Feeding the City,Feeding the Fortress: Cracow’s Food Supply in World War I

Abstract

This article seeks to analyze the efficiency of the food supply to the city of Cracow during World War I. Several causes of significant drop in food availability in Cracow are discussed: isolation of the city and fortress from the natural food import areas, inconsistent policy of civil and military authorities, and inefficiency of the intraurban food production. However, the decrease in the food supply was visible not only in the falling imports but also in the deterioration of staples’ quality. Both processes had a critical impact on the consumption levels, resulting in the drop of approximately 75 percent in the meat consumption. Finally, the article is intended to contribute significantly to the understanding of how Cracovians’ standard of living changed in wartime with some references to the situation in other European cities.