Gdansk in aerial photographs in the interwar years
In impressive photographs, the extensive aerial photo exhibition documents the Hanseatic city of Gdansk before the destruction of the Second World War.
The exhibition offers a look back at the period between the two world wars, when the Hanseatic city was part of the which was subject to the League of Nations. The outstanding aerial photographs from 1929 are part of a collection of around 4,500 negatives acquired by the Herder Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe from the Hansa Luftbild company in the 1960s. Gdansk is represented in this collection with 228 photographs. The traveling exhibition now shows a selection of the most interesting motifs on 30 panels. The exhibition is supplemented by the illustrated book of the same name, "Gdansk in Aerial Photographs of the Interwar Period," which is available in German, Polish and English.
The special character of aerial photographs gives the viewer an excellent overview of larger urban areas. The images document the most important parts of the city as well as the suburbs. In addition, the incorporated villages and new settlements can be seen. Thus, there are impressive shots of the Gdansk Legal City with the Long Market, the Long Bridge or the dominating St. Mary's Church as well as the Old Town, the Warehouse Island, the shipyard areas and the beach resorts.
The exhibition and illustrated book are the result of a German-Polish cooperation involving not only the Herder Institute but also the publishing house VIA NOVA in Wrocław, the Gdańsk City Office and the Hessian Ministry of Social Affairs. After a first presentation of the exhibition in 2010 at the Long Market in Gdańsk, the traveling exhibition was shown at several locations in Germany and Austria - again under the patronage of the Lord Mayor of Gdańsk, Paweł Adamowicz.
The entire stock of the oblique aerial photographs can be searched in the <a href="https://www.herder-institut.de/bildkatalog/index/index?tree[Sammlungen]=16" id="1806" target="_blank" title="The "Hansa Luftbild" collection in the image catalog of the Herder Institute">Image Catalog ("Bildkatalog") of the Herder Institute.
Free City of Danzig
deu. Freie Stadt Danzig, pol. Wolne Miasto Gdańsk
The Free City of Gdansk was an independent free state under the protection of the League of Nations, which existed from 1920 to 1939. The state was a republic with German as its official language. In the Free City of Gdansk lived about 415,000 people, mainly Germans and Poles.
The special character of aerial photographs gives the viewer an excellent overview of larger urban areas. The images document the most important parts of the city as well as the suburbs. In addition, the incorporated villages and new settlements can be seen. Thus, there are impressive shots of the Gdansk Legal City with the Long Market, the Long Bridge or the dominating St. Mary's Church as well as the Old Town, the Warehouse Island, the shipyard areas and the beach resorts.
The exhibition and illustrated book are the result of a German-Polish cooperation involving not only the Herder Institute but also the publishing house VIA NOVA in Wrocław, the Gdańsk City Office and the Hessian Ministry of Social Affairs. After a first presentation of the exhibition in 2010 at the Long Market in Gdańsk, the traveling exhibition was shown at several locations in Germany and Austria - again under the patronage of the Lord Mayor of Gdańsk, Paweł Adamowicz.
The entire stock of the oblique aerial photographs can be searched in the <a href="https://www.herder-institut.de/bildkatalog/index/index?tree[Sammlungen]=16" id="1806" target="_blank" title="The "Hansa Luftbild" collection in the image catalog of the Herder Institute">Image Catalog ("Bildkatalog") of the Herder Institute.
Info section
Further information about the exhibition
Borrowing rules
- Upon request. The minimum term should be 3-4 weeks.
Technical specifications
- 30 panels with aluminum frames in DIN A 0 format. The frames can be hung on normal gallery rail systems by means of cords and hooks. With a spacing of the frames of 0.50 m, a total wall length of approx. 45 m is required. However, the exhibition is highly variable due to the different thematic modules. It can be reduced in size by omitting individual modules and is also suitable for hanging in several rooms.
Access
- analog
Venues and dates
21.05.2010 - 21.06.2010
Urząd Miejski w Gdańsku, Long Market (Długi Targ)
28.02.2012 - 13.11.2012
Herder-Institut für historische Ostmitteleuropaforschung
28.02.2012 - 22.04.2013
Polska Akademia Nauk - Stacja Naukowa w Wiedniu
10.01.2015 - 02.10.2015
Westpreußisches Landesmuseum
