List of honorary citizens of Gdańsk


The title of an Honorary Citizen of Gdańsk is conferred by the city authorities to persons who made significant contributions to the city of Gdańsk, irrespective of their place of birth or nationality. The first historically documented person who received the title was Wilhelm Baum in 1832. The legal basis for conferring this honour was the Prussian Act on Local Government from 1831, which introduced the term of an honorary citizen.
In the period of the Free City of Gdańsk and the Communist State the title of an Honorary Citizen of Gdańsk was awarded to a number of controversial figures such as Adolf Hitler, Hermann Göring and Bolesław Bierut. All these titles were subsequently revoked by the City Council after the end of the Second World War and after the collapse of communism in Poland.
The title is purely symbolic and the recipients do not receive any financial awards. In the past, the recipients received a diploma and the city usually organized a ceremonial banquet to honour those who received the title.

List

Recipients of the honorary citizenship of Gdańsk, in order of date of presentation:

Prussia

  1. Wilhelm Baum
  2. Johann Karl Rothe
  3. Jakob Friedrich Rüchel-Kleist
  4. Paul W. Wundsch
  5. Adolf Heinrich von Grabow
  6. Stanisław Kostka Rosołkiewicz
  7. Emil Friedrich Götz
  8. Otto von Manteuffel
  9. Friedrich Wilhelm Clausewitz
  10. Robert Ludwig Blumenthal
  11. Matthias Gotthilf Löschin
  12. Eduard Friedrich Wiebe
  13. Karl Adolf Ernsthausen
  14. Leopold von Winter
  15. Julius Albert Licht
  16. Leo von Caprivi
  17. Heinrich Rickert
  18. Otto Steffens
  19. Richard Damme
  20. Georg Friedrich Abegg
  21. Gustav Heinrich von Gossler
  22. Emil Berenz
  23. Paul von Beneckendorff Hindenburg
  24. August Anton Ludwig von Mackensen

    Free City 1918-1945

  25. Max Halbe
  26. Albert Forster
  27. Adolf Hitler
  28. Hermann Göring

    Communist State

  29. Bolesław Bierut
  30. Konstanty Rokossowski
  31. Paweł Batow
  32. Wiktor Kulikow

    III Polish Republic

  33. Günter Grass
  34. Hans Lothar Fauth
  35. Gerard Labuda
  36. Ignacy Adamczewski
  37. Hans Koschnick
  38. George H.W. Bush
  39. Richard von Weizsäcker
  40. Lech Wałęsa
  41. Marian Kołodziej
  42. Ryszard Kukliński
  43. Westerplatte heroes
  44. Defence of the Polish Post Office in Danzig heroes
  45. Lech Bądkowski
  46. Henryka Krzywonos
  47. Jerzy Borowczak
  48. Stefan Lewandowski
  49. Bogdan Borusewicz
  50. Bogdan Lis
  51. Joanna Duda-Gwiazda
  52. Alina Pienkowska
  53. Bogdan Felski
  54. Ludwik Prądzyński
  55. Wojciech Gruszecki
  56. Józef Przybylski
  57. Andrzej Gwiazda
  58. Jerzy Sikorski
  59. Stefan Izdebski
  60. Lech Sobieszek
  61. Jerzy Kmiecik
  62. Tadeusz Stanny
  63. Zdzisław Kobyliński
  64. Anna Walentynowicz
  65. Andrzej Kołodziej
  66. Florian Wiśniewski
  67. Henryk Jankowski
  68. Margaret Thatcher
  69. Ronald Reagan
  70. Andrzej Januszajtis
  71. Henryk Jankowski
  72. Zbigniew Brzeziński
  73. Jan Nowak-Jeziorański
  74. Dieter Schenk
  75. Zygmunt Chychła
  76. Stanisław Bogdanowicz
  77. Jean Michel Jarre
  78. Ryszard Kaczorowski
  79. Helmut Kohl
  80. Tadeusz Mazowiecki
  81. Ludwik Wiśniewski
  82. Andrzej Zbierski
  83. Andrzej Wajda
  84. Tadeusz Gocłowski
  85. Joanna Muszkowska-Penson