Karl - Marx - Straße

This street, along with the surrounding ones, 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, to Gallwitzstraße. A former resident recalls his childhood spent there: "House number 11 on Ohra's Gallwitzstraße was across from the area of the elementary school and sports field. There were two grocery stores on this street, one at Gallwitzstraße No. 1 (corner of Litzmannstraße). At the other corner (of von Morgenstraße) was Fritz Krohn's dairy shop. The proprietress of the grocery store at Gallwitzstraße 11 was Elsbeth Mueller. I can well remember the shop, but less well the names, unfortunately. So I always consult the 'Danzig Residents' Directory 1942' to possibly recall memories, as I did again today. In this book I find, apart from said Elsbeth Mueller, also: Otto Boehrend, department head, as well as the owner of the house, Kurt Welm, engineer, and Paul Wrobel, blacksmith. The book always lists only the heads of household, i.e., the tenant of the respective apartment. The owner of the shop at the corner of Litzmannstraße was Johann Gdanitz. After the Red Army's arrival, to our great astonishment he wore a white-and-red ribbon on his jacket, thus passing himself off as a Pole. It did not save him, however, from being deported by the Russians. On this topic, another memory. Across from us, in house No. 2 (corner of von Morgenstraße), lived a family with several children with whom I had daily contact for years. We went to elementary school together, also played together, and during this time never heard a Polish word from them. Now, from March 26, 1945, they suddenly revealed themselves to be Polish and, to our astonishment, spoke a different language. But even they were not spared reprisals from the Russians. 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 classes were additionally canceled. This field hospital with the many wounded only very narrowly escaped a possible catastrophe. The following night, after the hospital had been evacuated, it was hit by incendiary bombs and partially burned down. By the way, the partly charred oak staircase steps served us as fuel in the winter of 45/46. Whether I broke these staircase steps out of MY school with any joy, I hardly think so, for I had always liked visiting it and the adjacent gymnasium. Today it serves as a school again, and it has also been thoroughly renovated recently and now has a bright, friendly paint job. But it now also stands in stark contrast to the unsightly, crumbling old facades of the surrounding apartment buildings. It seems as if the entire neighborhood of our childhood in Ohra is now under historical preservation."