Amatorzy cudzej własności i ich łupy na przykładzie Bydgoszczy – dużego miasta II Rzeczypospolitej

• Authors: Aleksandra Jankowska

Title variants

EN

THIEVES AND THEIR SPOILS – EXEMPLIFIED WITH BYDGOSZCZ, A LARGE TOWN IN THE INTER-WAR POLAND

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The dynamic growth of population made Bydgoszcz one of the larger towns in the inter-war Poland. More than half of the population were workers. The unstable economical situation and the high level of unemployment often drove them to crime, especially theft. Thieves’ spoils can provide evidence of the citizens’ financial position, tastes, interests, fashion or even culinary customs. In the early 1920s thieves were particularly interested in bed clothes and bed linen, clothes, cash, jewellery, food and livestock. The value of the things stolen rose in prosperity periods, when more people could afford luxury goods. In periods of recession and poverty thieves concentrated on livestock (hens, rabbits, ducks, pigs) and basic food (flour, butter, groats). The town was also plagued with seasonal theft – in winter thieves were greatly interested in coal and wood, in spring and summer – in bicycles, fruit and vegetables, and in autumn – in preserves (jams, wine, pickles). Lists of stolen goods mirror the paradoxes of everyday life characteristic of periods of dynamic economic changes. Many inhabitants of Bydgoszcz, despite implementing technological innovations in their households, still stuck to old habits, e.g. to keeping livestock even in the centre of the town

Keywords

EN

CRIMINALS; THEFTS; THE INTER-WAR POLAND

• Publisher: Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Kwartalnik Historii Kultury Materialnej
• Year: 2012
• Volume: 60
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 473-482

Contributors

author

Aleksandra Jankowska