Poland remembers the victory of Grunwald 200 years on
MúzeumCafé 21.
In 2010 Poland marked the 600th anniversary of the battle of Grunwald. The related events primarily had local significance, but at the time the battle had a great resonance across the whole of Europe. On 15 July 1410 two significant powers of Central Europe clashed – the Polish Kingdom and the Order of Teutonic Knights. The battle took place in the borderlands, between Grunwald and Tannenberg, thus history is divided as to which name to use. The Poles use the former, the Germans the latter. The battle resulted in a great victory for the united Polish-Lithuanian forces, which the Polish king – Wladislav, founder of the Jagello dynasty – later skilfully exploited in his foreign relations. From July to September last year the battle ‘resounded’ in a large exhibition at Wawel Castle. It highlighted three elements: the medieval battle, the 1910 celebrations and the history of Grunwald as perceived in the bipolar propaganda of the 20th century. Apart from the Krakow bishop Saint Stanislaus, the most important role in the historical narrative (from the perspective of Hungarian history, too) fell to Saint Adalbert, who died a martyr near today’s Gdansk. The Christian history of the Poles from the start acknowledged him as one of their own. His name is connected with the most treasured linguistic record, the Bogurodzica or Mother of God hymn, which probably originated in the 13th century, though the oldest extant copy is from around 1400. German occupation in World War II led to an attempt to change the ‘portentous’ significance of the Grunwald battle. The Germans claimed that ruling Poland gave them ‘jurisdiction’ over the battle and they ‘returned’ the military flags which had been restored by specialists at Wawel Castle to the former knights castle at Malbork (Marienburg). The exhibition contained illustrative documentation.