Biuro Odbudowy Stolicy
The Biuro Odbudowy Stolicy (short: BOS, German: Office for the Reconstruction of the Capital ) was founded on February 14, 1945 by decree of the National Council of Poland to rebuild Warsaw, which was largely destroyed during the Second World War .
history
The official establishment of the office was preceded by the creation of a Warsaw Operations Group on January 14, 1945 in Lublin (seat of the Lublin Committee ). It consisted of the architects Józef Sigalin , Lech Niemojewski and Bohdan Lachert . Shortly afterwards, the group traveled to Warsaw , where they expanded to include the architects Jan Zachwatowicz , Piotr Biegański and Stanisław Albrecht . The office was opened together with Marian Spychalski on January 22, 1945, and Zachwatowicz initially took over the management. Even though the office has already received money and rooms at Ulica Skolimowska 2 , it was not formally founded until three weeks later under a slightly changed name.
Roman Piotrowski was appointed as head of the office and Sigalin (later also Szymon Syrkus ) as his deputy . Jan Olaf Chmielewski took over the town planning, Albrecht, Zygmunt Skibniewski and Wacław Ostrowski were appointed as his deputies. By the summer of 1945, the office's workforce had grown to 1,422 employees, including 351 architects and engineers. In addition to the inventory of destruction (especially of the underground pipeline networks, which should play an important and priority role in the reconstruction) and the preparation of the future urban planning, which should also include pre-war planning, the office was responsible for the preservation and repair of historical buildings.
activity
As early as March 1945, a working group led by Zygmunt Stępiński presented the first general plan in which the city center was defined as the future administrative and service center. The planned development was initially shaped by the ideas of functionalism developed in the 1930s . The already existing Ulica Marszałkowska in north-south and Aleje Jerozolimskie in east-west were to function as the most important traffic axes. According to the specifications of the office, the modern Trasa WZ expressway with its tunnel under the Schlossplatz was built between 1947 and 1949 as an additional east-west route . Today's Aleja Jana Pawła II has also been redesigned. On July 22, 1946, the reconstructed Poniatowski-Vistula Bridge was reopened. Large parts of historic Warsaw from the 17th and 18th centuries had been rebuilt by 1952: the largely destroyed buildings on Krakowskie Przedmieście , Nowy Świat , Ulica Miodowa , Ulica Senatorska , Ulica Długa , and Plac Teatralny , on Plac Bankowy and in the old town were rebuilt. The Department of Monument Architecture (Polish: Wydział Architektury Zabytkowej ) under the direction of Zachwatowicz and Biegański was responsible for this reconstruction (often with the help of old Canaletto's city views ) .
The work of the office was supported by substantial funds from the state. Up to 1948, the corresponding budget ( Społeczny Fundusz Odbudowy Stolicy ) was provided with 3.4 billion złoty.
Arguments
Inside the office as well as in the Warsaw city planners and architects scene there was heated discussion about the extent of the rebuilding of old Warsaw. Often those who wanted to preserve and renovate partially destroyed buildings could not prevail. The office had structures that could be built up on Ulica Chłodna , Ulica Elektoralna , Ulica Ogrodowa , Ulica Biała , Ulica Leszno removed in favor of the construction of new buildings. Especially younger architecture from the late 19th and early 20th centuries was little appreciated. The decision to eliminate an entire city district in preparation for an area for the construction of the large-scale Palace of Culture was particularly controversial . But also in the reconstruction of historical buildings, ideologically influenced representatives of the office often prevailed, so that previously existing facade decorations or upper-class balconies were not restored.
Liquidation and legacy
The institution was liquidated in 1951 on the basis of a decree of September 6, 1950. Around the same time that the office was closed, socialist realism became the predominant doctrine.
All of the office's documents (around 14,500 files and folders) are now stored in the State Archives in Warsaw . They document in detail the destruction of the city after the war and the reconstruction between 1945 and 1953 and thus form a unique source work. The collection was recommended for entry in the UNESCO Memory of the World register .
literature
- Adolf Ciborowski, Warsaw. Destruction and reconstruction of the city , Impress Publishing House (PAI), Warsaw 1969
- Niels Gutschow, Barbara Klain: Destruction and Utopia. City planning Warsaw 1939-1945. Junius-Verlag, ISBN 3-88506-223-2 , Hamburg 1994, p. 139 ff.
- Werner Huber: Warsaw - Phoenix from the ashes. An architectural city guide. Verlag Böhlau, ISBN 3-412-14105-4 , Cologne 2005, p. 64 ff.
- Exhibition catalog: Catalog Wystawy “Budujemy nowy dom. Odbudowa Warszawy w latach 1945-1952 “prezentowanej od 7. lipca do 15. listopada 2011 w siedzibie DSH , Dom Spotkań z Historią, ISBN 978-83-62020-33-1 , Warszawa 2011
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ still under the name Office for the Organization of the Reconstruction of Warsaw
- ↑ according to Information Archive of Warsaw Reconstruction Office at Memory of the World / Unesco.org (in English)