tram arrived at Market Brief from the Causeway. Wide berth turned into a Berlin street and stopped at the bus stop opposite the town hall. Several people got out and has spread around the square. Two women in long gowns umbrellas developed and raced toward the hall. Before entering the building, men discussed in the caps of something live. Someone pushed the stroller next to them with vegetables or fruit. Mustachioed motorman gave the signal of departure and the tram rolled towards the gates of Berlin. Unknown photographer presses the shutter button. The clock on the facade of City Hall pointed hour 16:10.
first drops of rain fall down and Heinz Henschel hides the pre-war photograph of the briefcase. The briefcase disappears Old Town Square. As if by magic, vanish tram the driver, ladies with parasols, men in hats. Evaporates standing in the middle market memorial formation of the Second Reich. Cobbled market square turns into a bumpy clearing, exposed to wind gusts. In place of three-storey townhouses sprout trees, shop windows are changing tangle of weeds in a pavement and grass absorbs the tram rails. Crushed foundations, stairs leading to non-existent houses, board sidewalks that lead nowhere - so much was left of the market and the entire old town. Even with the yellowed photograph in his hand is hard to imagine that at this point once the heart was beating Kostrzyn fortress. Old Town has survived in documents and old photographs and memory few surviving inhabitants of the German Kostrzyna Oder.
Heinz Henschel head is full of memories and pictures, similar to those from the photo. It is the last living people who carry the memory of the old Küstrin. He was 13 years old when war broke out. A few times a week passed by the Old Town market. The New Town was racing bike to the relatives on the outskirts of the Gate Chyżyńską. Rode to the fortress, as the tram, the non-existent by then Sarbinowską Gate, where the hotel stands an unfinished building. The boy crossed the street Commanders, past City Hall and adjacent buildings and soon stop doing mandatory. "On the corner was a bakery Kietzer Tränklera Straße" - recalls Heinz Henschel - "Sznek" cost five pfennig. " The boy absorbed in a rush iced bun, jumping on the bike and after a few minutes he was at his aunt and uncle.
market has ceased to exist 60 years ago, but Heinz Henschel memories are vivid. That Kostrzyn still full of life and is not predicted impending doom. Walls' Kostrzyna 2015 "also shine. The roofs of buildings shocked virtual color, and façade and streets radiate a warm glow from the screen. According to the adopted by the Kostrzyna market strategy is to be rebuilt first. If there will be investors around the square created four frontages that can accommodate cafes, clubs and restaurants. Fill them to the hotel guests and residents of nearby flats and apartments. The facade of City Hall will be like in the picture before war. Regeneration project involves the reconstruction of the building. The facade, architectural details, stairs and the clock must correspond to the German model. Similarly, the line built houses. "Some newly-built houses as possible should have faithfully reconstructed facades" - I read in the fortress of Transboundary revitalization study Kostrzyn 2015. Kostrzyn future, if created, would be an exact copy Küstrin an der Oder. And only in this vision is hard to believe when you see the town hall at the top of the debris zarosłego weeds.
Kostrzyna Oder Mayor Andrzej Kunt is enthusiastic about the project. If he did not believe in its success, would not involve so much effort, and money. He realizes that the implementation of the project will be extremely difficult. So says asekuracyjnie - "should be distinguished from the reconstruction of the fortress Kostrzyn reconstruction of the Old Town. Have taken responsibility for restoration of fortifications and go through with the task. We will create a friendly climate for investments. " Are investors will be interested in peripherally located Kostrzyn Oder? Mayor Kunt can not be a headache, but hopes that the work of genius loci - the spirit of Kostrzyn fortress. Of key importance will be the cooperation with Germany, because joint efforts can do more. Apparently some of Luxembourg with Polish roots longer interested in the area of \u200b\u200bthe castle.
Meanwhile, the castle courtyard surrounded by walls of not more than five feet. Cloaks out of the ground cellar holes and rubble covered with brick vaults. "No Entry" - warned the plate before entering. Stone steps leading to the staircases once, today, ending at the empty holes with no doors and frames. Fragment of winding stairs leaves no doubt where he stood a castle tower. Heinz Henschel remembers how once a year, the actors performed at the Renaissance courtyard of the last scenes of life of Hans von Katte, sentenced to death a young friend of Frederick the Great.
first drops of rain fall down and Heinz Henschel hides the pre-war photograph of the briefcase. The briefcase disappears Old Town Square. As if by magic, vanish tram the driver, ladies with parasols, men in hats. Evaporates standing in the middle market memorial formation of the Second Reich. Cobbled market square turns into a bumpy clearing, exposed to wind gusts. In place of three-storey townhouses sprout trees, shop windows are changing tangle of weeds in a pavement and grass absorbs the tram rails. Crushed foundations, stairs leading to non-existent houses, board sidewalks that lead nowhere - so much was left of the market and the entire old town. Even with the yellowed photograph in his hand is hard to imagine that at this point once the heart was beating Kostrzyn fortress. Old Town has survived in documents and old photographs and memory few surviving inhabitants of the German Kostrzyna Oder.
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| Heinz Henschel |
market has ceased to exist 60 years ago, but Heinz Henschel memories are vivid. That Kostrzyn still full of life and is not predicted impending doom. Walls' Kostrzyna 2015 "also shine. The roofs of buildings shocked virtual color, and façade and streets radiate a warm glow from the screen. According to the adopted by the Kostrzyna market strategy is to be rebuilt first. If there will be investors around the square created four frontages that can accommodate cafes, clubs and restaurants. Fill them to the hotel guests and residents of nearby flats and apartments. The facade of City Hall will be like in the picture before war. Regeneration project involves the reconstruction of the building. The facade, architectural details, stairs and the clock must correspond to the German model. Similarly, the line built houses. "Some newly-built houses as possible should have faithfully reconstructed facades" - I read in the fortress of Transboundary revitalization study Kostrzyn 2015. Kostrzyn future, if created, would be an exact copy Küstrin an der Oder. And only in this vision is hard to believe when you see the town hall at the top of the debris zarosłego weeds.
Kostrzyna Oder Mayor Andrzej Kunt is enthusiastic about the project. If he did not believe in its success, would not involve so much effort, and money. He realizes that the implementation of the project will be extremely difficult. So says asekuracyjnie - "should be distinguished from the reconstruction of the fortress Kostrzyn reconstruction of the Old Town. Have taken responsibility for restoration of fortifications and go through with the task. We will create a friendly climate for investments. " Are investors will be interested in peripherally located Kostrzyn Oder? Mayor Kunt can not be a headache, but hopes that the work of genius loci - the spirit of Kostrzyn fortress. Of key importance will be the cooperation with Germany, because joint efforts can do more. Apparently some of Luxembourg with Polish roots longer interested in the area of \u200b\u200bthe castle.
Meanwhile, the castle courtyard surrounded by walls of not more than five feet. Cloaks out of the ground cellar holes and rubble covered with brick vaults. "No Entry" - warned the plate before entering. Stone steps leading to the staircases once, today, ending at the empty holes with no doors and frames. Fragment of winding stairs leaves no doubt where he stood a castle tower. Heinz Henschel remembers how once a year, the actors performed at the Renaissance courtyard of the last scenes of life of Hans von Katte, sentenced to death a young friend of Frederick the Great.
Perhaps the courtyard of the castle in Kostrzyn once again become the scenery for theatrical productions. The concept of the inner courtyard of the city authorities should be covered with a glass roof. This would be the only "modern" architectural element, because just like the town hall, the castle also has been faithfully recreated. Kostrzyna authorities want to within the walls of the building were reconstructed meeting rooms, a subsidiary of the university, research institute or research. The object would in the same nationally known function. Just as in times of greatest splendor of the city.
Heinz Henschel stops at the square stone pedestal in the middle front of the castle. At this point, opposite the parish church of St. Mary, was until 1945 a monument to the builder of the fortress from Kostrzyn Hans. Henschel looks toward the wooden cross, standing in the place where once there was a church altar. "All major religious ceremonies held at the limited square castle, church and the headquarters' - says German. In the basement of the church rests with the founder of Renaissance fortress Hans von Küstrin and other eminent burghers. Today the haunted crypt openings zawalonymi rubble. The project provides for reconstruction of the Temple of revitalization in the late Baroque style. The church, according to plans, would result in an ecumenical and culture-forming activity.
When Hitler attacked Poland, a garrison town on the Oder had a population of nearly 25 thousand. residents. One third of the population lived in the fortress. The others lived districts Küstrin-Kietz, Neustadt, and Chyżyńskie estate located at the exit of the town of Frankfurt. Who could have escaped from Kostrzyn to the West. When the winter of 1945 by saying rolled up cylinder of history, lived in a couple of hundred people.
Heinz Henschel stops at the square stone pedestal in the middle front of the castle. At this point, opposite the parish church of St. Mary, was until 1945 a monument to the builder of the fortress from Kostrzyn Hans. Henschel looks toward the wooden cross, standing in the place where once there was a church altar. "All major religious ceremonies held at the limited square castle, church and the headquarters' - says German. In the basement of the church rests with the founder of Renaissance fortress Hans von Küstrin and other eminent burghers. Today the haunted crypt openings zawalonymi rubble. The project provides for reconstruction of the Temple of revitalization in the late Baroque style. The church, according to plans, would result in an ecumenical and culture-forming activity.
When Hitler attacked Poland, a garrison town on the Oder had a population of nearly 25 thousand. residents. One third of the population lived in the fortress. The others lived districts Küstrin-Kietz, Neustadt, and Chyżyńskie estate located at the exit of the town of Frankfurt. Who could have escaped from Kostrzyn to the West. When the winter of 1945 by saying rolled up cylinder of history, lived in a couple of hundred people.
Heinz Henschel never seen destruction hometown. In 1944 he got the call to the army. He sat in a POW camp in Holland when the Red Army occupied the ruins of the fort. While running from January to March, the siege of the city flooded the Soviet airmen hail of bombs. In the Old Town to live broadcast in a tenement.
house in which the outbreak of war the family lived Henschel, survived. In 1946, when Heinz came back from captivity on the Odra river was already impassable border. In Germany, a suburb remained Kietz. Other districts, including Old and New Town, were in Poland. Heinz lived with his parents in a small house on the road mainly Kietz, three kilometers from the border. From the other side of the river looked at the ruins of the fort and waited for a quarter of a century to visit them.
The first time he went to the Polish Heinz Kostrzyna late fifties. - "I could not know this place" - remembers the first impression. - "It was a totally different city." To his surprise, he found the square Grunwald family house-a place of his birth. Grounds of the fortress guarded the army and he saw the ruins of the old town. It was not until the early seventies he went through Frankfurt to Kostrzyn. No one has watched the rubble and undergrowth and could walk for hours among the ruins. - "It was a shock" - said today Heinz Henschel - "They returned childhood memories, I stood and I cried. " In the mid-seventies, the army blasted ruins in the air and eventually ceased to exist Küstrin.
By Exercise Square, now recognizable only by kamiennemu obmurowaniu lane of trees, we come to the streets of Berlin. For several hundred years was the most important thoroughfare of the city. Street began in the market and ran towards the west, to the gates of Berlin. Kostrzyna authorities recently set up a gate and odrestaurowały in her tour. Rebuilt and located on the opposite end of the fortress gate Chyżyńską at which the museum has built a fortress. Heinz Henschel stops after a few dozen meters from the briefcase and pulls out a map of the prewar Kostrzyna. - "Here stood the hotel Krappes" - indicates the location of the finger overgrown by lush vegetation - "rooms cost the two brands."
School along the street approaching the exit at the rear of the restaurant and hotel Bastion. Slalom pass the mud and puddles. I ask the Heinz Henschel a recovery plan for the Old Town. - "I'm not sure if this money can not utilize the better" - corresponds to Germany. Do not believe in success. - "In the near there are no large cities. Who would pay for it was? "- Asks Henschel and the finger points to the unfinished building behind the hotel. People on both sides of the Oder wanes, young people are leaving. Abandoned apartments and houses on the west side of the border can be bought for a song. According to a German stronghold should be preserved as a permanent ruin, as a warning to future generations. - "Twice the same river access is not possible" - Henschel says philosophically.
But even the most improbable visions can be realized, however. Several years ago Hans Henschelowi not occur to that border controls will disappear. For almost half a century bridge over the Oder river was closed. Then we had to show documents, open the trunk, to translate. At midnight on December 21, 2007, everything changed. Hans Henschel at midnight arrived at the border and was the first German to Küstrin-Kietz crossed the bridge over the Oder River, without any control - after 63 years.
But even the most improbable visions can be realized, however. Several years ago Hans Henschelowi not occur to that border controls will disappear. For almost half a century bridge over the Oder river was closed. Then we had to show documents, open the trunk, to translate. At midnight on December 21, 2007, everything changed. Hans Henschel at midnight arrived at the border and was the first German to Küstrin-Kietz crossed the bridge over the Oder River, without any control - after 63 years.
the way back from Kostrzyn stayed in Górzycy. Actually, probably after this that a deeper awareness of the impermanence of human enterprise. In the village between Kostrzyn and Slubice there was nothing that could explain a halt. Once, centuries ago, the official bishops here and Lubuska chapter, and situated on a high bank of the Oder settlement flourished. Now no longer even PGR. German-Polish borderland is full of places that the glory days are long behind him. In vain to look for traces of the old luster to the episcopate Lebus, a sleepy little town today on the Oder. And had happened to the Jumna, also called Vineta, located somewhere at the mouth of the river to the Baltic? "This is truly the greatest of cities, what is called Europe, live in the Slavic and other tribes, the Greeks and pagans" - wrote in the ninth century chronicler Adam of Bremen.
It is generally believed that the destruction of the "post-German" cities, were created during the war in 1945. Midwives Oder and Neisse-last line of the Nazi resistance, the defenders of the fortress changed, and the invaders in the rubble. Such a fate, after Frankfurt, Guben, Forst. Meanwhile nadgraniczne villages and village located outside the line of fire had fallen into disrepair after the front passes. " Cities western and northern Polish met disaster at the end of hostilities. Happened in the great cultural tragedy, something extremely scary, "- says Professor Maria Lubocka-Hoffmann, long Elblag conservator and lecturer at the University of Warmia and Mazury. "Maybe today it's hard to imagine, but few cities in the "Recovered Territories" were destroyed during the war. (...) Within a few years, during which the old towns acted Soviet military commandant's office, there were terrible destruction. Only recently, when the records are disclosed as Russian, American and German, the light were frightening facts. " According to the professor, the cause of urban decline was rooted in an enormous feeling of aversion to these areas. The Russians destroyed the city with no military need, but because they were "post-German." The Poles came from the east, showed no Junker interest reconstruction of palaces, buildings and peasant farms. Later made the final destruction of buildings, spatial layouts ruinous old buildings and old town. Western border is full of such places. In Osno Lubuskie situated 20 km from the Oder River tour guides describe the town hall, a Gothic church and the medieval ramparts. Silent on standing in the middle of town, the historic market, trade pavilions so ugly that it would save them only to blow up.
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| Ośno Lubuskie |
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