Breslau/Wroclaw

German campaigns and battles 1919-1945.

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Richard Hargreaves
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Breslau/Wroclaw

Post by Richard Hargreaves »

Has anyone been to Wroclaw? I ask because I'm off there in a couple of weeks for a few days to get a "feel" for the place I'm about to write a book on. Is there anything specifically left from the Festung or a museum of the battle? I can only find details of the military museum which doesn't look like it covers the 1945 battle. The Jahrhunderthalle still stands and the Ring and Cathedral Island have all been rebuilt, but is there anything else to look out for? Thanks in advance. :[]
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Re: Breslau/Wroclaw

Post by Njorl »

Hello,

If you go to see the Cathedral pay attention to bridges leading to islands on Odra. One of them looks rather 'experienced' - holes, ricochet traces etc.

Regards,
MJU
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Richard Hargreaves
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Re: Breslau/Wroclaw

Post by Richard Hargreaves »

Cheers Njorl! :up: That's exactly the sort of thing I'm after – pockmarks from bullets etc, as well as the larger stuff.
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Re: Breslau/Wroclaw

Post by Richard Hargreaves »

Well, the old town is fabulous, buzzing with activity day and, especially, night with musicians and circus acts entertaining diners eating out on the cobbled square. The town hall is every bit as ornate as photographs suggest, and the "Hansel and Gretel House" is excellent..

There are a lot (and I mean a lot) of churches. A trip to the top of cathedral tower is a must - it gives you an excellent view of the city, and gives you an idea of just how big the conurbation is. From a glance, it looks like most of the fighting occurred in the north of the city, as it's here that there seems to be a lack of the old German tenement blocks.

Sadly, I couldn't find the Soviet cemetery... but I did find a memorial opposite the spire at the Jahrhunderthalle/Century Hall - it's a boarded up old exhibition building which is incredibly run-down. You'll find four typically Soviet-era statues in front of it, and in the portico there are two huge plaques celebrating the achievements of the Red Army and also the Polish Army.

There's the entrance to a bunker on the reverse slope of the Liebichshöhe; the Liebichshöhe itself looks rather sad - the upstairs is a run-down open air restaurant, and downstairs is a Russian-themed nightclub (I think called Provocation). On the opposite side of the road is a concrete memorial, chipped and weather worn. I think it's Mother Russia, but there's no inscription.

A few things stand out: the memorials to Katyn and the expellees from the Lvov-Ukraine region at the end of WW2 are in much, much better state than those of 1939-1945.

Secondly, German Wroclaw - Breslau - has been all but been eliminated, even down to the inscriptions on the buildings and bridges; on the other hand, there were a lot of German visitors touring the city (and bookshops sold many books in German on the city's days in the Reich).

Food is cheap (you can easily eat out around the Rynek for under £10 per head), transport is cheap (£2 for a day pass on the trams/buses) and books are cheap (except that I can't read Polish so it's no use to me :()

The Jahrhunderthalle/Century Hall is well worth seeing; you only really get an idea of the scale of the building if you stand in front of it.

And if you like pizzas, the Dominium on the Rynek is awesome. Don't order the XL though. You'll never finish it. :D
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Stephan H.
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Re: Breslau/Wroclaw

Post by Stephan H. »

Richard,

How much reading/research did you complete before the trip?

I unfortunately scheduled my trip before completing all my writing and found golden nuggets in my research that I wish I knew before the trip - things like certain location where significant fighting took place, or where key personalities were buried during the battle. Do you plan on heading back after your first draft in order to take photos / verify accounts? It would be great to provide current photographs of locations you write about for context. That would be my recommendation.

Stephan
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Richard Hargreaves
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Re: Breslau/Wroclaw

Post by Richard Hargreaves »

Hi Stephan,

I did a fair bit; I knew which places I wanted to see - The Ring, the University, basically the heart of town, plus the Jahrhunderthalle and the 'Olympic stadium' - but, realistically, I'm about six months along a three-year-long road, so I'll have a much better grasp of the place in three years' time. Certainly from the places I saw, there wasn't a great deal of point doing 'then and now' pictures as things hadn't changed too much. I think what I grasped most from the visit was the scale of the place - just how big it was, how wide the river was, how imposing some of the buildings were. I might go back, indeed I might have to go back, I'd certainly be happy to do so because it was a fascinating place. If I do go back, I think I'll get a city guide who point out some of the gems.
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Stephan H.
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Re: Breslau/Wroclaw

Post by Stephan H. »

I find the architectural transformations that many of these battleground cities of Eastern Europe have gone through fascinating; both in terms of the immediate postwar rebuilding period, where in the case of Breslau most aspects of it's German heritage were obliterated, and then again after the fall of the "Wall" when a free economy brought in money for significant re-development.
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Re: Breslau/Wroclaw

Post by Pirx »

Hi Stephan.
If You ever visit Wroclaw, try to find dwarfs. Image , Image
this days people in Wroclaw are proud as well from famouns Poles, but all Breslauers. even so small.
amicus Plato, sed magis amica veritas
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Re: Breslau/Wroclaw

Post by Richard Hargreaves »

Ah, I missed the dwarfs. I did find the street sculpture of the people crossing the road, disappearing into the pavement like people going into a subway. Very cool. :D
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Re: Breslau/Wroclaw

Post by Stephan H. »

Pirx wrote:If You ever visit Wroclaw, try to find dwarfs.
Now that's worth going on a trip to see! :shock: Forget battlefields and monuments--give me some dwarves! Though, I think they look a bit like gnomes. Is there a difference? :wink:
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Re: Breslau/Wroclaw

Post by Richard Hargreaves »

There is indeed. You only find dwarves in groups of two or more. Gnomes however go out and about individually, hence the phrase gnome alone...
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Re: Breslau/Wroclaw

Post by HB Wade »

It was quite an experience to have an opportunity to live and work in Wroclaw while deep into a military history graduate program. I had Richard Hargraves text; Breslau, Hitler's Last Fortress on order but went armed only with an open slate and computer.

In the six month time period I was able to explore the entire city and scoured the areas where the majority of the fighting took place. With flats in the western area and later in the south of the city I was able to walk all of the combat areas and document literally thousands of photos of surprisingly still un-repaired building fronts. My plans for covering the Fortress period was delayed as I ended up opting to cover the Kurland Bridgehead due to a wealth of new scholarship for my first major research project.

Still planning the Breslau text, and producing what will be a good companion piece to Hargraves work, with a military science focus on the battle, strategic and tactical basis. I was quite excited to eventually return home and get Richard's Breslau effort, and reading it with just having been on site was brilliant, the scene of the HJ night time attack I had taken a plethora of photos at that spot where it was turned back, the tunnel had "that feel" of action and it was interesting to find it covered in Hargraves work specifically.

It still seems like Breslau is a focal point, as recent news has made mention of a German WW2 treasure train nearby...Polish lore still tells stories of missing treasure as the Breslau citizens often buried their wealth in and around the houses and items are found on a regular basis....

A great place to visit, inexpensive and very scenic and has great proximinty to various battle fields from the Napoleonic period through WW1 and WW2. I highly recommend it for a destination !
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