Germans among the employees of the City Transport Works of the City of Gdańsk (MZK) and Inter-Municipal Transport Works of Gdańsk Gdynia (MZK GG) in the years 1945–1949. Conclusions from the analysis of personal files

Abstract

The Municipal Board established in April 1945 Miejskie Zakłady Komunikacyjne (Municipality Transport Company) of the city Gdańsk, which was soon, after a year, transformed into the large company – Międzykomunalne Zakłady Komunikacyjne Gdańsk Gdynia (Gdańsk Gdynia Inter- -municipality Transport Company) joining three coastal cities. The new Polish administration took care of inventorying and securing the existing infrastructure and all goods considered to be useful. It also aimed at creating proper living conditions for residents already living here, creating housing resources and working places for those who were to come. Former German Gdańsk residents were leaving their city slowly but successively; based on data of 31st July 1945 there were 122 800 citizens of whom 107 200 were Germans. Poles did not dominate them until the turn of October and November 1945. The truly crucial phase of bringing back the normality to functioning of three coastal cities was the reconstruction of transportation connections. Their initiation in the shortest possible time and within the key directions was the real challenge. Carefully managed employees’ documentation of Miejskie Zakłady Komunikacyjne and next Międzykomunalne Zakłady Komunikacyjne is the collection of a few thousand files consisting of numerous documents, illustrating the course of employment of persons employed in the company. Germans were the significant group of the company employees. Until recently the employees of Verkehrsbetriebe Danzig Gothenhafen AG (VDG), they were extremely valuable specialists and contributed significantly to the restoration of the operation of transportation in the city. One could have the impression that the presence of Germans was crucial especially in the key divisions of the company, sometimes referred to as operation ones, such as tram, bus trolleybus divisions and “Żegluga Gdańska” (Gdańsk Waterway Transport).

The article is an attempt to describe the above mentioned group based on the information from the personal files, the internal correspondence and reports; to define certain regularities, to show how in the first years after the war went the process of the population exchange in the crucial for the functioning of the coastal region large transportation company. The examples given in the article are the record of the particular events, brought back from oblivion, important because written at the time they happened.