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Post by Bonobo on Mar 3, 2018 22:50:33 GMT 1
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Post by Bonobo on Mar 11, 2018 21:25:46 GMT 1
I had no idea that Choszczno, former Arnswalde, a big town, was fully destroyed and never reconstructed. Its bricks were sent to rebuild Warsaw. Only the cathedral was rebuilt. Pity. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choszczno
In 1939, short after the beginning of Second World War, the prisoner of war camp Oflag II B was established on the outskirts of the town. At the beginning, the majority of the prisoners were Polish and French. The Poles were used in the city as slave labor by the Germans.[38]
With the collapse of the German eastern front throughout the Red Army Vistula-Oder Offensive of 1945, Arnswalde was on the front line. Because of the town's strategic position of protecting Stargard and Stettin seaport, a strong German garrison had been concentrated within the town to defend it. During the Russian offensive bitter fighting occurred, which resulted in almost 80% damage of the town's infrastructure. After the German resistance stopped on 23 February 1945, Arnswalde, now Choszczno again, was handed over to the Poles for administration as a part of the so-called Recovered Territories.
The German inhabitants either fled westwards or were expelled. The town was mainly repopulated by Polish expellees from the Polish territories lost to Soviet Union, now part of Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine—the so-called Kresy, lands eastern to the Curzon Line. It was initially renamed as Choczno, later as Choczen in 1945. It was finally renamed as "Choszczno" on 7 May 1946.Before the war      Today. The contrast is shocking.     ![]() [/img] ![]() [/img] ![]() [/img] |
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Post by Bonobo on Apr 14, 2019 17:36:31 GMT 1
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Post by Bonobo on May 23, 2019 22:48:52 GMT 1
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Post by pjotr on May 24, 2019 0:15:46 GMT 1
It reminds me of Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Rotterdam 1945 Rotterdam 2019, the Grote of Sint-Laurenskerk (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈɣroːtə ʔɔf sɪnt ˈlʌurənskɛrk]; English: Great, or St. Lawrence Church) is a Protestant church in Rotterdam. It is the only remnant of the medieval city of Rotterdam.  Rotterdam today
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Post by Bonobo on May 24, 2019 21:56:38 GMT 1
It reminds me of Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Your second photo looks like taken in Madurodam miniature park. Funny. As for Rotterdam, some people regret it wasn`t rebuilt faithfully. annawwts.com/rotterdam-before-after-2/In my opinion, Rotterdam is one of the rare good examples of a total change the image of the city. A lot of cities that had been bombed and destroyed decided to reconstruct everything as it were. But Rotterdam turned to modern architecture and new technological solutions. It is still very sad though that we will never see the old Rotterdam. I can see the same contrasts in Polish cities  |
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Post by pjotr on Jun 11, 2019 0:39:36 GMT 1
I agree with you Bo. I always feel very good when I am in Rotterdam. A lot of space, wide boulevards, more space than Amsterdam, nice new architecture and some sort of pride of a new City. Always in competition with Amsterdam and The Hague. I love the modern architecture in The Hague too. My city of Arnhem was less succesful in the post war reconstruction. In cities like Arnhem, Nijmegen and Enschede (bombed middle big cities) ugly, boring late forties, fifties, sixties, seventies and eighties style buildings were build. Many working class area's and city centers looked like the worst kind of communist East Block socialist architecture. Like East-Berlin, Karl-Marx-Stadt (Chemnitz), Nowa Huta, the communist era suburbs of Poznań and the cube like Orbis state hotels. Orbis state hotel in Poznan during the Peoples Republic
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Post by pjotr on Jun 11, 2019 0:45:17 GMT 1
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Post by pjotr on Jun 12, 2019 0:46:26 GMT 1
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Post by Bonobo on Jun 16, 2020 20:52:29 GMT 1
My city of Arnhem was less succesful in the post war reconstruction. In cities like Arnhem, Nijmegen and Enschede (bombed middle big cities) ugly, boring late forties, fifties, sixties, seventies and eighties style buildings were build. Many working class area's and city centers looked like the worst kind of communist East Block socialist architecture. I read about it. It certainly wasn`t the case of the lack of funds. The Western ideas for rebuilding rejected the faithful reconstruction of the destroyed housing areas. Foreign architects claimed it was against the rules. That is why they were so surprised to see the accurate reconstruction of the Old Town in Warsaw which was done with the help of old paintings from 18th century. |
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Post by Bonobo on Jun 16, 2020 21:12:48 GMT 1
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Post by Bonobo on Apr 6, 2021 17:18:51 GMT 1
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