It was where World War II began on September 1, 1939. Its wartime experience was immortalized in Günter Grass`s The Tin Drum. Later it attracted worldwide attention as the site where workers` strikes led by Lech Walesa and the ensuing Solidarity movement led to the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe. Proud Hanseatic port, heart of the Baltic Sea trade, twice a 'Free City,' present-day liberal, cosmopolitan center: Gdansk's story between Germany and Poland is rich and fascinating. As Peter Oliver Loew colorfully shows, Gdansk, also known as Danzig, is incomparable not only because of its recent past but also in how it has so uniquely embodied the tensions of the European continent over the last millennium. Situated geographically and culturally within these tensions, the city has developed a fascinating identity amid frequent conflict and shifting national affiliations. From prehistoric amber workers to early Slavic dukes, the conquest of the Teutonic Order, and submission to the