Dagobert Frey we Wrocławiu. Śląsk i Polska w dialogu historii sztuki i polityki
Dagobert Frey in Wrocław: Silesia and Poland in the Dialogue of Art History and Politics

Summary/Abstract: Dagobert Frey (1883-1962) from Vienna was a professor and the director of art history institute at the Frederick William University in Wrocław in the period of 1931-1945. The hitherto studies have allowed to define his role in Eastern studies and his collaboration with organisers of plunder of art works in occupied Poland. The documents held in the Wrocław University Archives let us make his engagement in the university structure more specific, especially within frames of the so-called Eastern programme. There are sources about his second trip to Poland (in 1938, together with Günther Grundmann and Eberhard Hempel) in Deutsches Kunstarchiv in Nuremberg. We can also find there a copy of a hitherto unknown report from a monument tour in Northern France in 1941, held by a unit of occupation military government for German art historians. The preliminary analysis of Frey’s texts from the 1930s and 1940s enables claiming that art of Silesia and Poland were focal point of his interest. Searching in the first place for German influence on Polish art, mainly in the periods of late Middle Ages and Baroque, he also appreciated contribution of art east from the Odra river to cultural development of Central and Eastern Europe. Frey’s postulate of Eastern studies should be interpreted in the context of political situation, to a higher degree than it has been until now, however, his share in research over medieval sculpture and architecture in this area ought to be appreciated.

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