Szymon Askenazy

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Szymon Askenazy
Szymon Askenazy
Born	(1865-12-24)December 24, 1865 Zawichost, Poland
Died	June 22, 1935(1935-06-22) (aged 69) Warsaw, Poland
Nationality	Polish
Occupation(s)	Historian, educator, statesman and diplomat.
Known for	Founder of the Askenazy school.

Szymon Askenazy (December 24, 1865, Zawichost – June 22, 1935, Warsaw) was a Jewish-Polish historian, educator, statesman and diplomat, founder of the Askenazy school.

He was the first Polish representative at the League of Nations. His work as a historian was influential in defining the creation and history of the Polish nation.

Biography

Persuaded by his father, Askenazy studied law at the Imperial University of Warsaw in the 1880s. After graduation, he worked as a lawyer; however, all the spare time he devoted to reading books in various languages. In April 1893, he went to Göttingen to study history. He was influenced by the professor of medieval and modern history Max Lehmann under whose supervision he wrote doctoral dissertation Die letzte Polnische Koenigswahl (1894).

Commencing in 1902, he served as a professor at the

After Poland regained independence, Askenazy was chosen to be the first Polish representative at the League of Nations (1920–23). His candidacy for this post was supported by Józef Piłsudski and nomination was signed by the Foreign Minister of Poland, Eustachy Sapieha in May 1920. He cooperated later with other Polish Foreign Ministers: Konstanty Skirmunt, Gabriel Narutowicz and Aleksander Skrzyński. In May 1923, Marian Seyda from, the Popular National Union (a Polish political party of the National Democracy political camp) became the Foreign Minister of Poland after Lanckorona Pact agreement was introduced. Askenazy saw this as a sign to step down.^[1] He resigned from the post and in July 1923 came back to Poland. Askenazy never joined any political party.

In his studies, he focused chiefly on Poland's political and economic history in the 18th and 19th centuries. He thus laid the foundations for the Lwów-Warsaw School of History (also known as the "Askenazy school"). He was the first historian to emphasize the Partitions period as crucially important to the creation of the modern Polish nation. ^{[citation needed]}

Askenazy's idea of describing a nation's history through its social and economic development, as well as its international and diplomatic backdrop, remains influential in modern Polish historical studies. ^{[citation needed]}

William J. Rose, an English translator of Askenazy's book "

• Ministeryum Wielhorskiego 1815-1816 : dodatek 1812-1813-1814 (1898)
• Wczasy historyczne Tom 1 (1902) Tom 2 (1904)
• Sto lat zarządu w Królestwie Polskiem : 1800-1900 (1903)
• Uniwersytet Warszawski (1905)
• Łukasiński Tom 1 (1908) Tom 2 (1908)
• Dwa stulecia : XVIII i XIX : badania i przyczynki Tom 1 (1901) Tom 2 (1910)
• Przymierze polsko-pruskie (1918)
• Nauka uniwersytecka a kolejność studjów w uniwersyteckiej nauce prawa (1921)
• Książę Józef Poniatowski 1763-1813 (1922)
• Gdańsk a Polska (1923)
• Uwagi (1924)
• Szkice i portrety (1937)

Works in English

• Dantzig & Poland (Published by George Allen & Unwin. London 1921. Translated by William J. Rose. The original Polish title: Gdańsk a Polska)
• Thaddeus Kosciuszko, For the Centenary of His Death (London 1917)
• Poland and Europe (Published by George Allen & Unwin. London 1916)
• New
  Contemporary Review
  , June 1916; later by The Contemporary Review Company. London 1916)
• Prince Joseph Poniatowski (London 1915)