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Happy 100th Anniversary of Gdynia! It's tempting to single out the city's 100 most important figures, but that would be too literal. And who would choose them, and according to what criteria?
Gdynia has eighteen honorary citizens, seventy recipients of the Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski Medal, recipients of the "Czas Gdyni" award, and a group honored with monuments and plaques. It also has over 250 street patrons, plus dozens of collective patrons, and at least a dozen in the names of preschools and schools. This or that choice will always be subjective and will spark discussion. Hopefully, it will also spark reflection on those who worked for Gdynia.
Because it's about remembering them.
We don't know the name of this newcomer from thousands of years ago. Archaeological discoveries speak of settlers from before our era, but we still know very little about them. However, the first established owner of the village of Gdynia was Piotr of Rusocin in 1253, and the Gdynians mentioned by name were Maciej and Piotr. A little earlier, Oksywie had Radosław and Jakub. Over the years and centuries, more and more people ceased to be anonymous in the sources, and surnames like the Kurowskis began to be adopted. Parish priests, village heads, and innkeepers appeared. Families were formed – the oldest, recorded over 300 years ago, are the Górskis.
The 19th century brought a wide representation of Gdynians, including residents of Chylonia, Obłuże, Wielki Kack, Oksywie, and other villages, now part of Gdynia. Their surnames had Polish, Kashubian, and German roots. A sign of the times.
The first were also entrepreneurs who took risks: photographer Roman Morawski, pharmacist Antoni Małecki (his "Apteka pod Gryfem" has been operating for over a hundred years), and museum curator Dr. Janina Krajewska, who ran the Municipal Museum from 1933 to 1939. Let's include the first mayor Augustyn Krauze, president Franciszka Cegielska, and engineer Julian Rummel, director of "Żegluga Polska." But also those who returned in 1945 to establish or reestablish their businesses (within a few years, the authorities expelled some of them as so-called "redundant elements"). The first to reach the finish line, like sailor Teresa Remiszewska. How many more would need to be mentioned? Pioneer Street (in Witomino) helps us symbolically honor them collectively.
Grono liczne i zacne. Kadra inżynieryjna tworząca port kierowana przez inż. Tadeusza Wendę, którego mogło w Gdyni nie być, gdyby nie zrozumienie dla wagi morza u wiceadm. Kazimierza Porębskiego. Orędownicy polityki morskiej i budowy Gdyni - z ministrem Eugeniuszem Kwiatkowskim na czele.
The bureaucratic divisions that organized the village first, such as Jan Radtke, the village head of Gdynia and mayor of Chylonia, and a few years later the city, with the exceptionally efficient government commissioner Franciszek Sokół. Subsequent port administrators, including the long-time director of the Maritime Office, engineer Stanisław Łęgowski.
Professionals, open to coming and working in a new place – lawyer Hilary Ewert-Krzemieniewski, physician Bronisław Skowroński. Clergy, active and inspiring in their daily lives, and steadfast in times of trial, like Franciszka Berek and Blessed Father Second Lieutenant Commander Władysław Miegoń.
Representatives of science – here Prof. Kazimierz Demel and Bolesław Polkowski, without whom our knowledge of the sea's resources and the city's potential would be much smaller; of culture, with the unforgettable Danuta Baduszkowa; of art – for example, maritime painters Marian Mokwa and Henryk Baranowski. Men of the sea (these are particularly numerous) commanding motor vessels, such as Second Lieutenant Commander, Marine Captain Mamert Stankiewicz, and Captain Kazimierz Jurkiewicz, a distinguished sailor.
"Land" teachers like Dr. Teofil Zegarski, as well as academic staff of the maritime divisions, represented by Captain Karol Olgierd Borchardt. Independence activists with Kashubian roots at heart, remaining somewhat in the shadow of their "king," Antoni Abraham.
Community activists, organizers, creators… So, both visionaries and grassroots workers. Not just pre-war, but also those living in Gdynia during the occupation and after the war – rebuilding the city and port and shaping reality over the following decades, right up to the present. There are plenty to choose from!
It was already understood that it would be very difficult to appreciate them all individually. Hence the streets of Rybaków, Szyprów, Żeglarzy (Władysław Wagner was one of them), Sterników, and Nawigatorów, undeniably linked to the sea and Gdynia. The same goes for the patrons of the streets of Shipatorów, Momników, and Stoczniowców, with separate consideration for Spawacze and Frezerów. More universally appealing are the streets of Konstruktorów and Architektów – here, Władysław Prohaska and Stanisław Ziołowski are included separately, also thanks to whom Gdynia can be included on the UNESCO World Heritage List. They worked for the city, the port, and the country.
We cannot also forget all those who fought and often died for Gdynia and Poland, for their freedom.
We pay tribute to them, even through street names dedicated to groups of people: Defenders of the Coast, Soldiers of the First Polish Army, Partisans, or more generally – Veterans, but also individually – here, Colonel Stanisław Dąbek, Vice Admiral Józef Unrug, and Lieutenant Commander Zbigniew Przybyszewski. We also remember through monuments and plaques (Alfred Dyduch – the youngest defender of Gdynia to die in combat). We also remember members of the wartime underground. We remember Janek Wiśniewski (born Zbigniew Godlewski) and other victims of December 1970. We remember the steadfastness of Father Hilary Jastak, on whom the masses of strikers in 1980 so relied. We remember community.
Post-war workers, as well as those from before 1939, truly built Gdynia. "Great-grandfather/builder of Gdynia" – as the inscription on one of the monuments in the Witomino cemetery reads. The person described by this name, who died over half a century ago, does not appear in pre-war address books, documents, or studies. But in the memory of his family, and indeed of the third generation, he is remembered as a co-creator of the city. That is, as a hero. And there is no exaggeration in this. Gdynia has the most important hero – a collective one. An extraordinary community of residents who – despite many adversities – shaped its urban and maritime character, and who continue to shape its daily life with energy and ambition, and with open-mindedness about the future.