Tożsamość lokalna Gorzowa: między niemieckim dziedzictwem a polską codziennością
Gorzów’s Local Identity: Between German Heritage and Polish Everyday Life

Summary/Abstract: The article concerns the formation of the local identity of Gorzo´w’s citizens. As a city in the so called Polish ‘‘Recovered Territories’’, Gorzo´w constantly struggles with its history, interrupted in 1945. During the first post-war period, the new society, formed by a rapid migration was not very eager to accept a socially and culturally unfamiliar environment. In order to adjust, people were ‘‘domesticating’’ and ‘‘appropriating’’ the city. This attitude harmonized with the state policy, but did not promote positive identification with the new home. After the transformation of 1989, a new, more open policy toward former Gorzo´w’s citizens and the city’s German heritage has emerged. However, it appears that ordinary citizens do not consider recent political initiatives as the most essential for the city’s identity and they regard Gorzo´w to be rather unattractive and a place to which it is difficult to ascribe any fixed local identity system.

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