STANISŁAW LORENTZ. COMMEMORATION ON THE 115TH ANNIVERSARY OF BIRTH

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STANISŁAW LORENTZ. COMMEMORATION ON THE 115TH ANNIVERSARY OF BIRTH

Journal Title: Muzealnictwo - Year 2014, Vol 55, Issue

Abstract

Stanisław Lorentz’s life represents an experience of the last century. He was given a chance of living through the first Polish independence, followed by the tragedy of losing it, then years under occupation, and years of hope for better post-war reality. When it eventually came, far from expectations, it brought about necessity to make difficult choices. Nowadays, the privilege of having been born at a later date allows for the formulation of frequently too simplified assessments of the times in question. Stanisław Lorentz, whose life experience waits to be recorded by a biographer, was blessed to witness the fulfilment of one of the objectives that he had been pursuing for half of his adult life, i.e. the reconstruction of the Royal Castle in Warsaw. For the man that reached maturity in the Second Republic of Poland, the symbolism of the Castle, a royal and presidential abode, was related with the independence of the state, and that is the reason why the reconstruction of the destroyed residence became so important for Lorentz. On 17 September 1939, he was among those rescuing historical movables from the Castle’s interiors. He was supported by employees of the National Museum in Warsaw which he had run as its director for many years. For Lorentz and for his generation, a response to challenges posed by post-war years involved maintaining the symbolic representation of a sovereign state, enchanted in the reconstructed matter. Lorentz’s efforts for the reconstruction of the Castle became even more justified when it turned out that it was the socialist realism that was the ‘new thing’. If I could venture to indicate Lorentz’s specific merit in the post-war history, I would however indicate the so-called little stabilisation decade under the rule of Gomułka, when the vacant space left by the Castle started to become an integral part of the landscape and when it was necessary to fight not even for the reconstruction itself, but for merely keeping alive the obligation to undertake the reconstruction. A decision to reconstruct the Castle was taken in January 1971, once sounds of shots fired at the Polish seaside had died away. Memories on the beginnings of the Castle’s reconstruction are memories about December 1970. In intentions of people like Stanisław Lorentz, thousands of those who for the subsequent decade supported the reconstruction with their financial aid and in-kind contributions, the reconstruction served as a statement that there existed values more permanent than changeable political regimes. Even perceiving the Polish culture of the post-war decades highly critically, it is impossible not to admit that it was the time of restoring symbolical objects, aimed at supporting the spiritual sovereignty of the Polish society. Without Lorentz and his generation, many places symbolic for the national memory would be missing, while a great deal of provenance disputes today calling for settlement would remain purely theoretical.

Authors and Affiliations

Piotr Majewski

Keywords

EP ID EP61739
DOI -
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