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Gallery » Articles » English articels - Port Gdansk » The transfer of the Polish main post office to another place in the city 1930 – 1932
The transfer of the Polish main post office to another place in the city 1930 – 1932.
By Hans Vogels.

In March 1930 the president of the Free City Senate Sahm reported that since the previous year there had been rumours that the Polish Post wished to find a building in the centre of the city to establish a Polish Post Office there. According to his information, the Poles had already visited a few buildings to look at the possibilities and, at the present time, negotiations were going according to plan.

Sahm proposed to send a letter of protest before the Polish plans were realised. The intention was to avoid a situation similar to the problems with the Polish mailboxes in January 1925, when the Free City unexpectedly was faced with the new public Polish postal service. In that letter, dated 1 April 1930, to Komisarz Generalny Henryk Strasburger, Sahm also mentioned that he had received information that parts of the publicly available postal activities of the Heveliusplatz Post Office were to be transferred to other buildings unconnected with the Post Office.

According to the decision of 25 May 1922 of the High Commissioner of the League of Nations, Haking, the Polish Post in Gdańsk harbour was to be established in one building or one or more nearby buildings. Only the one building could be open for the public. If this building proved insufficient, the Free City could provide more buildings in its immediate vicinity. Based on this decision, according to the opinion of the Free City Senate, it was not permitted that different services to the public could be made available from buildings not connected with the Heveliusplatz.

On 12 May Sahm received a letter from the Polish Komisarz Generalny, that no doubt surprised him: the Polish Post did not want to transfer part of its activities to another building, rather they were considering an eventual transfer of the whole Post Office to another more appropriate building.

In the meantime Zakrzewski, president of the Gdańsk Post Management, and Stefan Lalicki, radcy legacyjnego and chairman of the Polish delegation for negotiations on the post probably had a meeting in Warszawa with the Ministry of Post and Telegraph to discuss amongst other matters hiring the hotel "Danziger Hof" for Polish Post Office Gdańsk 1.

Senator Wiercinski-Keiser reported on 7 June that he had received information that the Polish Postal Minister had visited Gdańsk a few days previously to look at the "Danziger Hof" in order to assess how appropriate it would be for a Post Office.

The commander of the Free City police confirmed that there were negotiations and that people had been looking at the hotel. However, he did not know whether the Postal Minister had actually been there, but certainly Komisarz Generalny Strasburger had been present.

The Polish Post concluded after the visit that it would obly be possible to adapt the hotel into a Post Office at considerable expense, so the project was abandoned.

At the end of that same month, the Senate had further cause for alarm: the Polish government was now considering building a totally new Post Office. For this, they were seeking a large plot, if possible opposite the Danzig Post Office on the Langgasse or, if that were not possible, on the Kohlenmarkt, Holzmarkt or similar location. Accordingly, Sahm wrote on 7 July to Strasburger that, because of several decisions and agreements, the Polish Post Office in Gdańsk harbour had been established at the Heveliusplatz. Moving it to another building was not allowed. If the Polish government wanted to proceed with their plans, then in accordance with paragraph 39 of the Treaty of Paris, the matter would have to be referred to the High Commissioner of the League of Nations for a decision.

It appears that the Polish Post had been negotiating with Konditorei Taudien on buying the premises at Langgasse 57 but were unable to agree on the price.

The next extant reference to this matter is dated 5 December 1930 (it is unclear whether there had been no correspondence between the two parties or whether the correspondence was lost). On that day the Komisarz Generalny wrote that oland had the right to change the loaction of its Post Office within the bundaries of the Green line without permission of the Free City. But, he dded, the Polish Post did not actually have any such plans at the present ime.

In March 1931 the new president of the Senate Ziehm asked the Polish overnment to ensure that, if a transfer of the Polish Post Office to another location in the city should be deemed necessary, they were given arly information. This was necessary to clear all juridical apects before  new situation was established causing difficulties.
Danzig