Warsaw 2009
Unlike any other European capital, Warsaw clearly exposes the major transition periods of the past two centuries. The city was greatly influenced by the illusionary splendour and social contrasts of the legendary Saxon period, the humiliation of the capital during the partitions of Poland, the great reform projects of the Polish enlightenment, and Warsaw’s role as an imperial Russian residence.
The profile of Warsaw was forged by the erratic national movements of the 19th century, the peasant liberation movement, industrialization, the exciting emergence of the bourgeoisie, and the largest Jewish community in Europe. At the end of the century, Warsaw had become the fourth largest city of the Russian Empire. In 1918, it was again proclaimed the capital of Poland. The following decades were characterized by conflicts about the territorial order and the borders of the Polish nation state, inflation, artistic revival, the „Golden Twenties“, the financial crisis, and state-controlled democracy, which, at the end of the 1930ies, was declared dispensable.
The second German occupation of the 20th century caused the deepest and bloodiest disruption in the history of Warsaw. In fact, the city had ceased to exist in 1945. Its citizens had died in war, were murdered or deported and its Jewish community had been systematically annihilated.
The reconstruction of Warsaw was both, a political myth, and at the same time an excellent performance of heritage management. It provided basis for the today’s capital, together with major demographic changes and the sometimes well-planed and sometimes chaotic expansion of the city into a socialist metropolis.