The 100th anniversary of Gdynia encourages reflection on the occasion. It is important, however, to keep the essential proportions in the celebration of this event, separating the story from what was truly crucial and from this position capture the meaning and uniqueness of Gdynia's experience, both as a city and a seaport.
I compose about this due to the fact that in the popular reception there is popular in our country reasoning with categories of prometeism and political romanticism. In this view, represented mainly by various amateur historians practicing the worship of their tiny homeland – Gdynia fell like the gift of the heavens, most likely as a reward for our national sufferings and sacrifices to others. Meanwhile, in Gdynia there was nothing of miracle, nothing of magic, much more suffering, alternatively a consequence of the logical series of events of past and hard work, although I do not hide that the crucial function played by courageous and aptly reading the signs of the time political decisions. They together with the social energy of local communities created the inconspicuous “God's Bay” (as Kaszubi popularly referred to the ancient village surrounded by peat bogs) for the city being the marine capital of the II Republic and our pride.
The origin of marine consciousness and mature geopolitical reflection
To realize the sense of the decision to build a deep sea port in the Gulf of Gdańsk, 1 must go back to the historical period, at least the second half of the 19th century. It was a circumstantial time of civilizational change determined by the modernization processes of the east provinces of Western Prussia in consequence to trends of social democratization and universal education. From the Polish point of view, of course, the aspect of the emerging national consciousness was crucial against the background of antagonistic Polish-German relations and the fight for Poland's access to the Baltic shores. In the Pomeranian identity, aspects of national and regional awareness (including Kashubian) combined with maritime awareness and the request to include the slogan of access to the sea in the national liberation demands were like lentils.
The foundation of the modern maritime state was at the time not only the people of feathers, but besides politicians and social activists of various options, although as it seems to the nation's top democrats specified as Jan Ludwik Popławski or later — Roman Dmowski. Hence, the maritime concept was inscribed in conventional postulates of the Endetian geopolitics, which saw in Prussia the main antagonist of the Polish national interest and referring to the function of the Piast lands and thus the western ends.
It is besides worth noting that the above concepts were created in a climate of discussions conducted in the environments of Polish geographers. The dispute between Wacław Nałkowski and Eugene Romer from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Both geographers attach large importance to the geographical conditions of the future Poland, including in peculiar the water departments, the river network and mostly the maritime nature of the state. However, while Nałkowski was a pessimist referring to the curse of the Polish geopolitical position, Romer felt that our independency would proceed erstwhile we replaced the dominant in our geopolitical thought with a mention to the alleged transit assets of the country's position on the East-West line – North-South relations according to the concept of a bridge stretched between opposing sea basins. Hence, Romer, distancing himself from geographical determinism and its curse, put a key function in national awareness and political will, which will bind Poland to the sea and thus make our independency permanent.
Achievements in the field of political geography have not remained echoed among representatives of social sciences. And yes Florian Prominent – The most prominent Polish sociologist in the work "Sociology of the conflict of Pomerania" believed that Polish culture was predestined to make the expansionary forces of the Polish nation towards the sea to strengthen our national sovereignty against the analogous forces of the German people. On the example of the coastal province, he outlined the explanation of the conflict between expansion and exclusive nations, which he developed in the work of Modern Nations. An crucial issue for the article is in this context the inclusion of national motivations in the sphere of social and economical activity of Pomeranian companies, institutions and associations, the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries in consequence to the Germanization tendencies of our western neighbour. They besides contributed to the empowerment of the Pomeranian civic community, by referring to the sphere of political awareness, which was an crucial presumption of the programming of organizations fighting for Polish consciousness, specified as National Democracy.
The information presented above is not only to illuminate the genesis of our marine consciousness, but to item the fact that this problem gradually matured in Polish society until boiling, burning respective aspects. Of course, the culminating minute was the Treaty of Versailles and the elimination of access to the sea by the Polish delegation, especially Roman Dmowski, while at the same time having to swallow the bitter pill of making Gdańsk a separate administrative unit under the protectorate of the League of Nations. From the above point of view, the word “Gdynia” has a symbolic meaning and I would associate it with the kind of awakening and bringing our inspired swarms to the ground, which besides active catching up with the civilizational hold of Poles, fixing the errors of Polish abroad policy of earlier times along with their prometeian romanticism. This is simply a key word for knowing the meaning of historical events, and not only a circumstantial place located on the white sands of the Baltic shore, between the cliffs of Orlov and Oksywi, where Tadeusz Wenda as the future head of the construction of the port will order the profitable work. Might as well have been Rewa, Puck, Władysławowo, Lake Żarnowieckie or any another place if our elites had decided to choose a different location.
Customs War on Germany and its Effects
In order to realize the real meaning of the construction of Gdynia, let us mention to the ability to read the signs of the time and make optimal decisions by the political circles of the Second Republic, which, as if not to look at the task. For this purpose, it is worth to return to the already mentioned geopolitics, as well as the sociology of Florian Poznański explanation of Polish-German relations. But let us besides have at the back of our head thesis of the geography of Eugenius Romer binding our access to the sea (and the point of this contact will be the deep sea port) with the North-South communication grid, due to the fact that this thread will intertwin through further consideration. After all, the confederate part of the country was a coal mining area in Silesia, and at the beginning of the 20th century access to black gold deposits was inactive a prerequisite for economical progress, at least for a country like Poland.
The reason why the Polish government decided to activate the waterways and to link them to Polish mines located in Silesia was the Polish-German economical war. It was hailed by Germany in the spring of 1925 imposing customs restrictions on transport by land from Silesia to Germany. By closing the borders, our western neighbour wanted to stifle the advanced Silesia economy to show the Western public (and remember that he had the right to revise the east borders that were not covered by the Locarno Treaty), that this industrial region should return to the German motherland and there is its native place, that he was kind of functionally pregnant with the German economy, alternatively than Polish. Paradoxically, the effects were the opposite: this decision awakened our government circles to look for customers elsewhere for Polish coal, to diversify the audience, as it is said today. That's where we started reasoning about overseas markets. Due to the deficiency of economical contacts with Russia russian and Lithuania and the low level of trade with Czechoslovakia and Romania, the only way for the Polish economy was to activate the roads of the sea.
For this, however, a real seaport was needed, not a modest fishing marina in Gdynia, due to the fact that in Gdańsk there were inactive obstacles and harassments from the German administration of the Free City. Although in 1922 the Sejm passed the Act on the construction of the port in Gdynia, in fact the laconic Act did not indicate either the timetable or the way the investment was financed, especially since there were another locations in the game, specified as Tczew or Puck Bay. In 1923, the ceremony opened “Temporary War Port and Hostel for Fishermen“ However, there were no preferential loans or government guarantees, so the anticipation of serving larger volumes remained in the realm of dreams. Even the establishment of a peculiar Polish-French Consortium in 1924 did not trigger any movement in the interest, as a consequence the investments moved, it was stuck again. Of course, the port in Gdynia was present in the propaganda layer: the Navy organized demonstrations of combat fleets, including French ships, The Marine League dreamed of Polish colonies, and politicians were outbeating themselves in krasomous speeches.
The strike of English miners in Cardiff and the device moves truly
In May 1926, however, the long strike of English miners began, which led to a collapse of exports from the British port of Cardiff coal to European markets. This strike is crucial for the European economy, and even for culture and beautiful literature (its traces can be found in Cronin’s fresh “Stars Look At Us” or “The home of Forssites” Galsworthy) due to the fact that it led to a general strike, resulting in Britain losing its natural materials markets forever, forcing Western decision-makers and forecasters to reorient economical policy towards fresh technologies. This gap had to be filled with natural material from another country, and this country became Poland, which, unlike the UK, was only entering the phase of the large industrial and raw-intensive economy, wanting to catch its last chord.
In this way, the Polish government signed contracts to transport our coal to absorbent Scandinavian markets (Swedish and Danish). As a result, the State decided to take a number of strategical decisions. request for Polish coal, mainly from Scandinavian markets, led to an increase in port handling of the Polish customs area. This situation convinced Polish policy makers to grant credit guarantees to a Danish construction company investing in the expansion of the Gdynia port, which resulted in the construction of port channels beginning at a dynamic pace. Significantly, more works were done in the 10 months of 1927 than in the full erstwhile period, i.e. six years. The improvement of transhipment equipment was moving towards achieving the highest possible performance, with the minimum request for the dimension of the waterfront for a given device. In addition, each recently built wharf received a connection to the railway network.
In this way, Gdynia grew up to be a large seaport, which in the 1930s ranked second on the Baltic in terms of the volume of transhipments. It is not only a breakthrough in investments for the port and its expansion, the activation of transhipments has contributed to the launch of the commercial fleet of 3 Polish shipping companies and 1 dedicated passenger line for the service of Polish exile to America, not to mention many social, educational initiatives, the improvement of maritime education and discipline (video Baltic Institute), as well as the promotion of maritime awareness among Polish society.
It is worth to conclude, therefore, that the 1926 celebration is peculiarly crucial due to the above outlined conditions, and they were the origin of real improvement impulse for Gdynia and the full Polish coast, and possibly the full of Poland. In addition to the economical and investment aspect, these conditions influenced the transformation from the field of psychology and political awareness. In the heads of our decision-makers is born an highly crucial geopolitical reflection, which will consequence in reorientation of Poland by 90 degrees (as he will later express) Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski – in the photo), i.e. from a land-based country based on east-west relations to a maritime state in which north-south relations count.
Significantly, from 1926 onwards, water roads played an increasingly crucial function in the Polish abroad trade, although the primacy of intermediation of German ports in the handling of our overseas trade was yet broken for the ports of the Polish customs area only in 1930. The construction of Gdynia besides attracted a number of investments located in another areas of Poland and influenced the industrialization of the country. A key communication investment was the "carbon master" – built between 1926 and 1933 by a specially appointed consortium with the participation of Polish and French capital. Thanks to it, there was a fast union of advanced Silesia and the interior of the country with the Baltic coast. As he notes Andrzej Piskozub This route: “It was played by the old, from the day of the Piastov region that originated in the north-south [...] This was the other direction imposed by Drang nach Osten on parallel east-west communication routes". Kwiatkowski in order to find the function of the North-South way refers, in turn, to organic terminology highlighting the effect of bonding, integration of various lands in Poland. “We request to realize – he writes – that it is through Gdynia, Pomerania and Silesia that the main economical nerve of Polish life runs through, that cutting this nerve is paralysis of the full body, it is the stabilization of poorness of many generations, that the inability to extract from the loops of these complications, which so brightly draw before the eyes of the modern generation.”
Political perspective
Finally, we should look at political circumstances. In 1926, the May bombing of Józef Piłsudski took place. The impact of this event on investments located on the Coast is different by historians, especially since Pomerania nadwiślańskie was never a region conducive to recovery. However, the favourable circumstances were the increased possibilities of intervention tools of the government, as well as direct investments, which were drawn in the context of the effects of authoritarian governments, and it is hard not to associate this with the fact that the sanctioning crew had the slogan of economical statism and interventionism, especially as Piłsudski camp was hungry for success. These tools can trigger the improvement effect, at a time erstwhile they are reasonably used, and placing them within the remit of Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski, as if not looking at a good economist who, as it was said, "had a good hand to the maritime economy" increased the likelihood that this would actually happen. Hence, after the coup of May, the president of Poland Ignacy Mościcki recommended him to be Minister of manufacture and Trade in the Second Government Kazimierz Bartlwhich he held in 1926–1930. As Minister, he accelerated the expansion of the port in Gdynia, ending the dispute with the building port of the Polish-French consortium, signing a fresh agreement. He received support from president Mościcki, who issued a regulation on 1 June 1927 to support the expansion of the city and port, while offering taxation exemptions for companies operating there.
When writing about the function of Kwiatkowski, of course, all proportions should besides be kept. Even before the May bombing, many efforts to activate the roads of the sea were attended by political activists of the Grabski government specified as Józef Kiedroń or Czesław Klarner, and at the bottom, or on the Gdynia wetlands and the skids, he showed tireless effort Tadeusz Wenda, followed by the remainder of the "deserved": Kazimierz Porębski, Józef Unrug, Julian Rummel, although the value of the individual activists should besides be critically verified by draining those more well-deserved, but frequently underestimated (e.g. creator of our shipping Julian Rummel), from those who became heroes of the Gdynia legend (video Mariusz Zaruski). However, the fact is that in the case of Kwiatkowski, the legend was able to combine with the actual merits. This process was undoubtedly served by good promotion, self-presentation and yet by the Prime Minister's publicist talent. Here is simply a example of the patetic kind – Kwiatkowski's "Golden Thought" from 1930: "Here, including the symbolic and yet so circumstantial words of Gdynia, our communication with the planet is realized, here the borders of the remotest countries are drawn closer to us, there is simply a real neighbourhood with many peoples of the world, here we can build a actual opinion of strangers of the actual “Poland at work”
Of course, there are only any points applicable to the construction of Gdynia and the activation of our homeland's waterways. On purpose, although a small bit in spite, I did not compose about the city at all, the stages of its expansion, problems and challenges, and after all, on 10 February we celebrated the anniversary of granting city rights. As an interesting fact, I would just like to mention the fact that the majority of Gdynia to this day does not realize that Gdynia's most crucial street does not commemorate the date of granting city rights (because this condition before the war was not subject to any celebration), but the matrimony of Poland to the sea, made by Gen. Józef Haller in Puck on 10 February 1920 – and hence the name of the street. All this confirms the rank of access to the sea for the improvement of the civilisational Poland and the marine consciousness of the II Republic of Poland. It was the construction of the port that was our main investment in the interwar period, and the city of Gdynia – only with this natural consequence, so it was besides spontaneously expanding, frequently without improvement plans and without providing the essential surviving conditions for mercenary workers coming from all over the country (and of course it is regrettable, as literary reports did Melchiora Vanakovich, including the most crucial Judy at service level). This was somewhat akin to the process of building the fresh planet overseas, hence the comparisons of Gdynia to Klondike or fresh Eldorado were popular in literature.
However, this does not change the fact that 1926 was indeed very important, not only due to the granting of city rights. Although I am far from assigning mystic meaning (in the kind of Karl Jaspers' "axial time") to the dates, any reasons are in favour of recognising that then crucial economical events, political decisions and social awareness which launched – of course in consequence to the described global events – the snowball effect, combining earlier crumbs of thought and actions into 1 coherent whole.
Michael Graban
Photo by NAC
Book author:
"In the face of civilization changes of the 20th and 21st centuries. The evolution of urban improvement factors”, Gdynia 2012.
"Between rooting and creation. Identity of Pomerania as a origin of competitiveness”, Gdańsk 2025.
Think Poland, No. 11-12 (15-22.03.2026)