Fragments of the Gdańsk Shipyard wall and the Berlin Wall

Technique: brick and mortar, concrete

Object: The structure consists of two authentic fragments of walls: the brick wall of the Gdańsk Shipyard and the concrete Berlin Wall. These fragments are joined by a floor arrangement with the inscription Drogi do wolności. Roads to freedom. The text is written on the pavement in various languages and leads to Solidarity Square (Plac Solidarności).

A plaque placed on the Gdańsk Shipyard wall contains the text: “Fragment of the wall of the Lenin Gdańsk Shipyard, through which Lech Wałęsa got through to participate in the strike that ended on 31 August 1980 with the signing of agreements between the protesters and the communist authorities. That day marked the beginning of the creation of the Solidarity movement, which contributed to the fall of communism in Poland and Europe”. The text on the plaque next to the Berlin Wall fragment reads: “A fragment of the Berlin Wall, a symbol of the division of Europe into free and enslaved, whose fall on 9 November 1989 became a sign of German unification and the restoration of European unity”.

There is a similar installation in Berlin, with a fragment of the Gdańsk Shipyard wall placed next to the remains of the Berlin Wall.

Place: A section of Wały Piastowskie Street. The name of the street, Wały Piastowskie, comes from the former municipal embankments (wały in Polish). The maps of Gdańsk from 1792–1795 confirm that there used to be a moat here (part of the city’s fortifications). On maps from 1904–1911, in the present shipyard area, the moat is filled in and the only trace of the embankments are today’s Wały Piastowskie, Gazownicza and Podstocznia streets.

Waly Piastowskie connects Podwale Grodzkie and Jana z Kolna streets as well as the Solidarity Square. Along its axis stands a modernist building that still serves as the seat of the Solidarity Trade Union. This is why it was chosen as the location of fragments of the brick wall of the Gdańsk Shipyard and the concrete Berlin Wall, both of which witnessed the collapse of the post-war division of Europe.

Information about the author: –

Condition of the object: good, a fragment of the Gdańsk Shipyard wall was damaged in 2014 as a result of a car crash and rebuilt in 2015

Owner/guardian: Fundacja Centrum Solidarności (Solidarity Centre Foundation)

Author of the entry: inventory made by the Gdańsk University of Technology team, description of the place: Jacek Dominiczak, additional information: Małgorzata Paszylka-Glaza