WRZEŚNIA MY WRZEŚNIA

I am born in and raised in Września but I have spent half of my life abroad. Returning to Poland after twenty years allowed me to look at my town from the perspective of … a visitor. Familiarity breeds contempt, they say. It is hard to appreciate what around us. Before I have left Poland I did not think much of the town I come from. Therefore, it is good and healthy to take a break from time to time to gain a different attitude.

Września has revived. Walking through the streets of the town in the evening, I am under an impression I have travelled back in time. The architecture of tenement houses in the old part of the town and the attention put into details creates a very special atmosphere. Bicycle parking and street lamps are kept in the Art Nouveau style, the period of the town greatest prosperity. Looking at the windows when the lights on, I can easily imagine the people living in them also come from the beginning of the century. The smallest details have been skillfully taken care of while refreshing the face of the town.

Września is located in Greater Poland, 50 km from Poznań, at an important road and rail point connecting Poznań with Warsaw. The location of the town has always been beneficial to the development of trade and crafts.

During the Second Partition of Poland, the town found itself in the East Prussia, therefore there is a strong influence of the Prussian presence in the town’s architecture. Those are very solid buildings with strong construction.

Every day at noon, the patriotic song Rota written by Maria Konopnicka is played through the town’s loudspeakers, in memory of the strike of the Września children in 1901. The children were the first to oppose speak in German during religion classes. The teacher punished them with a flog. Students of other schools in the Prussian partition followed in the footsteps of brave children from Września.

Three nations lived here at the beginning of the century; Germans, Jews and Poles who were the majority. It housed Roman Catholic churches, an Evangelical church, and a synagogue that was blown up by the Germans.

After the war, during the communist era, Września continued to develop, both economically and culturally. The loudspeaker factory was established here, in the 1980s every Polish music lover wanted to have one of them. Today, the main economic driver is the factory of Volkswagen AG, which employs 3,000 people. And once again Września is strongly influenced by its western neighbours.

The history of Września is much deeper, but in this series, I want to tell how much it has changed and transformed over time. From the pre-war period to the present day. The face of the town changes the same way as the face of a person depending on the conditions and the time it lives in …

WRZEŚNIA ON AN OLD PHOTOGRAPHY

The source of photography are the following books:
Ziemia i Powiat Wrzesiński na starej pocztówce, Jolanta Śliwczyńska, Waldemar Śliwczyński, Wydawnictwo Kropka, Września 2003

Przedwojenna Września Fotografie Franciszka Włosika, Wydawnictwo Kropka, Września 2005

Autor: Aleksandra Walkowska