2023-06-20 23:35:26
Two visits to Nowa Huta, the former communist model city in Poland, which was built on the outskirts of Kraków shortly after the Second World War. Anyone who entered the halls of the steelworks ten years ago, equipped with a helmet and protective goggles, could watch large sheets of metal, glowing white and hissing, moving through the semi-dark factory halls on a kind of conveyor belt. At that time, the Indian steel giant Arcelor Mittal mainly produced sheet metal for the automotive industry here, most recently with 3,500 employees.
Gerhard Gnauck
Political correspondent for Poland, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania based in Warsaw.
Anyone who stands in front of the factory gate on a working day today can hear the wind howling and the birds chirping. Every now and then a car stops at the barrier and then drives onto the extensive grounds. There are not many workers to be seen. The group stopped production in the steelworks in 2019. It was feared that an entire district, which at times had 100,000 inhabitants, would decline. A school class is standing in front of the factory museum. One of the young people says proudly and wistfully: “My grandfather worked here.”
The founding of Nowa Huta (“New Hut”) was politically conditioned. The ruling communists wanted to give Kraków, the former capital and royal city of Poland, which was hardly destroyed during the war, a little brother. The conservative Catholic metropolis was to be exposed to the influence of the proletariat, which – supposedly – sympathized with the new system. The strong arm of the workers should build massive apartment buildings, but please not a single church. However, the population offered resistance, which was not broken by police operations. In 1977, with the active help of the citizens, the church “Lord’s Ark” was built, which with its bulbous shape is reminiscent of Le Corbusier’s chapel in Ronchamp. The patron of this development was Archbishop Karol Wojtyła, who became Pope a little later than John Paul II.
“Many young people come to live here”
Today, Nowa Huta, a crime hotspot after reunification, has become a popular part of Kraków. “Many young people come to live here,” says Stanisław Moryc, the chairman of the district assembly. “They enjoy high ceilings and hardwood floors. Some also buy apartments. The prices are still affordable, but have already risen.” A city councilor from “old” Kraków, Łukasz Maślona, is even clearer: “Many in our city are beginning to envy the residents of Nowa Huta. The urban planning of the old system also had good points: Nowa Huta is green and spacious, yet at the same time a 15-minute city where every inhabitant has everything they need within walking distance.”
A few blocks down, Jarosław Klaś, head of a cultural center named after the poet Cyprian Norwid, tours his home. It shows Polish paintings from the 20th century, but also a few dark graphics from Eisenhüttenstadt. The city in what was then East Germany was founded as “Stalinstadt”, around the same time as Nowa Huta. “Of course, many visitors expect to see these works of socialist realism here as well,” says the 33-year-old director in explanation. “Many people in our young part of the city helped to build it up as volunteers,” says Klaś. “Identification with the neighborhood is higher in Nowa Huta than in other parts of Kraków.” What further strengthens identification are the “citizen budgets”. In this procedure, which is now practiced throughout Poland, citizens can vote directly on which projects part of the city budget should be used for.
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