Poland's Wedding To The Sea - 1920 Wedding To The Sea

1920 Wedding To The Sea

In October 1920, General Jozef Haller was named commandant of the Pomeranian Front of the Polish Army, a unit created to peacefully recover former German Empire’s province of Pomerelia, which was granted to the Second Polish Republic by the Versailles Treaty. On 18 January 1920, units of the 16th Infantry Division entered Torun, and in the following days, Polish soldiers moved northwards, finally reaching the Baltic Sea coast on February 10. Their progress was slow but steady, with a few incidents of sabotage, carried out by the retreating Germans.

Early in the morning of February 10, General Haller and his staff, on the way from Torun to Puck, met at the Danzig Hbf. rail station with members of Polish community of the Free City of Danzig. Haller, fearing a German provocation, stayed in the train, which was entered by Dr. Jozef Wybicki, grandson of Jozef Wybicki, who handed to him two platinum rings, funded by Polish families of Danzig. One of the rings was later thrown into the sea in Puck.

After the meeting, the train with Haller and other Polish officials headed for Puck, where it was welcomed by crowds of Kashubians. At the Puck Rail Station the General mounted a horse, heading towards the sea with a unit of uhlans. The symbolic event was witnessed, among others, by Wincenty Witos, Stanislaw Wojciechowski, Maciej Rataj, Pomeranian Voivode Stefan Laszewski, Polish envoy to Free City of Danzig Maciej Biesiadecki, General Kazimierz Sosnkowski, Dr Jozef Wybicki, and the "King of the Kashubians, Antoni Abraham". Main point of the ceremony was marked by a Roman-Catholic service, with a sermon told by Reverend Jozef Wrycza. Flag of the Polish Navy was blessed, and then, to the salvo of 21 guns, it was raised on a mast by sailors Eugeniusz Plawski and Florian Napierala. This symbolically meant that from then on, Polish seacoast was guarded by the Navy.

General Haller in his memoirs (published in 1964 in London) wrote that on that day, the Bay of Puck was frozen, so local fishermen cut an ice hole, into which Haller threw the ring. Before it fell into the water, the ring rolled on the ice: "Several fishermen ran after the ring, but none of them managed to catch it, and it fell into the icy water. When I asked why they did not catch it, the fishermen prophetically answered they would catch it in Szczecin". After throwing the ring into the water, Haller said the following words: “In the name of the Holy Republic of Poland, I, General Jozef Haller, am taking control of this ancient Slavic Baltic Sea shore”. Wojciech Kossak, inspired by these events, painted in 1931 "Polish Wedding to the Sea".

The 1920 wedding to the sea took place north of the Port of Puck, in the area which belonged to the Naval Airforce. A commemorative post was later erected there, with a Polish eagle and the date. The post was destroyed during the 1939 German Invasion of Poland. Its replica now stands in the Port of Puck, next to the bust of General Haller.

On February 11, 1920, a day after the symbolic wedding, Kashubian fishermen invited Haller to Wielka Wies (now Wladyslawowo), to carry out another ceremony, this time in the open waters of Baltic Sea. Haller accepted the invitation, and entered a cutter “Gwiazda Morza” (“Star of the Sea”). This made the General a very popular person among the locals. Haller himself purchased a plot of land near Wielka Wies, founding a district called Hallerowo. The town of Wladyslawowo was created after a merger of Wielka Wies and Hallerowo.