Rediscovering the Past: Schools of Pomerania
The unique architecture and everyday life of Polish schools in the 1960s.
Senior High School No. 1 in Lębork (1966) by Photographer unknownMunicipal Public Library in Lębork
Rebuilding education in Pomerania
Most of Polish Pomerania, known as ‘Recovered Territories’, belonged to Germany before WWII. In 1945, Poles displaced from the East and other regions settled there. To provide education quickly, a school network was created, mainly using pre-war buildings.
Photos of the old, mostly defunct schools have been preserved thanks to Franciszek Kowalski, who was a school inspector in the Lębork district from 1951 to 1963.
Pedagogical High School (1966) by Photographer unknownMunicipal Public Library in Lębork
‘Exile’
He had previously held a similar post in Wejherowo, but lost his job because of his opposition to attempts to make the new school in Świechów a non-denominational facility. He argued that it would be attended by Kashubian children from families with a strong commitment to faith.
Retirement
Franciszek Kowalski retired in 1963. When he moved to Częstochowa in 1966, he received a commemorative album from former colleagues, containing photographs of the schools and teachers he had looked after as a school inspector.
The photos are not of good quality, but they are a unique testimony to what Polish schools looked like in the so-called recovered lands. Most of these schools no longer exist today or have been moved to new buildings. Only former pupils remember them.
Primary School in Wrzeście (1966) by Photographer unknownMunicipal Public Library in Lębork
The seat of the school in Wrzeście built in 1938
Often post-German school buildings were used or other premises were adapted. Only in some localities, new buildings adapted for schooling were constructed.
Primary School in Bożepole Wielkie
This building is another example of the use of former German school premises.
Palace schools
The primary school in Choczewo, like many other institutions, was based in a historic country manor - a former private estate nationalised by the people's government.
School in Porzecze
This is an example of the use of a pre-war customs building. Porzecze was a border town from 1918 to 1939.
Primary School in Rekowo (1966) by Photographer unknownMunicipal Public Library in Lębork
Premises conditions
The schools operating in old buildings had difficult conditions. There was a lack of furniture and other equipment. There was no running water, and the toilets were outside. In front of the school in Rekowo there is a hand pump for drawing water from a well.
School in Pogorzelice
Post-German buildings often had a fixed layout with classrooms downstairs and teachers' flats upstairs. There was also a similar division in ground floor buildings, with half being classrooms and half flats.
Primary School in Karwica (1966) by Photographer unknownMunicipal Public Library in Lębork
Scholl in Karwica
Accommodation problems were an everyday reality for small schools at the time. They often shared a building with other institutions. The school in Karwica is an example of a facility where, in addition to the school, there was also a library and a kindergarten branch.
Primary School in Rozlazino (1966) by Photographer unknownMunicipal Public Library in Lębork
Scholl in Rozłazino
In Rozlazin, the children's school shared space with an adult evening school. In those years, numerous vocational courses and courses to complete primary school were run. An illiteracy eradication programme was also implemented.
Primary School in Kierzkowo (1966) by Photographer unknownMunicipal Public Library in Lębork
The 1961 school reform
8-grade primary schools were established and religion was removed from schools. In these changes, collective municipal schools began to be established, and small schools were abolished or limited to grades 1-3.
Primary School in Wilkowo (1966) by Photographer unknownMunicipal Public Library in Lębork
Scholl in Wilkowo
The schools were sometimes so small that only one teacher was employed and the children studied together - without class division.
Scholl in Lubowidz
This is one of the “victims” of the school reform. In 1970, the school was closed and children started commuting to Lębork.
School in Strzebielino
It received its new premises in 1967. This is a photo from the last year of operation in the old premises.
The schools in Łeba and Maszewo are so-called ‘millennium schools’. Their construction was financed under an educational programme to mark the jubilee of the Millennium of the Polish State. Children from other villages were often transported to the new, larger buildings, thus liquidating the smallest village schools.
Great importance was attached to patriotic and civic education in line with the ideological line of the ruling People's Party. For example, in front of the school in Popowo (right) the children planted a “Liberation Oak”, and a banner celebrating 1,000 years of Polish Baptism was placed on the wall of the school in Darżewo.
Primary School in Roszczyce (1966) by Photographer unknownMunicipal Public Library in Lębork
Vanishing witnesses to history
No one documents the story of the disappearance of these places, no one describes the history, no one documents the memories. Only the oldest residents remember where their “old school” was.
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