Photographer's Note
My own Regained Lands.
During the conferences in Yalta and Potsdam in 1945 the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union decided without approval involvement of the Polish side to move borders of Poland westward. Poland lost of 187,000 km² of territories located east of the Curzon line annexed by the Soviet Union and gained 112,000 km² of former German territories on the West and North. Poles were told that their seven-centuries-long presence in the former Eastern Poland area had come to an end. At the same time, Poles were led to believe that the newly acquired areas on the West and North were the homeland of their forefathers and hence their rightful inheritance. These new territories were named by Communist propaganda in Poland as Regained Territories (or Western and Northern Territories) to describe the current-day Polish provinces of Pomerania (Pomorze), Silesia (Slask), Lubus Land (Ziemia Lubuska) and Warmia i Mazury which were taken from Germany and assigned (“restored”, “recovered”) to Poland by the Allies after WW2. These areas were colonized by the millions of new residents, also the ones who lost homes on the eastern territories annexed by the Soviet Union.
The border between Germany and Poland was moved westward to the Oder-Neisse line, which consists mostly of the rivers Oder/Odra and Neisse/ Nysa Luzycka. East Germany in 1950 recognized the Oder-Neisse line, officially called “Border of Peace and Friendship”. Next, in 1970 West Germany recognized the Oder-Neisse line as a factual border. Barely the Polish-German border agreement signed in 1991 finalized the Oder-Neisse line as the Polish-German border. However in spite of politicians’ declarations new residents of Regained Lands through a lot of years after WW2 had feeling the instability of membership in Poland. Only new generations which were born on Regained Territories are starting feeling at themselves here.
ZARY (named SORAU before 1945) and the Land of Zary is a small part of the Regained Lands, located in Lubus Land, formerly area of Slavonic tribes. However, as a consequence of turbulent history of Silesia and Lubus Land, Zary frequently changed its rulers. The town belonged to Poland in the Middle Ages, then was under power of Silesian Piast‘s Polish dynasty, from 14 c. under power of the Kingdom of Czech, from 1635 until 1815 under power of Saxon electors, and after 1815 in Prussia and Germany. Since 1945 back in Poland. On the photo you can see the gothic Church of the Holy Heart of Christ in Zary.
You can see more pictures taken in Zary (out of TE) at http://alabama.multiply.com/photos/
P-S-I-G, Beataja, MarekP, ShelteredGuy has marked this note useful
Critiques | Translate
P-S-I-G
(25536) 2005-04-08 13:41
Bravo pour cette belle photo de nuit très réussie. La note est très intéressante et tout à fait dans l'esprit du site TE. Belle contribution.
Fabrice
AEG
(2449) 2005-04-08 14:37
Slawek witaj
No niestety takie nasze zagmatwane historie
Fotka bardzo na tak a i opis doskona³y
Pozdrawiam Pawe³
drewniany
(1142) 2005-04-08 15:00
jaki¶ kilometr od mojego domu jeszcze do niedawna mozna by³o spotkaæ stary s³up graniczny.
Zapowiada sie ciekawa seria-bêdê obserwowa³ :o)
pozdrawiam
alexlie
(5359) 2005-04-08 17:50
Witam!
Jak dla mnie jest to ¶wietne, nocne zdjêcie. Z do¶wiadczenia wiem, ¿e nie jest to ³atwe :)
Pozdrawiam.
RegisMinot
(1543) 2005-05-12 19:08
Thank you for this interesting note about the border between Poland and Germany. I hope that membership of both countries in European Community will help in decreasing the sensitivity of this subject. You do not explain what is this building however. It has a strange architecture: it looks like a church but the number of windows on the front wall is impressive. Well captured and good night exposure !
MarekP
(4750) 2005-05-14 2:44
Impressive night photo, Slawek. I like its colours and perfect sharpness. Very interesting note too.
Thanks for sharing,
Marek
Polonaise
(5802) 2006-10-22 19:41
Ostra nota.
Dobra nota.
Potrzebna nota dla serc uspokojenia.
-------------------
"Lubus Land, formerly area of Slavonic tribes"
Nie zapominaj, ze w czasie komuchowskich rzadow obowiazywala swieta zasada: Co by nie wykopali z piachu na ziemiach odzyskanych, to mial byc dowod ze my tu, od tysiacleci byli, na tych ziemiach co to Piastowie...bla...bla...bla...
To samo dotyczy ziemi Lubuskiej. Co garnek potluczony wykopia to dowod na plemiona slowianskie w tym miejscu, od tysiacleci !
A rozpoznawalne, nieomylne znaki slowianskie to takie np. ze garnki naszych slowianskich przodkow byly okragle, i najczesciej ulepione z gliny, a siekierki mialy trzonek. Dzidy natomiast byly dlugie i waskie, i jeden koniec mialy ostry.
I siedzielismy zdurniali w lawkach szkolnych, a wspaniala lekcja historii ciurkiem lala sie nam do lbow.
Pozdrawiam
j.
Photo Information
-
Copyright: Slawek Wojcik (alabama_pl)
(340)
- Genre: ÌÅÑÒÀ
- Medium: ÖÂÅÒÍÎÉ
- Date Taken: 2005-03-25
- Categories: ÀÐÕÈÒÅÊÒÓÐÀ
- Camera: Canon 20D, 18-55 f3.5-5.6 ef-s, Hama PL Circular M58 (IV)
- Exposure: f/9.0
- Details: Tripod: Yes
- More Photo Info: view
- Âåðñèÿ: Îðèãèíàëüíàÿ âåðñèÿ
- Òåìû: Polish churches and synagogues [view contributor(s)]
- Date Submitted: 2005-04-08 12:18
Discussions
- To drewniany: re (1)
by alabama_pl, last updated 2005-04-08 05:01 - To AEG: re (1)
by alabama_pl, last updated 2005-04-08 05:05 - To RegisMinot: re (1)
by alabama_pl, last updated 2005-05-13 04:32