News
Lecture in The City Museum “Gerhart Hauptmann’s House”
On the last Saturday, Dominik Marcinkowski, an employee of the CMJW, gave a lecture on sport in German prisoner-of-war camps during the Second World War, at the Open Day of The City Museum “Gerhart Hauptmann’s House” in Jelenia Góra. He named the most important information about the fate of soldiers in the Wehrmacht captivity, focusing on the important role of sport and activities which served to maintain physical fitness. The speaker emphasized that it was sport that often made it possible to survive the difficult time of compulsory isolation in the camps, although the possibility of practising it depended on the prisoners' military affiliation. During his speech, he also presented the history of the camp Olympic competitions organized by Polish prisoners-of-war in 1940 and 1944, i.e. at the time when normal Games could not take place due to the ongoing war.
The lecture took place in the beautiful building of the museum. The house was erected in 1901 by a commission from the famous German writer, Gerhart Hauptmann, who, a few years later, in 1912, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. The building was designed by the German designer, Hans Grisebach, and was a combination of historicism and neo-renaissance. The Nobel Prize laureate lived there until his death in 1946. The museum dedicated to him was opened in May 2005. The house of the German Nobel Prize laureate evokes certain associations for inhabitants of the Opole region. Its soaring towers and beautifully decorated rooms bring to mind the palace in Moszna. The appearance of both buildings is probably the effect of the same architectural fashion, looking for inspiration in the past, which prevailed among the German elite at the beginning of the 20th century.
The Saturday lecture came together with presentation of our Museum’s exposition Życie sportowe żołnierzy polskich w niewoli niemieckiej (1939-1945) [Sport life of Polish soldiers in German captivity (1939-1945)], which will be available to be seen until the end of September in the museum in Jelenia Góra.
You are very welcome to see it!
