The title of an Honorary Citizen of

Gdańsk Gdańsk is a city on the Baltic Sea, Baltic coast of northern Poland, and the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. With a population of 486,492, Data for territorial unit 2261000. it is Poland's sixth-largest city and principal seaport. Gdań ...

( Polish: ''Honorowy Obywatel Gdańska'') is conferred by the city authorities to persons who made significant contributions to the city of Gdańsk, irrespective of their place of birth or nationality. The first historically documented person who received the title was Wilhelm Baum in 1832. The legal basis for conferring this honour was the

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

n Act on Local Government from 1831, which introduced the term of an ''honorary citizen''. In the period of the

Free City of Gdańsk Free may refer to: Concept * Freedom, the ability to act or change without constraint or restriction * Emancipate, attaining civil and political rights or equality * Free (''gratis''), free of charge * Gratis versus libre, the difference betw ...

(1918-1945) and the

Communist State A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state in which the totality of the power belongs to a party adhering to some form of Marxism–Leninism, a branch of the communist ideology. Marxism–Leninism was ...

(1945-1989) the title of an Honorary Citizen of Gdańsk was awarded to a number of controversial figures such as

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

Hermann Göring Hermann Wilhelm Göring (or Goering; ; 12 January 1893 – 15 October 1946) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician, aviator, military leader, and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, which gov ...

and

Bolesław Bierut Bolesław Bierut (; 18 April 1892 – 12 March 1956) was a Polish communist activist and politician, leader of History of Poland (1945–1989), communist-ruled Poland from 1947 until 1956. He was President of the State National Council from 1944 ...

. All these titles were subsequently revoked by the City Council after the end of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

(this also included titles granted during the Prussian rule) and after the

collapse of communism The revolutions of 1989, also known as the Fall of Communism, were a revolutionary wave of liberal democracy movements that resulted in the collapse of most Marxist–Leninist governments in the Eastern Bloc and other parts of the world. Th ...

in Poland. The title is purely symbolic and the recipients do not receive any financial awards. In the past, the recipients received a diploma and the city usually organized a ceremonial banquet to honour those who received the title.

List

Recipients of the

honorary citizenship Honorary citizenship is a status bestowed by a city or other government on a foreign or native individual whom it considers to be especially admirable or otherwise worthy of the distinction. The honor usually is symbolic and does not confer an ...

(), in order of date of presentation:

Prussia

# Wilhelm Baum (1832, revoked) # Johann Karl Rothe (1841, revoked) # Jakob Friedrich Rüchel-Kleist (1842, revoked) # Paul W. Wundsch (1847, revoked) # Adolf Heinrich von Grabow (1849, revoked) # Stanisław Kostka Rosołkiewicz (1849, revoked) # Emil Friedrich Götz (1849, revoked) # Otto von Manteuffel (1853, revoked) # Friedrich Wilhelm Clausewitz (1856, revoked) # Robert Ludwig Blumenthal (1863, revoked) # Matthias Gotthilf Löschin (1865, revoked) # Eduard Friedrich Wiebe (1885, revoked) # Karl Adolf Ernsthausen (1888, revoked) # Leopold von Winter (1890, revoked) # Julius Albert Licht (1893, revoked) #

Leo von Caprivi Georg Leo Graf von Caprivi de Caprara de Montecuccoli (English language, English: ''Count George Leo of Caprivi, Caprara, and Montecuccoli''; born Georg Leo von Caprivi; 24 February 1831 – 6 February 1899) was a German general and statesman. He ...

(1894, revoked) #

Heinrich Rickert Heinrich John Rickert (; ; 25 May 1863 – 25 July 1936) was a German philosopher, one of the leading neo-Kantians. Life Rickert was born in Danzig, Prussia (now Gdańsk, Poland) to the journalist and later politician Heinrich Edwin Rickert a ...

(1895, revoked) # Otto Steffens (1896, revoked) # Richard Damme (1897, revoked) # Georg Friedrich Abegg (1898, revoked) # Gustav Heinrich von Gossler (1899, revoked) # Emil Berenz (1903, revoked) # Paul von Beneckendorff Hindenburg (1915, revoked) # August Anton Ludwig von Mackensen (1915, revoked)

Free City 1918-1945

Max Halbe Max Halbe (4 October 1865 – 30 November 1944) was a German dramatist and main exponent of Naturalism. Biography Halbe was born at the manor of Güttland (Koźliny) near Danzig (Gdańsk), where he grew up. He was a member of an old family of ...

(1925-1945, revoked) #

Albert Forster Albert Maria Forster (26 July 1902 – 28 February 1952) was a German Nazi Party politician, member of the SS and war criminal. During the Second World War, under his administration as the ''Gauleiter'' and ''Reichsstatthalter'' of Danzig ...

(1933-1945, revoked) #

(1939-1945, revoked) #

(1943-1945, revoked)

Communist State

(1947-1990, revoked) # Konstanty Rokossowski (1949-1990, revoked) # Paweł Batow (1965-1990, revoked) # Wiktor Kulikow (1977-1990, revoked)

Third Polish Republic

Günter Grass Günter Wilhelm Grass (; 16 October 1927 – 13 April 2015) was a German novelist, poet, playwright, illustrator, graphic artist, sculptor, and recipient of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature. He was born in the Free City of Danzig (now Gda ...

(1993) # Hans Lothar Fauth (1994) #

Gerard Labuda Gerard Labuda (; 28 December 1916 – 1 October 2010) was a Polish historian whose main fields of interest were the Middle Ages and the Western Slavs. He was born in Kashubia. He lived and died in Poznań, Poland. Life Labuda was born in N ...

(1994) # Ignacy Adamczewski (1994) # Hans Koschnick (1994) #

George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushBefore the outcome of the 2000 United States presidential election, he was usually referred to simply as "George Bush" but became more commonly known as "George H. W. Bush", "Bush Senior," "Bush 41," and even "Bush th ...

(1997) #

Richard von Weizsäcker Richard Karl Freiherr von Weizsäcker (; 15 April 1920 – 31 January 2015) was a German politician ( CDU), who served as President of Germany from 1984 to 1994. Born into the aristocratic Weizsäcker family, who were part of the German nobili ...

(1997) #

Lech Wałęsa Lech Wałęsa (; ; born 29 September 1943) is a Polish statesman, dissident, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate who served as the president of Poland between 1990 and 1995. After winning the 1990 Polish presidential election, 1990 election, Wałę ...

(1997) # Marian Kołodziej (1997) # Ryszard Kukliński (1998) #

Westerplatte Westerplatte (, , ) is a peninsula in Gdańsk, Poland, located on the Baltic Sea coast mouth of the Dead Vistula (one of the Vistula delta estuaries), in the Gdańsk harbour channel. From 1926 to 1939, it was the location of a Polish Military ...

heroes (1998) # Defence of the Polish Post Office in Danzig heroes (1998) # Lech Bądkowski (2000) # Henryka Krzywonos (2000) # Jerzy Borowczak (2000) # Stefan Lewandowski (2000) #

Bogdan Borusewicz Bogdan Michał Borusewicz (; born 11 January 1949) is a Polish politician who served as the Marshal of the Polish Senate from 20 October 2005 to 11 November 2015. Borusewicz was a democratic opposition activist under the Communist regime, a mem ...

(2000) #

Bogdan Lis Bogdan Jerzy Lis (born 1952 in Gdańsk) worked in Port of Gdańsk and Elmor company. Between 1971 and 1972 he was imprisoned for his participation in the anti-governmental Polish 1970 protests, coastal cities protests. Although in 1975 he joined t ...

(2000) # Joanna Duda-Gwiazda (2000) #

Alina Pienkowska Alina Barbara Pienkowska (12 January 1952 – 17 October 2002; her surname is often misspelt as ''Pieńkowska'') was a Polish free trade union activist and a Senator for Gdańsk (1991–1993, Solidarity Parliamentary Club). She was involved in th ...

(2000) # Bogdan Felski (2000) # Ludwik Prądzyński (2000) # Wojciech Gruszecki (2000) # Józef Przybylski (2000) #

Andrzej Gwiazda Andrzej Gwiazda (born 14 April 1935 in Pińczów) is an engineer and prominent opposition leader, who participated in Polish March 1968 Events and December 1970 Events; one of the founders of Free Trade Unions, Member of the Presiding Committee ...

(2000) # Jerzy Sikorski (2000) # Stefan Izdebski (2000) # Lech Sobieszek (2000) # Jerzy Kmiecik (2000) # Tadeusz Stanny (2000) # Zdzisław Kobyliński (2000) #

Anna Walentynowicz Anna Walentynowicz (; ; 15 August 1929 – 10 April 2010) was a Polish trade union, trade unionist and co-founder of Solidarity (Polish trade union), Solidarity, the first recognised independent trade union in the Eastern Bloc. Her firing from he ...

(2000, rejected) # Andrzej Kołodziej (2000) # Florian Wiśniewski (2000) # Henryk Jankowski (2000) #

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013), was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of th ...

(2000) #

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...

(2000) # Andrzej Januszajtis (2000) # Henryk Jankowski (2000, revoked in 2019) #

Zbigniew Brzeziński Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzeziński (, ; March 28, 1928 – May 26, 2017), known as Zbig, was a Polish-American diplomat and political scientist. He served as a counselor to Lyndon B. Johnson from 1966 to 1968 and was Jimmy Carter's National Securi ...

(2002) # Jan Nowak-Jeziorański (2002) # Dieter Schenk (2003) #

Zygmunt Chychła Zygmunt Chychła (5 November 1926 – 26 September 2009) was a Polish boxer. He won the first post-World War II Olympic gold medal for Poland. Career In 1939 he began training at the Polish boxing club '' Gedania'', having started boxing at the ...

(2003) # Stanisław Bogdanowicz (2004) #

Jean Michel Jarre Jean-Michel André Jarre (; born 24 August 1948) is a French composer, performer and record producer. He is a pioneer in the electronic, ambient and new-age genres, and is known for organising outdoor spectacles featuring his music, accompan ...

(2005) #

Ryszard Kaczorowski Ryszard Kaczorowski, GCMG (; 26 November 1919 – 10 April 2010) was a Polish statesman. From 1989 to 1990, he served as the last President of Poland- in-exile. He succeeded Kazimierz Sabbat, and resigned his post following Poland's regain ...

(2008) #

Helmut Kohl Helmut Josef Michael Kohl (; 3 April 1930 – 16 June 2017) was a German politician who served as chancellor of Germany and governed the ''Federal Republic'' from 1982 to 1998. He was leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 1973 to ...

(2009) #

Tadeusz Mazowiecki Tadeusz Mazowiecki (; 18 April 1927 – 28 October 2013) was a Polish author, journalist, philanthropist and politician, formerly one of the leaders of the Solidarity movement, and the first non-communist Polish prime minister since 1946, hav ...

(2009) # Ludwik Wiśniewski (2011) # Andrzej Zbierski (2011) #

Andrzej Wajda Andrzej Witold Wajda (; 6 March 1926 – 9 October 2016) was a Polish film and theatre director. Recipient of an Honorary Oscar, the Palme d'Or, as well as Honorary Golden Lion and Honorary Golden Bear Awards, he was a prominent member of the "P ...

(2016) # Tadeusz Gocłowski (2016) # Joanna Muszkowska-Penson (2018) # Halina Winiarska-Kiszkis (2020) # Jerzy Kiszkis (2020) #

Danuta Wałęsa Mirosława Danuta Wałęsa (; ; born 25 February 1949) is the wife of former President of Poland Lech Wałęsa. In 1983 she accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo on behalf of her husband,R. W. APPLE JR., "AWARD IS ACCEPTED BY DANUTA WALESA" ...

(2022) #

Jerzy Owsiak Jerzy Zbigniew Owsiak (Polish pronunciation: ; born 6 October 1953) is a Polish journalist and social work, social campaigner. He is the founder of the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity (WOŚP / Wielka Orkiestra Świątecznej Pomocy), one of t ...

(2024)

References

{{Honorary citizenship

Gdansk Honorary citizens Honorary citizens of Gdansk