This street, together with its surroundings, belongs to the new housing development built after World War I at the Niederfeld/Hinterweg in Ohra. Originally named after Karl Marx, it was renamed in 1933 after General Max Carl von Gallwitz, one of the military commanders of World War I, as Gallwitzstraße. A former resident recalls his childhood spent there: "House number 11 on Ohra's Gallwitzstraße was situated opposite the elementary school and sports field. There were two grocery shops on this street, one at Gallwitzstraße No. 1 (corner of Litzmannstraße). On the other corner (of Morgenstraße) was the dairy shop of Fritz Krohn. The owner of the grocery shop at Gallwitzstraße 11 was Elsbeth Mueller. I can remember the shop well enough, but unfortunately less so the names. So I always consult the 'Danziger Einwohnerbuch 1942' to recall memories, as I did again today. In this book I find, besides the aforementioned Elsbeth Mueller, also: Otto Boehrend, department head, as well as the owner of the house, Kurt Welm, engineer, and Paul Wrobel, blacksmith. Only the heads of household, that is the tenant of the respective apartment, are ever entered in the book. The owner of the shop on the corner of Litzmannstraße was Johann Gdanitz. After the entry of the Red Army, to our great astonishment he wore a white-and-red ribbon on his jacket, thus presenting himself as a Pole. It did not save him, however, from deportation by the Russians. On this subject, another memory. Across from us, in the house with No. 2 (corner of Morgenstraße), lived a family with several children with whom I had daily contact for years. We went to elementary school together, played together too, and during all this time never heard a Polish word from them. Then from March 26, 1945, they suddenly revealed themselves as Poles and, to our astonishment, spoke a different language. But they too were not spared from Russian reprisals. To return to our elementary school on Gallwitzstraße: after the war events and thus the front had moved ever closer to Danzig, our school was turned into a field hospital in early March 1945. Due to the danger of sudden air raids, school lessons were additionally cancelled. This field hospital with its many wounded only narrowly escaped a possible catastrophe. The following night, after the hospital had been evacuated, it was hit by incendiary bombs and partially burned out. Incidentally, the partially charred oak staircase steps served us as fuel in the winter of 45/46. Whether I broke those steps out of MY school with any joy, I very much doubt, for I had always enjoyed attending it and the adjacent gymnasium. Today it serves as a school again, and it has recently been thoroughly renovated and given a bright, friendly coat of paint. But this also makes it stand out enormously from the unsightly, crumbling old facades of the surrounding apartment buildings. It seems as though the entire neighborhood of our childhood in Ohra is now under heritage protection."

History