prime Minister Piotr Gliński appointed new members of the museum's management board, which include: Sławomir Cenckiewicz, Marek Jan Chodakiewicz, Jacek Friedrich, Mirosław Golon, Piotr M. Majewski,
Bogdan Musiał Bogdan Musiał (born 1960 in Poland) is a Polish-German historian. In 1985 he left Poland and became a political refugee in Germany, where he obtained German citizenship. In 2010 he returned to Poland and became a professor at the Cardinal Stefa ...
, Piotr Niwiński, Andrzej Nowak, Piotr Semka, Zbigniew Wawer, Jarosław Wąsowicz, Tadeusz Wolsza, Jan Żaryn.


Reception

The museum has been praised for its collections, but criticized for what is seen as excessive meddling by the ruling Law and Justice party that made the museum more patriotic and less thought-provoking. In December 2017, a group of five hundred academics signed an open letter that called the changes to the museum "barbaric" and part of an attempt to turn it into a "propaganda institution," while a government spokesperson defended the changes, saying the exhibits needed to be "corrected" and adding that "Some things need to be rearranged, which happens at all museums in the world. But it is also a Polish museum financed by Polish taxpayers. Polish people simply want the museum they have financed to tell their story, to refer to the Polish point of view. The museum is located in Poland and must answer to those who financed it."


Gallery

File:Gdansk Muzeum IIWS 05.jpg, Polish city street, 1930s File:Muzeum 2 Wojny Swiatowej Gdansk Ju 87 Stuka.jpg, German Junkers Ju 87 "Stuka" at permanent exhibition File:Muzeum 2 Wojny Swiatowej Gdansk T-34 russian tank.jpg, Soviet T-34 Tank inside File:Muzeum 2 Wojny Swiatowej Gdansk Enigma cipher machine.jpg, Enigma machine cipher machine File:Gdansk Muzeum IIWS 04.jpg, A stone from Krępa Kaszubska marking an oak tree planted to celebrate the birth of
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and the ...
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler-Eiche File:Gdansk Muzeum IIWS 15.jpg,
DKW DKW (''Dampf-Kraft-Wagen'', en, "steam-powered car", also ''Deutsche Kinder-Wagen'' en, "German children's car". ''Das-Kleine-Wunder'', en, "the little wonder" or ''Des-Knaben-Wunsch'', en, "the boy's wish"- from when the company built to ...
motorcycle File:Gdansk Muzeum IIWS 09.jpg, Spanish
nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...
posters File:Gdansk Muzeum IIWS 24.jpg, Photographs of Holocaust victims File:Gdansk Muzeum IIWS 13.jpg, German propaganda poster File:Gdansk Muzeum IIWS 21.jpg, Eagle from the banner of the First Polish Corps File:Radiostacja Nr 19 M2WS Gdańsk.jpg,
Wireless Set No. 19 The Wireless Set No. 19 was a Second World War mobile radio transceiver designed for use by armoured troops of the British Army. First introduced in 1940, the No. 19 began to replace the pre-war Wireless Set No. 11. Two modified versions were in ...
File:Gdańsk, Muzeum II Wojny Światowej (37470905662).jpg,
Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet Union, Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as Ge ...
's pipe File:Muzeum II Wojny Światowej w Gdańsku.jpg, Exterior of the museum


See also

*
Inclined building An inclined building is a building that was intentionally built at an incline. Buildings are built with an incline primarily for aesthetics, offering a unique feature to a city's skyline, as well as framing other buildings and structures between ...
* Museums in Poland * The International Museum of World War II


References


Further reading

* *


External links


Museum’s Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Museum of World War II in Gdansk World War II museums in Poland Museums in Gdańsk Museums in Poland 2017 establishments in Poland Museums established in 2017 Inclined buildings