Wojciech Korfanty

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Wojciech Korfanty
Wojciech Korfanty in 1925
Deputy Prime Minister of Poland
In office
27 October 1923 – 14 December 1923
Prime MinisterWincenty Witos
Preceded byStanisław Głąbiński
Succeeded byStanisław Thugutt
Personal details
Born
Adalbert Korfanty

(1873-04-20)20 April 1873
Siemianowitz-Laurahütte, German Empire (now Poland)
Died17 August 1939(1939-08-17) (aged 66)
Warsaw, Poland
Political partyPolish Christian Democratic Party
Labor Party
SpouseElżbieta Korfantowa
OccupationPolitician, activist
Signature

Wojciech Korfanty (IPA:

Prussian Landtag, and later, in the Polish Sejm. Briefly, he also was a paramilitary leader, known for organizing the Polish Silesian Uprisings in Upper Silesia, which after World War I was contested by Germany and Poland. Korfanty fought to protect Poles from discrimination and the policies of Germanisation in Upper Silesia before the war and sought to join Silesia to Poland after Poland regained its independence
.

Early life

He was born the son of a coal miner in Sadzawka,

Marxist Werner Sombart
was among his teachers. Korfanty and Sombart remained friends for many years.

University of Wrocław
to celebrate the 130th anniversary of Korfanty's birth in 2003. The text reads: Student of philosophy, law, and economics at Wrocław University; journalist, defender of Polishness, leader of the Silesian Uprisings; member of parliament and senator of the Polish Republic.

In 1901, Korfanty became editor-in-chief of the Polish language paper Górnoslązak (The Upper Silesian), in which he appealed to the national consciousness of the region's Polish-speaking population.[3]

In 1903, Korfanty was elected to the German

Christian Democratic convictions and later returned to them in domestic Polish politics.[8]

Polish restoration

During

Danzig (Gdańsk), the Province of Posen, and parts of the provinces of East Prussia (Masuria) and Silesia (Upper Silesia) to be included in the Polish state.[9]

After the war, during the

Silesian politician Theofil Kupka.[14][15]

Polish politics

Korfanty was a member of the national Sejm from 1922 to 1930 and in the

Silesian Voivodship, which he saw as an obstacle against its reintegration into Poland. However, he defended the rights of the German minority in Upper Silesia because he believed that the prosperity of minorities enriched the whole society of a region.[citation needed
]

He briefly acted as vice-premier in the government of

Brest-Litovsk fortress, together with other leaders of the Centrolew, an alliance of left-wing and centrist parties in opposition to the ruling government.[17]

Exile

In 1935, he was forced to leave Poland

Polish-German non-aggression pact of 1934, hoping that the renewed threat to Polish independence would help overcome the domestic political cleavage. He was arrested immediately upon arrival. In August, he was released as unfit for prison because of his bad health and died shortly afterwards, two weeks before World War II began with the German invasion of Poland
. Although the cause of death remains unclear, it has been claimed that the treatment he received in prison may have caused his health to deteriorate.

Legacy

After 1945, when the Polish

communists sought legitimisation as the champions and guarantors of Polish independence, Korfanty was finally rehabilitated as a national hero
for his fight to protect the Polish population in Upper Silesia from discrimination and for his efforts to join the Polish population in Silesia to Poland.

Today, many

Opole Silesia became part of Poland in 1945, the town of Friedland in Oberschlesien, in German Upper Silesia, was renamed Korfantów in his honour
.

References

  1. ^ Rechowicz, Henryk (1971). Sejm Śląski, 1922-1939 (in Polish). Śląsk. p. 340.
  2. ^ Plaque (in Polish). Wrocław: Fundacja Odbudowy Democracji im. Ignacego Paderewskiego. 2003 – via WikiMedia Commons.
  3. ISBN 0-691-04854-1
    .
  4. ISBN 0-8032-4429-0
    .
  5. ^ Markert, Werner (1959). Polen. In Zusammenarbeit mit zahlreichen Fachgelehrten (in German). Böhlau Verlag. p. 730.
  6. ISBN 1-85065-552-9
    .
  7. ^ Orzechowski, Marian (1975). Wojciech Korfanty: biografia polityczna (in Polish). Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich. p. 39.
  8. ISBN 0-415-16422-2
    . sejm +korfanty +christian.
  9. ISBN 3-16-845053-7
    .
  10. ISBN 0-8131-1729-1
    . 1918 +korfanty +reichstag.
  11. ^
    ISBN 3-8258-4472-2
    .
  12. ISBN 0-7100-8647-4
    .
  13. ^ Popiołek, Kazimierz; Zieliński, Henryk (1963). Zródla do dziejów powstań śląskich. Zakład Narodowy im. Ossoliń skich. p. 330.
  14. ^ T. Hunt Tooley, "National identity and Weimar Germany: Upper Silesia and the eastern border, 1918-1922", U of Nebraska Press, 1997, p. 227, [1] "But the most vicious attacks were reserved for Korfanty, who was caricatured, smeared and lampooned in every issue. The Polish leader always appeared with money and drink in hand. He appeared cavorting with prostitutes, paying the assassins of Kupka, arriving in hell"
  15. ISBN 3-8260-2035-9
    .
  16. ISBN 0-7146-5650-X
    .
  17. ISBN 3-8258-4472-2
    .
  18. ISBN 0-7146-5650-X
    .

Literature

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wojciech Korfanty.
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