On the ruins of the prewar institution, the City Museum organised by Polish authorities began to operate as early as in 1945. It took over the building which during air raids and artillery fire ravishing the city in March 1945 was more than 60% destroyed. As a result of a fire blazing for 9 days (20-29 III), walls were burnt down, the roof went up in flames, and the first floor storey was entirely destroyed; also, the vaults on the ground floor were damaged, glass panes were smashed, and cellars were flooded. A part of the historical objects which remained in the building were destroyed, including some pieces of Gdansk furniture, ironwork objects, and a portion of Lesser Giełdziński’s collection from the Gdansk Vestibule; 301 paintings were consumed by the fire, and a further 11 were seriously damaged.[1]
Works on the organisation of the museum, which was taken over by the Culture and Art Department of the Municipal Office, were commenced as early as in April 1945. On 5 April, professor Jan Kilarski came to Gdansk together with a team of his colleagues from the Ministry of Education in order to find and protect the hidden works of art. At the time, the last director of Stadt- und Kunstgewerbemuseum, prof. Willi Drost, was still in Gdansk, and began to cooperate with the Polish authorities; owing to his guidance, some of the surviving collections, which towards the end of the war were evacuated to locations situated near Gdansk or hidden within the city, were found and transported to the museum. In this way, objects from Pawłowo, Rzucewo, Sobowidz, Pręgowo, Przywidz and Grabiny-Zameczek were gradually returning to the museum. Unfortunately, in many cases the places in which the museum objects were hidden were found plundered; such discoveries included crates with broken porcelain and glass, and fragments of damaged historical objects scattered across the area.[2] Simultaneously with the Polish authorities, the search for the precious works of art was undertaken by the Russians; the group representing the Arts Committee operating as a body of the USSR Council of Ministers, which arrived as soon as in March 1945, was led by lieutenant colonel Leontiy Denisov.[3] Denisov’s brigade, supported by the Staff of Army Reserves, acting from the beginning of April until August 1945, searched through tens of locations in the region of Pomerania, as well as places in which works of art were hidden in Gdansk itself: the Great Armoury, the cellars of the Old Town Hall, and the cellars of the former Sparkasse, where they came upon a collection of 14,000 numismatic objects. The activity of the Russians resulted in their filling of 98 chests with a selection of the most valuable historical objects, which were subsequently transported to Moscow by two transports in September 1945 and in March 1946, respectively, and deposited with the Pushkin Museum.
The historical objects transported to the museum from all over Pomerania were placed on the ground floor in the part which managed to escape the fire and protected and conserved, while at the same time inventory works were carried out. The first inventory was prepared in June and July 1945 by prof. Willi Drost.[4] Simultaneously, protection works and major repairs of the ruined building were in progress. Before the commencement of the reconstruction, the ruins were diligently searched in the part of the Museum which was burnt down, for any exhibits buried under them – and finds were rewarded with bonuses.[5]
In the first months of the Museum’s activity, the function of the manager was fulfilled by dr Edward Łepkowski. From 15 December 1945 the facility was managed by dr Jerzy Güttler, and from June 1946 – by dr Jan Chranicki.
The reconstruction was commenced at the end of 1946 and lasted for the next 10 years. The first exhibitions showing the historical art and culture of Gdansk and Pomerania were organised in the cloisters and rooms of the ground floor. On 1 may 1948, the museum, which obtained the name of the National Museum in Gdansk, was opened; the guests included the vice-minister of culture and art, Włodzimierz Sokorski, and the director of the National Museum in Warsaw, prof. Stanisław Lorentz. On 1 July 1948, the institution was renamed Pomeranian Museum. The intensely rebuilt collection included works of art brought back from places of their wartime evacuation, revindicated objects, objects provided by the Presidium of the Municipal People’s Council, conservation repositories, numerous gifts and new acquisitions. The collections were also enriched with deposits from the National Museum in Warsaw – mainly Polish paintings from the 19th and 20th centuries.
The broad range of the gathered exhibits allowed the creation of distinct collections: archaeological, historical, and ethnographic ones. After being transformed and separated, the archaeological, maritime and historical departments created in the museum became the foundations for some other museum institutions of Gdansk. In this way, the Maritime Museum (1960, currently the National Maritime Museum), the Archaeological Museum (1962), and the Historical Museum of the City of Gdansk (1971, currently the Museum of Gdansk) were established. On 7 October 1972, the Pomeranian Museum was renamed to the National Museum.
[1] Helena Kowalska, Straty wojenne Muzeum Miejskiego (Stadtmuseum) w Gdańsku, Seria Nowa, vol. 1, Malarstwo, Gdańsk 2017, pp. 44-45.
[2] Marta Krajewska, “Powojenne dzieje zbiorów ceramiki i szkła Muzeum Narodowego w Gdańsku – odbudowa kolekcji w latach 1945-1953. Ludzie i fakty”, [in:] Nowy początek. (Od)budowa kolekcji muzealnych po II wojnie światowej, ed. J. Trupinda, A. Siuciak, Malbork 2019, p. 404.
[3] For more on the activity of Denisov’s group in Gdansk and Pomerania, see Maria Korzon, “Przyczynek do historii gdańskich zbiorów artystycznych”, Cenne, Bezcenne, Utracone, 2000, No. 1 (19), No. 2 (20), No. 3 (21).
[4] Archives of the Library of the National Museum in Gdansk, Inventar der Kunstgegenstände des Danziger Stadtmuseums übergeben Ende Juli 1945 [W. Drost], call no. MNG/A/I/14.
[5] Krajewska 2019, pp. 406-407.