Citizen historians discover the historical mystery of the birch inscription
In 1896 Danz, a forester from Gdansk, made an inscription from the trees in the Oliwa forest. Among pines and spruces he planted birches is such way, so they made an inscription „DANZ 1896″.
As Gazeta.pl writes, his work could be seen till the beginning of 20th century. After the WW2 inscription has disappeared. After the years it was brought to the memory of Gdansk inhabitants by the users of theinternet forum Dawny Gdańsk (The Old Gdansk).
They have started historical investigation about the old postcard. They wondered if this inscription had been a part of the city name (Danz – Danzig). It was also a suspicion of the photomontage, but later some documents found in the archives by Tomasz Strug have confirmed the authenticity of the old photo and the personality of forester Danz. There were also some remainders of the trees from inscription found in Oliwa.
Inscription made of the trees. (#)
This case can be interesting from the context of internet communities potential in the history matters. Users of the historical forum have inspired, explored and decisively evidenced the question of the past. There was no inspiration from the official institutions. Amateurs using professional methods and supported by the power of community nowadays have a chance to actively support historians in the matter of historical research, sometimes doing it even better, or searching for the new original topics and ways of history (like in the case of historical reenactment movement and experimental archeology projects).
Maybe the term citizen historians (like citizen journalism) used by Jeff Jarvis can be refered to this case?
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