One of the most memorable passages in The Tin Drum describes how World War II was triggered when Germany attacked Poland. The first shots were aimed at Danzig. They were fired on Sept. 1, 1939 by the elderly German battle cruiser Schleswig-Holstein.
A German police unit then stormed the city's Polish post office building. In The Tin Drum, Oskar's uncle and his assumed father Jan Bronski were among the "defenders of the Polish Post Office" who were later murdered. The original building remains standing and parts of it are still used by the postal authority. The other half is a museum dedicated to those dramatic, opening events of the war. Plaques above the main entrance list the names of those who died in the fighting there.
From the Post Office the city's main attractions are only a few meters away. It is just a short walk to the church of St Mary, the largest brick church in the world, the Golden Gate (Zlota Brama), built between 1612 and 1614 and the Long Market (Dlugi Targ) with its famous Neptune fountain. The Polish restoration teams made such a good job of restoring the ruins of these ancient buildings in the 1950s and 1960s that they are scarcely distinguishable from the originals. Thanks to them, Gdansk is the most handsome city in Poland next to Wroclaw.
One of the few places that escaped destruction is the old Town Hall in the city center. A stairway laid out with a red carpet leads up to the first floor where magnificently decorated chambers bear witness to the prosperity of Gdansk in its trading heyday. Right next to the entrance is the Turbot restaurant that takes its name from the Polish word for "flounder."
The restaurant is owned by Maciej Krainski, president of the Gunter Grass Society, who named it after the 1977 Grass fable The Flounder. Members of the Grass-Society meet regularly on these premises.
What the Krainskis have in common with most of its fellow society members is that they came to Gdansk after the war. They were strangers to the city. "Yet through Gunter Grass we came to learn so much about the complicated history of the region," said Maciej, It is a feeling shared by many people who have made the journey to Gdansk.
On the Net: www.gdansk-life.com;
www.pl-info.net/en/
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