Jadwiga Janowska (PL)

False Flag, 2023

The radio station is an extremely important site for both the topography and history of the city - it was here that the Gliwice provocation took place on August 31, 1939, a propaganda diversionary action that provided a pretext for Germany to declare war on Poland. It was a false flag operation - a covert operation conducted to mislead, to create the impression that a particular group, nation, state, etc. was allegedly responsible for certain actions. The signal for the start of the Gliwice provocation was the words "Grandma died." German attackers attacked a German radio station disguised as Silesians. However, the action did not go as smoothly as expected. In the end, only nine words reached radio listeners: Attention, this is Gliwice. The radio station is in Polish hands... The radio then went silent for reasons that have not yet been explained.

Franciszek Honioka was murdered at the radio station. He was a German citizen of Polish nationality, a participant in the Silesian uprisings.

In the 1950s, the Gliwice tower was used to jam foreign radio stations, mainly Radio Free Europe.

Made of larch wood, the mast of the Gliwice radio station was built in 1935. Connected by more than sixteen thousand brass screws, it is the tallest wooden structure in Europe and the tallest wooden broadcasting station in the world. The current state of the art in wood preservation methods allows us to estimate the tower's lifespan at another fifteen to twenty years.

The graphic symbol depicting the Gliwice radio station is a visual sign associated with the city and widely used to promote it. The tower itself is sometimes referred to as "Gliwice's Eiffel Tower" in the local media.