Gedania Danzig
| Gedania Danzig | |||
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| Full name | Sportowy Gedania Club in Gdansk | ||
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| Founded | August 15, 1922 | ||
| Dissolved | unknown | ||
| Club colors | White-red | ||
| Stadion | Gedania-Platz on the Heeresanger | ||
| Top league | Gauliga East Prussia | ||
| successes | Participation in the final round of the Gauliga East Prussia in 1936/37 and 1937/38 |
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The Klub Sportowy Gedania zu Gdansk was the football club of the Polish population group in Gdansk , now the Polish Gdańsk. The status of Gdańsk as a “ Free City ” was of particular importance for the existence of this association, which was founded in 1922 . This status was brought about on November 15, 1920 by the victorious powers of the First World War against the will of the majority German population. The legal basis was the Versailles Treaty , which provided for the autonomy of Danzig, including several districts of West Prussia . The Free City of Danzig was created, a politically independent entity that was under the protection of the League of Nations .
For the Polish part of the population, this meant almost equal legal status with the German majority. This allowed independent associations such as Gedania to be founded, which also had the right to be accepted into the responsible associations. And since the Gdańsk football clubs continued to participate in German football, Gedania also belonged to the " Baltic Lawn and Winter Sports Association " (BRWV) and thus to the DFB - and played about the same role there as 1. FC Kattowitz in Polish football.
The Gedania emerges from the "Sokół"
Even in the “German” days, the Polish athletes from Gdansk joined together in the “ Sokol ” (= “falcon”) gymnastics club . Such "Sokół" associations were based on the Czech model almost everywhere where there was a significant Slavic population. The aim of the Polish “Sokół” organization was to develop a Polish national spirit among young people. Attempts were made to achieve this goal with sporting means such as gymnastics and gymnastics, but also by singing patriotic songs in club meetings or by celebrating national holidays. All this happened with a view to a future Polish nation-state that would be striven for.
After the First World War, “Sokół” activities ceased almost everywhere - there was now a Polish nation-state - but not in the “Free City of Danzig”: Because the city had no immigration restrictions, a strong influx of Polish immigrants began . And here the “Sokół” proved to be an important bridge instrument for the integration of the New Gdansk people. In addition, there was a strong rivalry between German and Polish Danzigers who lived out in sport in the early days.
One of the sports practiced in Gdańsk “Sokół” after the First World War also included football. But soon there was a conflict within the organization between gymnasts and footballers over finances. “Sokół” no longer wanted or could not afford this sport and not only dissolved the football division, but also the entire club. However, players and fans did not agree with this. After several weeks of discussion and deliberation, it was decided on August 15, 1922 at a general meeting in the parish hall of St. Jozef on Töpfergasse to found a Polish multisport club. Of the 31 present at the meeting, 23 immediately joined. One month later, on September 15, the registration for the new association was made.
KS Gedania establishes itself
Originally the club should be called "Polonia" and compete under the colors blue and white. However, the German authorities in the Free City had reservations about the name and also about the club colors (in which German Danzig clubs such as SC Lauental competed). Then the name Sportklub (Klub Sportowy) "Gedania" e. V. zu Danzig and the colors white and red. "Gedania" is the Latinized version of the city name. The Polish sports club "Gedania" was born. In 1924 Gedania joined the Baltic Sports Association, which included the clubs from the Free City of Danzig as well as the clubs from Pomerania and East Prussia , and competed with the strong German teams.
In the statutes completed on March 19, 1926, the association expressly declared itself "non-political". All people could be accepted, regardless of gender or ethnicity. For a long time Germans and Jews also belonged to the association. But the German Gedania members had to leave the club under pressure from the Nazi party - whose Danzig branch had great influence in the Free State - as early as 1935, while the "Gedania Jews" were able to stay until 1939. The official language of the association was Polish.
In addition to the football division, Gedania had ten other departments. The number of club members grew rapidly: in 1929, Gedania already had 500 athletes. Among them were dock workers, post and railway workers, bank clerks, craftsmen, small merchants and also the unemployed. The most active were the employees of the Polish institutions such as the railways and post offices. Their general directorates located in Gdańsk or Poland ( Railway Directorate Gdańsk ) and the Polish authorities supported the association financially and provided the Gedania colors with well-known and outstanding athletes to improve the performance of the Polish team.
Openly displayed national consciousness
Contrary to the “non-political character” stipulated in the statutes, the Polish club openly displayed its national awareness, which aroused the displeasure of large parts of the German population and the German authorities in Gdansk. There were many incidents at the sporting events. After Hitler came to power in Germany and the National Socialist movement won the elections in the Free City, the situation worsened. The Gedania Rifle Division, which was viewed as a "paramilitary organization", served as a pretext. The Danzig Nazis wanted to prevent German contacts with the Polish sports club, albeit unsuccessfully.
There is no mention of military connections and activities in Polish historiography. There, only the close connection between Gedania and the Polish cultural and educational institutions in Gdansk as well as the schools in the surrounding Polish communities is emphasized. Lectures, readings, courses, trips to Poland, theatrical performances, games and celebrations of national anniversaries were organized for the Polish people of Gdańsk. All of this was done in a very patriotic tone. The Polish youth were treated with particular care. In 1930 and 1931 KS Gedania had its own club newspaper with the title "Sport".
Sports field construction in the "Polish quarter"
A suitable sports field as a sporting base was important for the club. In the early days, the authorities of the city of Gedania provided one of the stadiums in Gdansk for training players by the hour. The first provisional own sports field was built in-house on the Bischofsberg. The first games took place there in 1923. Club premises at that time were the Hotel "Continental" or the "House of Poles" in Gdansk.
With the help of the diplomatic mission of the Republic of Poland in the Free City, the association was given a training ground on the former Prussian barracks area, at the "telegraph barracks" of the telecommunications battalion on the Heeresanger. Here in this part of the city, which was soon to become the center of Polish life in Gdansk, the Gedania should also find its permanent home. Everything was close together: the houses in which the Polish residents lived, the Polish railroad, the dormitory for the students at the (still existing) Technical University, also the Catholic Church of St. Stanislawa, where the Poles prayed.
In 1929 the first phase of construction was completed on the Gedania site. Since then, club footballers have been able to play their games in their own stadium, where two playgrounds - one of which is a training ground - were available. A year later, the athletics area with the running track with six lanes, the jumping pit and the throwing ring was put into operation. On the eve of the Second World War, Gedania had completed a fairly neat sports complex: a stadium, two tennis courts, a shooting range and a place for the “little games” that turned into an ice rink in winter. There was also a club house with a café and a sports hall.
Grenzmark finals and Gauliga
With the own stadium also came the sporting successes. They soon established themselves in the Gdańsk first class. And in 1931 the Poland-Elf became Danzig runner-up behind SV Neufahrwasser and qualified for the finals in the Grenzmark district. The Gedania footballers, who were certified to have high technical qualities and a brilliant series of attacks that were among the best in East Prussia, met the Graf Schwerin Deutsch-Krone military team here, who were counted among the outsiders. But Gedania disappointed and was eliminated from the competition after a 3: 3 home draw and a 0: 2 away defeat.
With the football reorganization in 1933, even the football associations dominated by the Nazis could not avoid taking the Polish team into account for the new Gauliga East Prussia due to the placements that had been made up to then . Uninterrupted until 1939 Gedania held in first class, with high points in the seasons 1936/37 and 1937/38, when the white-reds got second places in the district class Danzig for the final round of the Gauliga, which was divided into several groups or district classes East Prussia qualified, but without being able to make the championship and thus the jump into the German finals.
In the Polish league
In 1939 KS Gedania became a member of the Polish regional association POZPN. In the 1939/1940 season, the club should play in the A-class (2nd division).
Prohibition, dissolution and rebirth
Before the beginning of the 1939/40 season, politics caught up with KS Gedania again. One day before the start of the Second World War , on August 31, 1939, the association was banned and dissolved by the Danzig authorities due to the tense political situation. At the same time, the association excluded the Association of Gdańsk Poles from its ranks. Subsequently, Nazi groups from the city destroyed the club's facilities and equipment as well as trophies, prizes and the chronicle. After the German invasion, Gedania chairman Kopacki and his two deputies were shot dead by the Nazis. A large number of the functionaries and athletes were deported to concentration camps. Many of them did not survive the war.
Shortly after the liberation of Gdańsk by the Red Army , on May 16, 1945, the rebirth of Gedania began. The former board member Alfons Federski had invited to a first meeting in the Wrzeszcz district (formerly Langfuhr) and soon afterwards the association was re-established. Gedania still exists today: In addition to a football department, the club had sections for volleyball and rowing.
Today's football club Gdański Klub Sportowy Gedania 1922 played in the second level of Polish football in 1951 and 1952, but then relegated to lower-class regional leagues. Today the club plays in the 4th division, the fifth highest Polish division. The volleyball club and the rowing club are now independent.
swell
- Hardy Greens : Encyclopedia of German League Football. Volume 1: From the Crown Prince to the Bundesliga. 1890 to 1963. German championship, Gauliga, Oberliga. Numbers, pictures, stories. AGON-Sportverlag, Kassel 1996, ISBN 3-928562-85-1 .
- Hardy Greens: Encyclopedia of German League Football. Volume 7: Club Lexicon . AGON-Sportverlag, Kassel 2001, ISBN 3-89784-147-9 .
Web links
- Official Website (Polish)