Edward Gierek

Edward Gierek ( born January 6, 1913 in Porąbka, today Sosnowiec, Poland, † July 29, 2001 in Cieszyn ) was a Polish politician.

Gierek was a Communist since his youth. Before the Second World War, he lived for a time in France, and later as a laborer in Belgium. After his return to Poland in 1948, he quickly made career in the Polish United Workers' Party ( PZPR ). Since 1954 he was a member of the Central Committee. From 1957 to 1970 he earned as First Secretary of the PZPR Woiwodschaftskomitees in Katowice a certain popularity for which he was appointed after the fall of Wladyslaw Gomulka after the December riots on the Baltic coast in 1970 as First Secretary of the PZPR. His reign was characterized by an attempt to speed up the modernization of the Polish economy and the improvement of contacts with the Western countries. After initial successes, the policy ultimately failed at the failed repayment of the numerous external loans and indebtedness of the country at the same time continue falling living standards. On September 5, 1980, after the emergence of the Solidarity trade union, Gierek was deposed as First Secretary and excluded from the Central Committee in December, a year later excluded from the party and briefly detained after the imposition of martial law by General Wojciech Jaruzelski.

Many Poles connect but to this day with his name the memory of a time of the alleged recovery.

Gierek's son Adam was 2004 Member of the European Parliament.

Primary literature

• Edward Gierek: Selected speeches and writings: 1971-1978. Dietz -Verlag, Berlin 1979