Aleksander Skrzyński

Aleksander Skrzyński, 1925

Aleksander Józef Graf (Hrabia) Skrzyński (born March 18, 1882 in Zagórzany ( Galicia ), † September 25, 1931 in Ostrów Wielkopolski ) was a Polish politician and Prime Minister .

Life

Studies and professional career

After attending school, he began to study law at the University of Vienna in 1900 , which he continued in 1904 at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow . On 6 February 1906, he graduated with the promotion for Doctor Juris from. He then worked as a government intern with the governor ( Namiestnik ) of Lemberg and then of Gorlice until 1908 . In 1909 he joined the diplomatic service of Austria-Hungary , of which Galicia was then. First he became an attaché at the embassy in the Holy See .

In the following years he was chamberlain to Emperor Franz Joseph I and a diplomat in The Hague . During the First World War he served first as a second lieutenant and later as an adjutant to General Tadeusz Rozwadowski , before becoming a reserve officer in 1916 . He then worked as a diplomat at the embassies in Berlin and Paris .

Independence and Foreign Minister

After the independence of the Republic of Poland on November 22, 1918, he joined the conservative party Stronnictwo Prawicy Narodowej . In 1919 he became envoy to Romania and at the same time negotiator for a Polish-Romanian partnership agreement.

On December 16, 1922, Prime Minister Władysław Sikorski appointed him Foreign Minister for the first time . As such, he advocated a peace policy to stabilize the borders. He lost the office on May 28, 1923 after the formation of the government of Wincenty Witos .

However, on July 27, 1924, Prime Minister Władysław Grabski reappointed Foreign Minister. He found widespread recognition for strengthening the Polish economy by regulating foreign debt with the United States and Great Britain . In addition, he concluded a State Church Treaty (Concordat) with the Vatican and diplomatic relations with neighboring Czechoslovakia . Furthermore, through his activities in the League of Nations , he succeeded in elaborating the Geneva Protocol , which was signed on June 17, 1925 and which prohibits the use of chemical and biological weapons, but which does not contain any requirements for their development, manufacture and storage. Finally he succeeded in satisfying the difficulties in Danzig in favor of a better treatment of the Polish minority in October 1925 through the Locarno treaties and in particular the arbitration treaty negotiated there with Germany .

Prime Minister and May coup 1926

On November 20, 1925, he himself became Prime Minister as successor to Grabski . As such, he formed a coalition government , which, however, had to resign on May 10, 1926 after the socialists left . He continued to serve as Foreign Minister during his reign.

A few days after his resignation, the May coup took place under the leadership of Józef Piłsudski , who thereby further strengthened his de facto power in Poland. A month later there was a duel between him and the former Minister of War , General Stanisław Maria Graf Szeptycki , after which Skrzyński refused to greet him with a handshake in a club in Kraków because, in Szeptycki's view, Skrzyński's indecisive and weak policy was the real reason for the May coup . After General Szeptycki of fifteen paces not met and Skrzyński refused to income tax, which declared the seconds the satisfaction of the duelists.

In September 1926 he was a topic in the tabloids when it was alleged that he was marrying a daughter of the American automobile manufacturer Henry Ford , who did not exist because Ford only had sons.

In 1928 he was a neutral member of the Standing Arbitration Committee between the United States and Peru .

On September 25, 1931, Aleksander Skrzyński died in a car accident in Ostrów Wielkopolski.

Web links

Commons : Aleksander Skrzyński  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Biography on the homepage of the government chancellery (Polish)
• Biography on the homepage of his place of birth Zagórzany (Polish)
• Cabinet list of ministers 1925–1926 in documents and materials on East Central European history

Individual evidence

1. ^ Participants in the Locarno Conference
2. ^ Coup d'état of May 1926 ( Memento of September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
3. ^ "Staggering Dot" , article in TIME magazine of September 20, 1926