Roman Dmowski
Roman Dmowski ( born August 9, 1864 in Kamionki, Gmina Kórnik near Warsaw, † January 2, 1939 in Drozdowo ( circle Łomża ) ) is a Polish politician and one of the main players in the National Democratic Party ( Endecja ). Sometimes he is even called the father of Polish nationalism, although he caused with his pro-Russian attitude and Pan-Slavic idea of Poland as a part of the Russian -dominated Slavic Empire cleavage of the Endecja. He was a bitter enemy Józef Piłsudski, whose commitment to eastern Poland, he sharply criticized in the light of lack of enthusiasm for the " reconquest " of the former western Poland on German territory.
- 3.1 Literature
- 3.2 External links
- 3.3 footnotes
Life and work
Dmowski came from an old Polish noble family (Family Crest Pobóg ). Already during his studies he was in the Polish Youth Union " Zet " ( Związek Młodzieży Polskiej " Zet " ) politically active. He organized street demonstrations by students in honor of the 100th anniversary of the first Polish constitution punished ( 3 May 1791) and was for six months in prison in the X Pavilion of the Warsaw Citadel and subsequent exile in Jelgava. In 1895 he managed to escape and settled in Galicia capital Lemberg, then part of the Austro - monarchy, where he took over in July 1895, the editors of the magazine Przegląd Wszechpolski ( All Polish Rundschau), ideological mouthpiece of the Polish national democratic movement. He became in 1893 head of the National League (Liga Polish National ) and in 1897 co-founded the National Democratic Party ( Stronnictwo Narodowo - Demokratyczne ). The years 1898-1900 he spent in France and England. From 1900 he called for the rapprochement with Russia, which met with strong opposition in the party and led to a split of the National Democratic Party. In 1901 he returned to Galicia, this time to Krakow, from where he traveled to Japan in 1904 to thwart efforts to Piłsudski Japanese weapons deliveries for Polish armed actions on the western flank of Russia during the Russo -Japanese War. In 1905 he moved to Congress Poland, where his pro-Russian stance with a seat in the II and III. Russian Duma (1907-1909) was rewarded. There he took over the leadership of the Polish block. Dmowski fought against revolutionary movements (including the Polish- national PPS " Frakcja Rewolucyjna " Pilsudski ) and was an anti-Semite. In 1911 he organized the boycott of Jewish businesses. In 1915 he went abroad again ( Switzerland and France), where he provided political support of Poland by the Entente States. On August 15, 1917, he founded in Lausanne, the Polish National Committee ( Komitet Narodowy Polski ) in the Józef Piłsudski ten representatives were co-opted in January 1919 and took over its leadership. The committee acted politically in Paris and worked closely with the established in Poznan in 1916 the Supreme People's Council together.
Dmowski was a Polish delegate during the peace conference in Paris, and a signatory of the Versailles Treaty. After the collapse of Tsarist Russia, he rejected the idea of the Russian-dominated Pan-Slav Empire and called for a nationally homogeneous and mono- religious (Catholic) Polish state. He was so still Piłsudski's political opponents, who not only have always aspired to a sovereign, but multi-national and multi-confessional state.
Dmowski was a deputy of the Polish National Constituent Assembly, Member of the Defense Council and in the fall of 1923 for less than two months Polish foreign minister in the cabinet of Wincenty Witos.
After Piłsudski Maiputsch in May 1926 Dmowski founded the "Block Great Poland " ( Obóz Wielkiej Polski ) and later the National Party ( 1928-1947 ) ( Stronnictwo Narodowe ). Roman Dmowski spent the last years of life in Drozdowo in Łomża, where he died on January 2, 1939. Throughout his life he was the undisputed leader of the Polish National Democratic Party. The founder of Poland's western research Zygmunt Wojciechowski, chief ideologist of the "League of the young nationalists " ( " Związek Mlodych Narodowców " ), said that Dmowski was political role model for him.
But Dmowski was not only a politician but also a strong national and Catholic embossed political publicist. Throughout his life he put on a close alliance with Russia, as he saw Poland's main opponents in Germany. In his books he described his state visions, including those of the new patriotism, which based on the national interests and political realism. He denounced a lack of discipline, inability to group cooperation and passivity as Polish "sins" to. He thematized the supposedly negative influence of the Jewish minority, which dominated his opinion, the Polish economy and have adopted an indifferent, sometimes even contradictory attitude towards the Polish interests during the partitions of Poland.
Works (selection)
- Nasz Patriotyzm (1893 )
- Myśli nowoczesnego Polaka (1903 )
- Walka z anarchíā i Demokracja Narodowa (1906 )
- Niemcy, Rosja a sprawa polska (1908 )
- Anachronizm (1909 )
- Upadek Myśli konserwatywnej w Polsce (1914 )
- Nowe czasy i nowe zagadnienia (1924 )
- Polityka polska i odbudowanie Państwa (1925 )
- O napaści posła Zdziechowskiego (1926 )
- Kościół, Narod i państwo (1927 )
- Dziedzictwo pod pseudonimem Kazimierz Wybranowski (1931 )
- W połowie drogi pod pseudonimem Kazimierz Wybranowski (1931 )
- Swiat powojenny i Polska (1931 )
- Przewrót (1934 )
German-speaking
- Germany, Russia and the Polish question (extracts). In: Poland and the East, texts for a tension-filled relationship. Eds Andrzej Chwalba Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2005