Background Article "Wait till the Scots come!" This old Prussian proverb exhorts us to be patient and wait for the right opportunity. But what does this have to do with the far north of Great Britain? The answer leads us to Gdansk. In the early modern era, the port city attracted numerous merchant ships from the Baltic region and beyond. Some even came from as far away as Scotland to seek their fortune there.
1920 - A province disappears The First World War was an important caesura in the history of the province of West Prussia. The cornerstones negotiated in the Treaty of Versailles ended the integration of West Prussia into Prussian territory and incorporated the region into the newly founded Polish Second Republic. This led to...
Holding Bestandsbeschreibung Westpreußisches Landesmuseum The collections of the West Prussia State Museum are aimed at audiences interested in cultural history, including local historians and school classes. The library and archive offer possibilities for in-depth study and can provide basic information for local history and family researchers.
Encounters with a German-Polish cultural landscape The history of West Prussia is very multi-faceted. It is an example of a cultural landscape on the Baltic Sea that has benefited from its advantageous location in the heart of Europe for centuries, but has also frequently become the political plaything of rulers. The permanent exhibition in the West...
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.
Background Article Gdansk’s “Soundscape” and Music Culture between 1800 and 1945 Can soundscapes of the past be reconstructed? What did cities actually sound like in centuries gone by? And do we associate certain sounds and soundscapes with the history of particular cities? This text introduces some possibilities of soundscape research, using the city of Gdansk as an example.
Virtual tour Virtual tours through the permanent exhibition of the West Prussian State Museum Since 2021, the museum's permanent exhibition can also be viewed online. For this purpose, 360° tours were developed for various exhibition areas.
Library holdings West Prussia Library With over 22,000 titles, the West Prussia Library offers a wide collection covering the cultural, economic and social history of former West Prussia.
Museum Westpreußisches Landesmuseum The West Prussian Regional Museum is the only museum institution in Germany that presents the history and culture of historical West Prussia. The museum houses various collections and its own archive with diverse holdings. Selected topics convey a vivid picture of a cultural region shaped for over...
Woher kommen wir, wohin gehen wir? ("Where do we come from, where are we going?") This permanent exhibition invites visitors to take part on a journey through 200 years of art and cultural history in Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. The exhibited works of art lead visitors through scenes of important historical events to important centers of art as well as to fictitious...
