Gdansk: National Identity in the Polish-German Borderlands

Carl Tighe aims to open up a debate about nationalism in Poland by examining some of the processes of history in one small but important place. Gdansk and its locality was where World War II started, where Solidarity was formed and where contemporary change is focused. Throughout its history the town has been a major site of exchange between East and West, and as such its own history provides valuable insights into the tensions and processes which have shaped modern Europe. The first section of the book traces the city's history from 8000 BC to 1918: the arrival of Slav and Germanic tribes, urban growth in response to the grain trade, the widening rift between Eastern Europe and a rapidly industrializing West, Germanization and the coming of the Nazis. The second section looks at the period from 1918-45: Nazi exploitation, genocide, kidnapping of "racially valuable" Polish children, the destruction of the city in 1945, Russian and Polish intervention, and attempts to destroy the German identity. Section 3 looks at Post-War perspectives: the reconstruction of the city, its integration into the Polish state and it's meaning as a place to both Poland and West Germany, Gdansk has made history, but history has also been made for it, by rival German and Polish national interests. Tighe uses the history of Gdansk as a way into examining the formation of the modern nations which surround it.