Where Is Poland? | Meet Georg Brandes

Intro
Chapter 1 Where Is Poland?
Chapter 2 A Nation Without a State
Chapter 3 Literature and Censorship
Chapter 4 Poland Outside of Poland
Chapter 5 The Ambassadors
Chapter 6 Women and Emancipation
Chapter 7 Who Is Polish?
Chapter 8 Poland Imagined
Chapter 9 The Road to Independence

Intro

Meet Georg Brandes

Brandes was an influential Danish writer who travelled extensively, and so came to be dubbed ‘the traveling critic’. In 1885, one such voyage took him to Poland – a country in the heart of Europe, which at the time was not shown on any map. He will be your guide on this journey through the most turbulent period in Polish history.

Georg Brandes. Photo: Silesian Digital Library

Georg Brandes

In the late nineteenth century, this Danish critic was one of the leading figures of European intellectual life. He was the author of great surveys of literature, a populariser of Nietzsche and Ibsen, as well as one of the architects of the so-called 'Modern Breakthrough' in Scandinavia – a movement that deeply transformed Scandinavian culture and society.

As a literary critic, he promoted realism, naturalism, and – generally speaking – the sort of literature that promoted social change. Such change in the spirit of ‘liberalism and progressivism’ also lay at the core of his ample journalistic activity. Described as 'the travelling critic', he was a tireless populariser of modern trends in the intellectual life of Europe – as well as a middleman in the process of cultural exchange between larger and smaller nations.

Throughout his life, Brandes combined his work as a critic with a sense of social commitment, always defending oppressed groups and communities. On the international stage, he fought for the rights of the Danes living in the German-occupied Schleswig, supported the Finns in their struggle against Russia, and criticised the partitions of Poland. He expressly condemned the massacre of the Armenians in Turkey. At the beginning of World War I, in an era of mounting international conflict, he was perceived as 'the conscience of Europe' – for which he paid a price.

In 1888, following a series of travels to Poland, he wrote a book which susbsequently was published in English, as Poland: A Study of the Land, People and Literature. This book played an important role in keeping the Polish national cause on the political agenda in Europe and is the source and inspiration of much of the material used in this multimedia guide.

Brandes died in Copenhagen in 1927.

Georg Brandes. Photo: Silesian Digital Library

Georg Brandes

In the late nineteenth century, this Danish critic was one of the leading figures of European intellectual life. He was the author of great surveys of literature, a populariser of Nietzsche and Ibsen, as well as one of the architects of the so-called 'Modern Breakthrough' in Scandinavia – a movement that deeply transformed Scandinavian culture and society.

As a literary critic, he promoted realism, naturalism, and – generally speaking – the sort of literature that promoted social change. Such change in the spirit of ‘liberalism and progressivism’ also lay at the core of his ample journalistic activity. Described as 'the travelling critic', he was a tireless populariser of modern trends in the intellectual life of Europe – as well as a middleman in the process of cultural exchange between larger and smaller nations.

Throughout his life, Brandes combined his work as a critic with a sense of social commitment, always defending oppressed groups and communities. On the international stage, he fought for the rights of the Danes living in the German-occupied Schleswig, supported the Finns in their struggle against Russia, and criticised the partitions of Poland. He expressly condemned the massacre of the Armenians in Turkey. At the beginning of World War I, in an era of mounting international conflict, he was perceived as 'the conscience of Europe' – for which he paid a price.

In 1888, following a series of travels to Poland, he wrote a book which susbsequently was published in English, as Poland: A Study of the Land, People and Literature. This book played an important role in keeping the Polish national cause on the political agenda in Europe and is the source and inspiration of much of the material used in this multimedia guide.

Brandes died in Copenhagen in 1927.

About the project

Concept, scripting, textual & visual content

Mikołaj Gliński & Patryk Zakrzewski

Design & development

Translators

Daniel J. Sax, Marcin Gozdanek, Michał Wieczorek

English content editor

Daniel J. Sax

Research

Olga Tyszkiewicz

Additional research

Zofia Łękawska-Orzechowska, Przemysław Gliński

Sources

Digital Film Repository (CRF), CYRYL – Digital Repository of the City of Poznań, Danish Film Institute (DFI), Emigration Museum in Gdynia, European Institute of Jewish Music, FORUM Polish Photography Agency, Fototeka, Gallica (gallica.bn.fr), HBO, Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IS PAN), Library of Congress, Museum in Sosnowiec, Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź (MSL), National Museum in Kraków, National Museum in Wrocław, National Museum in Poznań, National Museum in Warsaw, National Film Archive - Audiovisual Institute (FINA), National Digital Library Polona (polona.pl), Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in Kraków (PAU), Royal Danish Library (KB), Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, Poster Museum at Wilanów, Tatra Museum in Zakopane, Zebra Film Studio.

Video materials

‘Poświęcenie Dworca Towarowego’, ‘Legiony wkraczają do Warszawy’, ‘Dla Ciebie, Polsko’ - courtesy of National Film Archive - Audiovisual Institute (FINA). Excerpt from ‘Brandes giving lecture at the Copenhagen University’ - courtesy of Danish Film Institute.

With special thanks to

Alan Lockwood, Michalina Petelska, Włodzimierz Karol Pessel, Adam Zulawski

This project was organised in co-operation with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute as part of POLSKA 100, an international cultural programme celebrating the centenary of Poland’s regaining independence in 1918.

Financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland, as part of the multi-annual programme NIEPODLEGŁA 2017–2022.

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