Meetings around the Wroclaw industry

How did the plants that became Pafawag after the war develop? In what condition was the Wrocław industry in 1945 and who were the people who rebuilt it? In October, we invite you to branch no. 22 of the Tadeusz Różewicz Municipal Public Library next to the Nowy Pafawag Cultural Centre for two open lectures on the industrial history of Wrocław.

Both meetings form a story divided by the caesura of 1945. The first will concern the beginnings of railways in Lower Silesia and the development of the Linke-Hofmann plants. The second will show the condition of Wrocław's industry after the end of the war and will present the fate of its new employees. Participation in the events is free and does not require prior registration.

The lecture will focus mainly on the beginnings of railways in Europe and Lower Silesia, an outline of the concept of the creation of the first railway line Wrocław-Oława and the beginnings of the creation of plants producing rolling stock. The author will present the main assumptions of the planned production of the first wagons, wheelbarrows and forged elements for the construction of the new railway line. Next, the further development of the Gottfried Link plants and the subsequent changes of ownership will be presented. The author will discuss the main production portfolio over the more than 100 years of the company's existence and its impact on the urban landscape of Wrocław. The main caesura will remain the year 1945.

What did Wrocław's industry look like when the city was taken over by the Polish authorities in 1945? How much did it suffer as a result of hostilities and Soviet disassembly? And above all — who were the people who were supposed to restore its functioning after the war?

The lecture will be devoted both to the condition of Wrocław's industry in the first months after the end of the war, and to the process of creating a new working environment. We will look at the origin of new employees — both coming from the Borderlands and from the so-called Old Lands, from villages and cities — their previous fate, professional experience, education, and political attitudes and choices.

We will try to look at post-war Wrocław through the prism of people who not only rebuilt its industrial plants, but also co-created the new society of the city.

Both events are part of the project “Communities: Literature as a Tool of Locality”, which is jointly implemented by the Ładne Historie Foundation, the Tadeusz Różewicz Municipal Public Library in Wrocław and the Nowy Pafawag Cultural Centre.

The Communities are a continuation of the project initiated in 2025 by the Tadeusz Różewicz Municipal Public Library in Wrocław, which we implemented together with the Nowy Pafawag Cultural Centre. The first edition allowed us to test different ways of connecting literature with locality, memory and neighborhood activities and, above all, to build the collaboration of three organizations and institutions operating close to local communities. In 2026, we are developing this model: we expand the program, we take advantage of the experience of the first edition and together we create further activities that show that a book can be a good starting point to learn about the place, its history and the people who make it.

The project “Communities: Literature as a Tool of Locality” was co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund — a state special fund.