Uwaga! Oryginał!

Even doubtlessly genuine iconographic sources may contain false information. This issue will be illustrated mostly by using examples from the collection of the Historical and Artistic Department of the Museum of the Middle Pomerania in Słupsk. A postcard showing the new town hall in Słupsk (ill. No. 1) was sent in 1899, two years before the building was ready to use. The postcard uses a drawing made by two architects, Karl Zaar and Rudolf Vahl, which had been submitted as a possible design for the new town hall (ill. No.2). R. Callwitz’s water-painting, used on the postcard, is signed and dated as being painted in 1910 (ill. No.5). In this image, the building of the Holy Spirit Hospital can be seen, despite having been demolished some years before 1910. An inscription on (that same/a different?) postcard which shows St. George’s chapel informs that this is the Holy Spirit’s chapel.In 1919 the monument of the emperor Wilhelm I was built on the square in front of the town hall. This special part of the town was often shown on postcards. A pair of postcards by publishers Schöning & Co. from Lübeck (ill. No. 7 and 8) is worthy of note. One of them shows the town hall and the square with the equestrian monument identified by a certain number which no other depiction of that monument uses. Another publishing company from Leipzig-Trinks & Co. has made a similar error (ill. 9 and 10). Some other postcards from this company depict the same area with minor differences. For example, they exclude details such as a road-sign or a lamp-post (ill. 12, 13). Perhaps the reason for these minor discrepancies is that the monument of the emperor had been moved before World War Two. The examples mentioned above present some traps one can fall into while relying only on authentic historical material. As for the Pomeranian arts the matter becomes even more complicated, because many sources have been destroyed or dispersed. The German past of the region has merely been a subject of studies for Polish authors for a relatively short time.