Budownictwo mieszkaniowe w województwie pomorskim w dwudziestoleciu międzywojennym (na tle ogólnopolskim)

Housing construction in the Pomorskie Voivodeship in the interwar period (against the national background)

Abstract: The article characterises selected aspects of Poland’s housing situation during the interwar period, particularly in the Pomeranian Voivodeship, which was actually annexed to Poland in 1920. The largest urban centres were Toruń and Grudziądz for the first decade, with Gdynia coming to the fore in the 1930s. In 1938, the area of the voivodeship was significantly enlarged and its borders included, among others, Toruń. Bydgoszcz, as the largest city in the region, was added to the voivodeship, and the article made limited mention of the housing situation in this city. Most attention was devoted to the analysis of statistical data from from the two Polish censuses, including the housing situation, which were conducted in September 1921 and December 1931. For Pomerania, reference was also made to data from the German census of May 1918. Full data from the Polish censuses, including those for the area of Pomeranian Voivodeship, were published between 1927 and 1938. They made it possible to indicate that, against the national background, the situation of Pomeranian Voivodeship was one of the best in the whole of Poland. This was evidenced by a small group of the tightest single-room flats, as well as a very high index of good technical equipment of flats. Most had gas, electricity, sewerage and water supply. In the former Russian and Austrian occupied territories it was exactly the opposite. The towns there were much tighter and their technical equipment extremely modest. Despite the relatively good housing situation in the Pomeranian Voivodeship, social tensions also occurred in this area. There were social tensions over the housing situation. Above all, this concerned the lack of housing. In quantitative terms, this was not as acute as in Warsaw, Łódź or Lwów, for example, but it was also perceptible. The problem affected mainly cities, even not very large ones such as Chełmno or Chojnice. However, it was most acute in large centres such as Toruń or Grudziądz, and from 1938 Bydgoszcz, where the number of people without housing, nestling in makeshift conditions reached up to several thousand. The most difficult situation arose in Gdynia, as the extremely dynamic port city, with its increasingly strong industrial base and with a large number of jobs, could not keep up with the construction of housing infrastructure. The number of genuinely homeless people condemned to live in slums was reaching even over 20,000.