Pomnik Ofiar Grudnia 1970 - Anioł Wolności
Pomnik Ofiar Grudnia 1970 - "Anioł Wolności" refers to the monument to the victims of the events of December 1970 in the city of Szczecin ( Stettin ) in Poland . Colloquially it is usually called the Angel of Freedom (Anioł Wolności). The monument was unveiled on August 28, 2005 on plac Solidarności near the later new building of the Szczecin Philharmonic .
The foundation stone was laid on December 17, 2003. The memorial commemorates 16 people who were killed during the December 1970 uprising in Szczecin.
history
December 1970 uprising
The workers' uprising from December 14th to 22nd, 1970 in the then People's Republic of Poland was triggered by drastic price increases for food and everyday items. In particular, just before Christmas, consumer goods prices were increased by up to 38%. The strikes began in the Gdańsk shipyards, but soon spread to Gdynia and Szczecin. There were also mass rallies and demonstrations all over Poland. The country was temporarily on the brink of civil war. The authorities responded with a massive deployment of police and military , in the course of which 45 people officially lost their lives. The youngest of the Szczecin victims were the 16-year-old students Jadwiga Kowalczyk and Stefan Stawicki, the oldest the 59-year-old locksmith Julian Święcicki.
August strikes and erection of the monument in 1980
The August strikes of 1980 , which led to the approval of free trade unions and Solidarność , are expressly in the tradition of the events of 1970. The erection of a memorial to the victims of the December events in 1970 was one of the 21 demands of the 1980 strikes . Two weeks before the government signed the demands, the first wooden cross was erected in front of the main gate of the shipyard.
All over Poland money was raised for the erection of the monument. During the unveiling on today's plac Solidarności in front of the Gdańsk Shipyard (Lenin Shipyard) on December 16, 1980, the Lacrimosa (later part of the Polish Requiem ) by Krzysztof Penderecki , which Solidarność in Order had been given. It was the first memorial to the victims of communist oppression erected in a socialist country.
History of the Szczecin Monument
The history of the monument goes back to the 1990s. In 1996, the city council decided to erect a memorial in Szczecin for the victims of the December 1970 protests. Two years later, encouraged Mayor Bartłomiej Sochański to the establishment of a committee for the construction of the monument. Marian Jurczyk took over the management and in September 1998 a competition was announced.
The chosen design "Fantomy" (phantoms) was to depict 110 characters representing the crowd of demonstrators. But then critical voices arose who described the monument as a “quarry” compared to the “monumental Danzig Crosses”. The committee rejected the first draft on February 5, 2001 on the grounds that it lacked a cross motif. As an alternative, “Falę” (wave) by two sculptors from Katowice , who took fourth place in the competition, was proposed. The city council approved this proposal on February 27 and changed the name of the monument to "December 1970 - August 1980". One of the Katowice artists protested against the rededication and the omission of better placed designs and described the decision of the city council as an "unethical decision".
The next competition took place in July 2002. This time the work of a group of architects from Szczecin was chosen. Paths should symbolize the cut paths of the victims' lives. The realization on St.-Peter-und-Paul-Platz failed due to an objection from the fire brigade. The next selected design, “Robotnicza Pieta” (Workers Pieta), aroused a large number of critical voices.
The implementation was abandoned and new designs were requested from the artists. Cracow sculptor Czesław Dźwigaj made three proposals in less than a month, from which today's design of the Angel of Freedom was chosen. The foundation stone was laid on December 17, 2003. The ceremonial unveiling took place on August 28, 2005 as part of the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Szczecin August Agreement . Archbishop Zygmunt Kamiński unveiled the monument in the presence of Marian Jurczyk, mayor and first signatory of the agreement. Four relatives revealed the plaque with the names of the victims.
location
The monument is located on the edge of the sloping surface of plac Solidarności (Solidarity Square) . There, in the vicinity of the former PZPR voivodeship committee , demonstrations and street fights took place in December 1970, in which 16 people were killed. The Przełomy Center for Dialogue has been located below the level of the square since 2015/2016, an underground exhibition pavilion of the National Museum for exhibitions on the recent history of Szczecin and West Pomerania .
Design of the monument
The monument was designed by the sculptor Czesław Dźwigaj. It consists of a slender, 11-meter-high cast bronze angel that weighs 9.5 tons. The angel figure with towering wings carries a crown of thorns in his hands, which is composed of the inscription “GRUDZIEŃ 1970” (DECEMBER 1970). She stands on a stylized ship's bow that breaks through the floor covering from below. Four inclined granite slabs carry the bronze plaques with the memorial inscriptions. The first gives the occasion for the 1970 uprising, the second lists the names, ages and professions of those killed. The next board names the initiators, among them American Poles from New York and St. Louis, Missouri. The last plaque commemorates the 35th anniversary of the uprising. Another plaque embedded in the floor shows the date of the laying of the foundation stone.
The monument does not have a pedestal, as it was originally supposed to stand on a subway station.
Further memorials for the December uprising in 1970
In three cities in northern Poland, four more memorials commemorate the victims of 1970. While provisional crosses were erected in 1970 and 1980, other monuments could only be erected after the collapse of socialist rule.
| monument | place | Remarks | built | Altitude location |
image |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pomnik Poległych Stoczniowców 1970 |
Gdańsk ( Danzig ) |
Also called “Pomnik Trzech Krzyży” ( Three Crosses Monument ). Approval in August 1980, inauguration on December 16, 1980. | 1980 | 42 m (location) |
|
| Pomnik Ofiar Grudnia 1970 |
Elbląg ( Elblag ) |
Cross and text in front of a blasted concrete block, inaugurated in August 1981. | -1981 | approx. 6 m (location) |
|
| Pomnik Ofiar Grudnia 1970 |
Gdynia , al. Solidarności ( Gdynia ) |
The memorial shows the year 1970 with a "fallen" 7. It also reminds of convicted strikers. | 1993-2003 | ? m (location) |
|
| Pomnik Ofiar Grudnia 1970 |
Gdynia , al. Piłsudskiego ( Gdynia ) |
Also "uskrzydlonego krzyża" ( winged cross ), a cross with a crossbar consisting of 23 individual crosses. Memorial stones for 19 victims, inaugurated 23 years after the December uprising. | 1993 | ? m (location) |
|
Web links
- City of Szczecin: Pomniki i tablice w Szczecinie. Pomnik Ofiar Grudnia 1970 - Anioł Wolności . (Polish)
- pomorzezachodnie.travel: The memorial to the victims of December 1970 . (Polish)
literature
- Encyclopedia Szczecina . Szczecin 2015. p. 778. ISBN 978-83-942725-0-0 .
- Manfred Alexander: Small history of Poland . Federal Agency for Civic Education, Bonn, 2005, ISBN 3-89331-662-0 , p. 343f.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Supplement to EMI Classics 5 74852 2, p. 8.
- ↑ Elbląg - Pomnik Ofiar Grudnia 1970 (Polish)
- ↑ POMNIK OFIAR GRUDNIA 1970 W GDYNI (Polish)
Coordinates: 53 ° 25 ′ 42.7 " N , 14 ° 33 ′ 29.7" E