Boundary stone at Przebrno · Free City of Gdańsk

A letter has four sides

The documentation shows two faces of the stone: FD and D, beneath which — according to the photograph’s description — there is a trace of an earlier P. The rest of the stone is unknown. Choose a period and see what these marks meant then.Choose a period and see what the letters FD and D meant; two faces are unknown to us.

Face FD visible in the photograph [1] In force
Face D with a trace of P visible in the photograph [1] In force
Undocumented face 1 no photograph or description No data
Undocumented face 2 no photograph or description No data

Face FD 15 Nov 1920 – 31 Aug 1939 In force

The Free City of Gdańsk exists and at Przebrno borders Germany (East Prussia). In this period FD is the marking in force for the Gdańsk side of the state border; it is not a measurement of the direction the face points.

Full reading and unknowns ↓

The arrangement of letters is a typographic diagram: not a photograph or a tracing, with no faithful typeface, size or placement of the marks. The bar above each frame repeats the status in words: solid — in force, dashed — before proclamation, dotted — relic, grey — German side, no bar and a dashed frame — no data. You can open the source photograph on Wikimedia Commons: description and original [1]. The number of four faces is an assumption of the V2 model.

On 15 November 1920 the Free City was proclaimed under the protection of the League of Nations. The border at Przebrno separates it from Germany; it is not a section of the Polish–Gdańsk border.

Gdańsk sideFree City of Gdańsk

German sideGermany (East Prussia)

Border: state border Free City – Germany. A diagram of relations, not a map; no scale or orientation.

Without JavaScript, period selection is disabled. All periods for all faces are in the “Four faces × four periods” table below.

What the material documents and what we do not know

The meaning of a mark in the selected period is in the blue frame by the faces. Here is what the period does not settle: the basis of the reading and the gaps. With JavaScript only the selected face is shown; without it, all four.

Face FD — Freie Stadt Danzig

What the material documents

A photograph of 29 August 2014 [1] shows the FD marking. The abbreviation expands to Freie Stadt Danzig and did not refer to the city alone: the state also included Sopot and the rural districts (Gdańsk-Niziny, Gdańsk-Wyżyny, Wielkie Żuławy) [2]. expansion and composition of the state taken over from V2; to be checked in [2]

What we do not know

The direction the face points. The model assigns it no azimuth.
The date the letters were carved.
The typeface and size of the letters: here they are a diagram, not a tracing.
Whether there are other marks on this face.

Face D with a trace of P — Deutschland, formerly Preußen

What the material documents

The photograph’s description [1] indicates that the D (Deutschland) was made by correcting an earlier P (Preußen); a trace of this change remains on the stone. the reading of P as Preußen rests on the photograph’s description; it has not been checked against the original

Why P does not mean “Poland” here

Przebrno lay on the border of the Free City with Germany (East Prussia). Poland did not border this section, so P here is read as Prussia. The letter alone, without place and source, is not enough to determine the state [1][3].

What we do not know

When and by whom the P was changed to D. This date is not on the timeline of periods: it is unknown.
Exactly where the trace of P lies, how large it is and how legible. The blue outline of P is only a sign meaning “there is a trace here”.
The direction the face points.
Whether there are any other marks here.

Undocumented face 1

What the material documents

Nothing. The supplied material contains no photograph or description of this face. The dashed, empty frame means a lack of knowledge, not a lack of inscription. Changing the historical period does not give it an inscription.

What is needed

A photograph of this face with a clear rights status, and a document on the origin of the object (absent from the material).
Confirmation of how many faces the physical stone has: “four” is an assumption of the V2 model.

Undocumented face 2

What the material documents

What is needed

A photograph of this face with a clear rights status, and a document on the origin of the object (absent from the material).
Confirmation of how many faces the physical stone has: “four” is an assumption of the V2 model.

The condition in 2014, not the original placement. The photograph’s author described the stone as standing in its original place, near the former crossing at Przebrno [1]. This is a record of one object on one date: it does not document the original orientation of the faces or any later changes of display. the photograph author’s description; to be checked

Four faces × four periods: all readings at once

FD

28 Jun 1919: Before proclamation The Treaty of Versailles provides for the creation of the Free City of Gdańsk, but the state denoted by the abbreviation FD is not yet operating. It does not follow from this when the letters were carved: the material gives no date.
10 Jan – 14 Nov 1920: Before proclamation The area is administered by the Allied Powers; the Free City will be proclaimed only on 15 November 1920. The abbreviation FD thus names a state that is not yet operating. The date the letters were carved remains undetermined.
15 Nov 1920 – 31 Aug 1939: In force The Free City of Gdańsk exists and at Przebrno borders Germany (East Prussia). In this period FD is the marking in force for the Gdańsk side of the state border; it is not a measurement of the direction the face points.
from 1 Sep 1939: Relic The Free City is incorporated into the Reich and the line ceases to be a state border. FD describes a division that no longer exists; the stone preserved in the landscape (photograph from 2014) is a trace of that division.

D with a trace of P

28 Jun 1919: German side The land on the D side belongs to Germany (East Prussia), but there is as yet no border with the Free City. The material does not say when the P was changed to D, so we do not assign this correction to this moment.
10 Jan – 14 Nov 1920: German side On the Gdańsk side the area is under the administration of the Allied Powers, on the D side it is Germany. The Free City has not yet been proclaimed. The date of the correction of P to D remains undetermined.
15 Nov 1920 – 31 Aug 1939: In force D (Deutschland) indicates the German side of the border with the Free City. According to the photograph’s description [1], the D was made by correcting an earlier P (Preußen). At Przebrno this P does not mean Poland, because Poland did not border this section.
from 1 Sep 1939: Relic After the incorporation of the Free City into the Reich, the border is abolished politically. The D and the trace of P are evidence of the former marking. The date of the correction of P to D is not established, so we do not link it to any of these dates.

Undocumented faces 1 and 2

any period: Face 1No data No documentation of this face: neither a photograph nor a description in the material. The historical period adds no inscription or meaning to it, and the empty field does not mean there was no inscription.; Face 2No data No documentation of this face: neither a photograph nor a description in the material. The historical period adds no inscription or meaning to it, and the empty field does not mean there was no inscription.

First the place and period, then the letter

Two common mistakes: reading the P at Przebrno as “Poland” and applying sections A–F to this stone. Both come from confusing two different borders.

Przebrno

border of the Free City with Germany

On the other side of the Free City: Germany (East Prussia).
Marks in the material: FD and D, beneath which is a trace of P; the photograph’s description reads it as Preußen [1].
Sections A–F: Do not apply to this section [3].

Polish–Gdańsk border

from Gdynia Orłowo to Biała Góra

On the other side of the Free City: Poland.
Marks in the material: According to V2, P (Polska) on one side and FD on the other. to be checked in [3]
Sections A–F: The six sections of this border [3].

Place. Which border are you reading? The photograph [1] confirms one object at Przebrno, not an inventory of all the marks.
Period. What did the line separate in a given year? Change the period at the top of the page and compare.
Letter. Only now: write down what can be seen, and separate it from interpretation.

Scope, changes from V2 and sources

What was changed in this version

Hypothesis checker removed. Its rules (P is not Poland, A–F does not apply to Przebrno, caution before 1920 and after 1939) have moved into the statuses on the faces and into the section “First the place and period”. There is no longer a user test.
Observation form, saving in the browser and .txt export removed. The page remembers and saves nothing; the main object does not give way to a note.
Kept: the four-face model (FD, D with a trace of P, two without data), the absence of azimuths, the chronology from V2 and the references to sources. The 1920 period was split into Allied administration and the proclaimed Free City.
The labels A and B were changed to “undocumented 1 and 2”, so as not to confuse them with sections A–F of the Polish–Gdańsk border.

What this page does not know

There is no photograph of the stone here: the page works offline, and the photograph is only a link. Photographs of the other faces and a document on the origin of the object are also missing.
There is no date for the carving of the letters or for the correction of P to D, nor dimensions, typeface, orientation of the faces or the exact number of faces.
The content comes from the supplied material (V2 and the three sources below). The sources were not reopened or checked here; those marked “to be checked” require verification.

Sources

LukaszKatlewa: boundary stone at Przebrno — photograph of 29 August 2014, location in the description and interpretation of the P/D correction; CC BY-SA 4.0 (licence). The photograph is not embedded here.
Gedanopedia: Wolne Miasto Gdańsk, 1920–1939 [Free City of Gdańsk, 1920–1939] — the Treaty of Versailles, the legal status of the Free City, the chronology of proclamation and incorporation into the Reich.
Muzeum Polskich Formacji Granicznych: oznakowanie granic II RP [Museum of Polish Border Formations: marking of the borders of the Second Polish Republic] — patterns of markings, the letter system (P) and the division into sections A–F of the Polish–Gdańsk border.