Gdańsk

Abstract Gdańsk: Portrait of a City tells the story of the city of Gdańsk, from the prehistoric origins of its Baltic surroundings on the Vistula and Motława rivers and its entry into written history in 997 ce, through its more than seven centuries as the German-speaking city of Danzig, and on to the city’s position in present-day Poland. The book explores the political, cultural, religious, and economic history of Gdańsk seen as an important, oft-disputed Baltic port city greedily sought by surrounding powers. At times, Gdańsk has stood at the center of modern European history. It was the site of the beginning of the Second World War as well as the cradle of the Independent Self-Governing Trade Union “Solidarity” (Solidarność), which would play a key role in the fall of European communism. Gdańsk has seen revolts and sieges, and it has suffered nearly total annihilation more than once. The city has been subject over the centuries to local dukes, Teutonic Knights, the Polish crown, Prussia, the German Empire, the Third Reich, and the USSR. While these powers, particularly those informed by the nationalist paradigms of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, frequently rewrote the city’s history and identity to fit it into their enforced narratives, the city still developed its own distinct identity that shrugs off such oversimplifications. Gdańsk: Portrait of a City examines such tendentious interpretations as it traces the development of a distinct municipal identity created through the city’s unique geography, population, and history.