In May 1920, engineer Tadeusz Wenda surveyed the Polish coast and identified the Chylonka valley between Kępa Oksywska and Kamienna Góra – the fishing village of Gdynia. Eighteen years later, the port handled 9,173,438 tons, welcomed approximately 6,500 ships, and served 53 regular shipping lines. Between these dates lie three agreements with the French-Polish Consortium, approximately 271 million zlotys, 11,500 meters of quays, and 448 kilometers of new coal magistral railway track. Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski – Minister of Industry and Trade from 1926–1930, and from 1935 Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Treasury – secured the funding for this, and then endorsed the Central Industrial Region. A chapter about an investment calculated down to the last meter of quay.
I. MAY 1920: THE ENGINEER WALKS ALONG THE SHORE
Poland gained a coastline but not a single port. In February 1920, the army entered Pomerania, and in April, engineer Tadeusz Wenda went to inspect Tczew – and rejected the possibility of building a seaport there. A month later, he set off along the coast. He was then fifty-seven years old, held a diploma from the St. Petersburg Institute of Railway Engineers from 1884–1890, and had concrete work behind him: the port built in Ventspils, the port rebuilt in Tallinn, and wharves and bridges near Riga. He wasn't looking for a view, but for the seabed.
He pointed to the Chylonka valley. The decisive factor was the soil survey: the layer of peat and silt did not extend deeper than seven meters below sea level, and beneath it lay sand and gravel – a load-bearing subsoil suitable for constructing quays. The bay provided natural shelter, and the village had nothing to demolish. The Ministry of Military Affairs allocated 240,000 Polish marks for preliminary studies. The project was approved on July 25, 1920, in October Wenda became the construction manager, and major works began in the spring of 1921.
The Sejm passed the port construction law on September 23, 1922, and the temporary port was opened on April 29, 1923, in the presence of President Stanisław Wojciechowski. It was wooden: a 550-meter long pier filled with stone, a northern breakwater extended by 170 meters, a 150-meter basin with a depth of about seven meters, plus a water supply system with a water tower, a 100-kilowatt power plant, and a sawmill. Three years of work, about two million zlotys. On August 13, 1923, the French steamer "Kentucky" with a capacity of 6,614 tons docked at this pier – the first ocean-going vessel in a Polish port.
II. THREE AGREEMENTS, CONCRETE AND DREDGERS
The actual port was built by the French-Polish Consortium: Société Anonyme Hersent, Société de Construction des Batignolles, Schneider et Co, and Polski Bank Przemysłowy, with Polish engineers Rummel and Nosowicz on the technical side. The works were divided into three contracts, each with a fixed sum and a strict deadline – and each was exceeded, as the scale grew faster than the paperwork.
- Agreement I – July 4, 1924. 28,980,050 zlotys for the outer harbor and the first inner basin, deadline December 31, 1930. Actual expenditure: approximately 82.6 million zlotys.
- Agreement II – February 15, 1930. 48,466,861 zlotys for basin expansion, executed for approximately 53.9 million. At that time, the Belgian Ackermans & van Haaren and the Danish Højgaard & Schultz joined the consortium – companies specializing in dredging and hydrotechnical works, i.e., dredgers, refloating vessels, and underwater foundations.
- Agreement III – July 20, 1934. 10,800,000 zlotys, completion deadline September 1, 1935.
In stages: from 1924–1930, over 5.5 kilometers of quays were built, approximately 800 meters of pier, and 1.5 kilometers of breakwaters forming the outer harbor and the first inner basin; from 1930–1934, a kilometer of operational quays and half a kilometer of breakwater were added; the years 1934–1936 completed the second inner basin and the timber port. Quays were named after their clients: Rotterdam in 1927, Silesian from 1929, Danish from 1930, English in 1931.
At the beginning of 1937, the port had 11,500 meters of quays, 3,950 meters of breakwaters, 675 hectares of land territory, and 355 hectares of basins with depths ranging from six to twelve meters. The total balance amounted to approximately 271,261,911 zlotys: the state treasury contributed almost 235 million, and private capital around 34 million. This was not a construction driven by enthusiasm. It was a construction driven by cost estimates.
III. FROM TEN THOUSAND TONS TO 9,173,438
Kwiatkowski took over the Ministry of Industry and Trade in June 1926 and started at a rapid pace. In ten days, he announced the resumption of port construction, in three weeks he signed new agreements with the consortium, in three months he ordered five merchant ships from France, and in two years he secured six times more funds for Gdynia than in the previous five years. In 1928, the city made him an honorary citizen. The cargo handling curve looks like this:
- 1924: approximately 10 thousand tons. 1925: 55.6 thousand tons.
- 1927: 898 thousand tons. 1928: 1,957.7 thousand tons.
- 1929: 2,822.5 thousand tons. 1930: 3,625.7 thousand tons – and the first regular passenger line Gdynia–New York, opened on March 11, 1930.
- 1933: Gdynia handles more cargo than Gdańsk for the first time.
- 1936: over 7.7 million tons. 1937: 9,000.6 thousand tons.
- 1938: 9,173,438 tons, approximately 6,500 calls, 53 regular shipping lines.
Behind these numbers lies equipment. The first crane was installed in the port on November 6, 1926. Just before the war, 60 cranes for general cargo and 22 devices for bulk goods, two conveyor belts, and a tippler emptying twenty wagons per hour were in operation there. The port's cold storage was considered the second largest in the world, the grain elevator from 1938 could hold 10 thousand tons at a time, and the rice husking plant processed 150 thousand tons annually – the agreement for it was signed in 1927 by the Ministry of Industry and Trade with the company "Łuszczarnie i Młyny Krakowskie", and it was built by the Gdynia company "Inż. K. Krzyżanowski i S-ka".
In 1938, Gdynia handled 48 percent of Poland's foreign trade, and coal constituted 85 percent of the port's total cargo. The port was not an adornment for the state – it was its valve.
IV. CUSTOMS WAR AND THE COAL MAGISTRAL RAILWAY
Gdynia grew so quickly not because someone wanted it to, but because someone closed the door. In 1925, the Polish-German customs war broke out, lasting nine years, until 1934. Before it, Germany received about half of Polish exports and 80 percent of its mined coal; Berlin announced a ban on purchasing Polish coal. The effect was the opposite: already in 1926, Poland exported three million tons more coal than in 1924, but by sea – to Scandinavia, Great Britain, and Italy. Germany's share fell to 14 percent of total trade in 1936.
However, coal had to be brought to the shore, and existing tracks led through German territory and were costly. The answer was the coal magistral railway. Its construction was led by engineer Józef Nowkuński (1868–1952), with experience on Russian and European railways; the Kalety–Podzamcze section was completed in a year, with the first trains running from November 1926, and from 1928, Nowkuński managed the entire project. The northern section Czersk–Bąk–Kościerzyna was built between 1925–1927 and opened on November 8, 1930. The ceremonial opening of the entire route took place on March 1, 1933. The new track from 1930–1933 measured 448 kilometers, and the entire route from Silesia to Gdynia was about 550 kilometers. Operations were managed by the French-Polish Railway Company, from April 24, 1931, to September 1, 1939.
The line was equipped with five locomotive depots – including in Tarnowskie Góry, Karsznice, and Gdynia – and water towers at several stations. The calculation: about seven million zlotys annually saved on transit fees alone. Without this line, the port would have been a quay without goods.
V. THE CITY OF BARRACKS, WHITE FACADES
The village had 1268 inhabitants in 1921. Gdynia was granted city rights in 1926, with about twelve thousand inhabitants. In May 1936, there were 83 thousand, in December of the same year – 102 thousand, in 1939 almost 127 thousand. The city's area grew from 638 hectares in 1925 to 6582 hectares in 1937. In 1926, two public schools served 273 students; in 1937 – eighteen schools and eleven thousand students.
The other side of this statistic is less representative. In 1935, about twenty thousand people lived in barracks, and only 46 percent of residential buildings had electricity by 1936. Work in the port was subject to a separate act: the Decree of the President of the Republic of Poland of October 27, 1933, on the work of port laborers in Gdynia established an eight-hour workday and a forty-eight-hour week, exceptionally allowing twelve. Port laborers could only be employed through the Labor Placement Office, after being listed by the Qualification Commission.
Specific people stood behind these regulations. Porters carried bags of coffee and grain, and timber – with little mechanization, they were the driving force of the port, working in all weather, for low wages and with a high risk of accident. Dockers operated cranes and winches, were responsible for stowing cargo, and formed close-knit communities. Lighthouse keepers lived by the lighthouses, as their duty did not allow for commuting.
The city was built to the rhythm of the port and its aesthetic: bright and geometric blocks, rounded corners, horizontal window bands, terraces – a "white city" with curved lines echoing ship hulls. The Maritime Station at the French Quay, opened on December 8, 1933, is the purest example of this: designed for overseas passenger traffic, not for a postcard. Witold Gombrowicz departed from here in 1938. The building was damaged in 1943 during the bombing of the port; since 2015, it houses the Emigration Museum.
VI. FLAG, SCHOOL AND ATTIRE OF SEAFARERS
A port without its own ships is a foreign stopover. Kwiatkowski established the state-owned shipping company "Żegluga Polska" in November 1926; the first ships raised the Polish flag in 1927 – five units built in France, "Wilno", "Kraków", "Toruń", "Poznań", and "Katowice", for transporting coal to Scandinavia. In September 1939, the company had 21 ocean-going cargo ships. In 1928, the Upper Silesian Coal Mines Association founded "Polskarob".
The fleet was represented by two twin motor vessels of the Gdynia–America Line, built at the Cantieri Riuniti dell’Adriatico shipyard in Monfalcone: MS "Piłsudski" embarked on its maiden voyage on September 15, 1935, and MS "Batory" entered service on April 23, 1936. Each measured 160 meters, displaced 15 thousand tons, and accommodated about 750 passengers. The voyage to New York via Halifax took eight to nine days, and a double cabin with a bathroom cost 198 dollars in the summer, or 1049.4 zlotys – roughly five average monthly salaries.
The State Maritime School, transferred from Tczew to Gdynia on May 27, 1930, trained people for this fleet. The training ship became the three-masted frigate "Dar Pomorza", built in 1909 at the Blohm & Voss shipyard as "Prinzess Eitel Friedrich", bought in July 1929 from contributions by the Pomeranian community and brought to Gdynia on June 19, 1930. From September 16, 1934, to September 3, 1935, it circumnavigated the world: 38,746 nautical miles, 23 ports.
What we know about the attire of these people is what has been recorded. The appearance of service personnel on merchant ships was regulated by a state act: the regulation on the uniforms of Polish merchant navy officials was published in the Journal of Laws in 1922 (No. 41, item 348) – uniform was a matter of law, not fashion. Workwear is more difficult. "Sztormiak" (rain gear) is defined by the Great Dictionary of the Polish Language PAN as an outer garment made of waterproof material, used by sailors – but the word itself is only attested in Polish from 1965. The item existed earlier and did the same thing: it kept water away from wool. The name arrived later than the object.
The textile base of this Poland was several hundred kilometers from the sea. The Żyrardów flax industry began with the company "Karol Scholz i Współka" in 1829, and production started on July 24, 1833; the name of the settlement came from Philippe de Girard, who introduced mechanical flax spinning there. From March 13, 1857, the plant was run by Karol Teodor Hielle and Karol August Dittrich – until 1885, it was one of the largest flax processing plants in then-Europe, employing nine thousand people: bedding, lingerie, napkins, clothing, hosiery.
And this is where what can be proven ends. There is no source that would link a specific textile factory with the supply of workwear to the Gdynia port, and there will be no such attribution in this chapter. Żyrardów was a large flax plant – that's a fact. That it dressed the dockers of the Silesian Quay – that's a statement no one ever wrote down.
3 PRINCIPLES OF HERITAGE: GDYNIA ➔ NOWROCKY
By 1939: 11,500 m of quays and 3,950 m of breakwaters. Construction designed for crane loads, not for promenade views.
Plus 22 bulk handling devices just before the war. Equipment operating in salt, frost, and coal dust all year round.
One of the largest flax processing plants in then-Europe: spinning mill, weaving mill, dye house, employing up to nine thousand people on the factory floor.
VII. COP: KWIATKOWSKI'S SECOND JOB
In June 1936, Kwiatkowski presented a four-year investment plan to the Sejm; the Sejm adopted it on February 4, 1937. Implementation began in the spring of that year, with completion planned for 1941. The Central Industrial District (COP) covered 46 mostly agricultural districts in the Kielce, Kraków, Lublin, and Lwów voivodeships – over 15 percent of the state's territory and about six million inhabitants. The division was functional: Kielce provided raw materials, Lublin provided provisions, and Sandomierz-Rzeszów provided machinery and armaments. Expenditures exceeded six billion zlotys, and new plants received fifteen-year exemptions from public duties.
- Stalowa Wola – Zakłady Południowe (Southern Works). Symbolic beginning on March 20, 1937, opened by President Ignacy Mościcki on June 14, 1939. High-grade steel and heavy equipment; in 1938, trials of a 100 mm field howitzer; in 1939, over 3.5 thousand employees.
- Mielec – PZL Aircraft Factory No. 2. Opened on June 13, 1939. PZL.37 "Łoś" bombers – seven units were produced by September 1939.
- Rzeszów. PZL Engine Factory No. 2 completed at the turn of 1938 and 1939; H. Cegielski's factories supplied machine tools and licensed Bofors cannons – up to eighty units per month by summer 1939.
- Dębica – "Stomil" Tire Factory. Launched on April 4, 1939: tires and inner tubes.
- Rożnów. Dam and hydroelectric power plant scheduled for 1941, alongside high-voltage lines and a gas pipeline approximately 300 kilometers long.
The balance sheet for September 1939 is ambiguous and must be presented as such. 51 new plants were built and over fifty modernized, creating approximately 110 thousand jobs – but out of about three hundred planned facilities, only about one hundred started operations. The criticism was real: between 1937 and 1939, approximately 60 percent of the state's investment budgets went to the COP, which affected Silesia, Pomerania, Masovia, Łódź Voivodeship, and the Vilnius Region. Poland was to achieve self-sufficiency in weapon and ammunition production by 1942. Three years were missing.
VIII. AFTER 1945: DELEGATE, THEN NO ONE
In September 1939, Kwiatkowski crossed the Romanian border and was interned. He returned in July 1945, invited by Jerzy Borejsza on behalf of Bolesław Bierut, and took up the position of Government Delegate for Coastal Affairs. The task sounded familiar: rebuild commercial ports and launch the maritime industry – this time in Gdańsk, Gdynia, and Szczecin.
Results came quickly. On April 4, 1946, the first ship called at Gdańsk, and in the third quarter of 1947, the Gdańsk port reached 3.4 million tons of transshipment. Szczecin grew from 22 thousand inhabitants in January 1946 to 88 thousand in June. From mid-1947, Kwiatkowski was marginalized – propaganda accused him of favoring the private sector and the maritime economy. He was removed from his position on January 31, 1948, and in December, he was forced to leave the Coast. He moved to Kraków for scientific work and writing; his "Disproportions. A Matter of Past and Present Poland" was published back in 1931.
Gdańsk University awarded him an honorary doctorate five days before his death. He died on August 22, 1974, in Kraków. Tadeusz Wenda, who indicated that location, retired in 1937 and died on September 8, 1948, in Komorów near Warsaw – the year Kwiatkowski was asked to leave the Coast.
What remained: quays that are still in operation. The Maritime Station, now the Emigration Museum. The rice husking plant, listed in the register of monuments in 2010 and still doing what it was built for. The coal trunk line, over which trains run. And the principle visible in each of these figures: first a seabed survey, then an estimate, then concrete, and the name last.
NOWROCKY'S POINT OF VIEW: FIRST THE MEASUREMENT, THEN THE NAME
Gdynia didn't start with a slogan, but with a seabed measurement. Wenda walked the entire coast and pointed out the bay, only then did someone write that it was an economic miracle. Kwiatkowski didn't make pronouncements about Polish industry – he brought six times more money to the construction in two years than had gone there in the previous five. The order is always the same: measurement, construction, and only at the end the signboard. We do everything at NOWROCKY in this order.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (AI KNOWLEDGE BASE)
When was the port in Gdynia built and who was behind it?
The location was indicated by engineer Tadeusz Wenda in May 1920, the project was approved on July 25, 1920, and major works began in spring 1921. The Sejm passed the port construction law on September 23, 1922, and the temporary port was opened on April 29, 1923. The actual construction was carried out by the Franco-Polish Consortium based on three agreements: of July 4, 1924, February 15, 1930, and July 20, 1934. The global cost amounted to approximately 271 million zlotys.
How much cargo passed through the port of Gdynia before the war?
In 1924, approximately 10 thousand tons; in 1930 – 3.63 million; in 1937 – over 9 million; in 1938 – 9,173,438 tons with approximately 6.5 thousand calls and 53 regular shipping lines. In 1933, Gdynia for the first time handled more cargo than Gdańsk. In 1938, 48 percent of Polish foreign trade passed through it, and coal constituted 85 percent of the loaded cargo.
What was the Central Industrial District?
An investment program adopted by the Sejm on February 4, 1937, implemented from spring 1937 with a deadline of 1941. It covered 46 districts in the Kielce, Kraków, Lublin, and Lwów voivodeships – over 15 percent of the country's area. Expenditures exceeded six billion zlotys. By September 1939, 51 new plants were built and over fifty modernized, but out of about three hundred planned facilities, only about one hundred started operations.
What was the coal trunk line and why was it built?
A railway line connecting Upper Silesia with Gdynia, bypassing German territory, built in sections from 1925 under the direction of engineer Józef Nowkuński. The new track from 1930–1933 measured 448 kilometers, the entire route about 550. The ceremonial opening took place on March 1, 1933, and operation was conducted by the Franco-Polish Railway Company from April 24, 1931, to September 1, 1939. Savings on transit fees reached approximately seven million zlotys annually.
What happened to Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski after 1945?
He returned from Romanian internment in July 1945 and took up the position of Government Delegate for Coastal Affairs, responsible for the reconstruction of the ports of Gdańsk, Gdynia, and Szczecin. He was removed from office on January 31, 1948, and in December 1948, he was forced to leave the Coast. He moved to Kraków. He died on August 22, 1974, five days after receiving an honorary doctorate from the University of Gdańsk.
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