This lane in the Lower Town originally extended only to the intersection with Langgarter Hintergasse and Kasernengasse, as the breakthrough from here to Langgarten was not carried out until 1874. Like many others in this area, the lane was traversed lengthwise by a ditch, and the banks of each section bore different names.

On the stretch from Kasernengasse to Reitergasse, around 1650 the bank facing the rampart was called Reussengasse, probably after a guesthouse for trade visitors coming from the East, who still at the beginning of the 19th century usually lodged in the Lower Town. The opposite side had no name. From Reitergasse to Strandgasse, the side toward the Mottlau was called Schilfgasse (Reed Lane), the opposite side Gänsegasse (Goose Lane). From Strandgasse to Sperlingsgasse, the Mottlau side was called Schwanengasse (Swan Lane), while the rampart side as far as the former Rosengasse (by the rifle factory) was called Lindengasse (Linden Lane); only the short stretch of this side from Rosengasse to the then Kolkowgasse bore the name Weidengasse (Willow Lane).

On 18th-century maps, the name Weidengasse had already extended to the entire rampart side from Strandgasse to Sperlingsgasse, while the opposite side still bore the name Schwanengasse. From Strandgasse to Kasernengasse, both sides of the street were then called Hintergasse. From 1814 onward, Weidengasse regularly denoted the entire stretch from Sperlingsgasse to Kasernengasse. The only reminder of the older section names was the name Schwanengang, used until 1869 for a dead-end lane branching off from Weidengasse between Rosengasse and Kolkowgasse, which was later built over. The final extension of Weidengasse came with the aforementioned breakthrough to Langgarten in 1874.

After the war, the Polish renaming commission made an amusing error with this lane: they confused the tree Weide (willow) with the pasture Weide (meadow), so that this lane is today called, in translation, Meadow Lane, while the old Wiesengasse (Meadow Lane) is now called Willow Lane. Bohdan Szermer, a 1945 employee of the Polish city administration, explains the error as follows: "When the streets of the Lower Town were being renamed, the workers who nailed up the street signs got things mixed up and nailed the signs reading 'Weidengasse' in Wiesengasse and those reading 'Wiesengasse' in Weidengasse. When the error was noticed after some time and they wanted to correct it, the residents protested -- they had already gotten used to the names, informed their families and acquaintances of their addresses, and some (as craftsmen and shop owners) had already ordered stamps. And so it remained." (Bohdan Szermer: "The First Year in Danzig. Fragment." Published in: 30 Days No. 3 (41). Translated by R. Kowald)

History