Materialne dziedzictwo kulturowe polsko-niemieckiego obszaru przygranicznego – geneza, stan i perspektywy. Studium przypadku Ziemi Lubuskiej

Abstract

The article is part of the current scientific considerations on material cultural heritage from the perspective of historical geography. This approach means focusing on the historical dimension of the contemporary world and on identifying the influence of the former spatial organization of a given area on its current features. The main goal of the article is to analyze the present condition of the most important elements of the immovable material cultural heritage of the Polish-German border area, focusing on the case study of Lubusz Land. This analysis is preceded by a discussion of the origins and typical features of individual heritage elements in the research area, and concludes with an attempt to define the perspectives for these components in terms of their social perception, protection and role in the development of contemporary spatial structures and the preservation of their historic character. The research in the scope specified above was carried out with the use of the methodological apparatus of history and socio-economic geography, including the philological, genetic and retrogressive methods as well as visual field analysis, mathematical and statistical methods and the cartographic presentation of phenomena. The conducted analysis allowed the formulation of conclusions about the quantitative and structural richness of the cultural heritage in the Polish-German border area, which in the genetic aspect is primarily related to the period of domination of German culture in the past centuries. However, the physical condition of this heritage is actually critical due to the impact of economic, legal and property, and institutional factors as well as those related to awareness that were liberated as a result of the collapse of the German state in its shape before 1945, the events of World War II, and radical political, social and economic changes in the post-war period. The post-socialist systemic transformation, initiated in Poland and East Germany in 1990, did not bring about any fundamental positive changes regarding the determinants and factors shaping the fate of the immovable material cultural heritage of the Polish-German border area. This conclusion applies especially to the eastern (Polish) part of this area. Negative tendencies are continued.