Ernest Adam

Ernest Adam

Ernest Adam (with pseudonym : J. Zawiszy ; * 2. March 1868 in Lviv ; † 22. November 1926 ) was a Polish social activist, banker , patron and national-democratic politician , the deputy for the Galician Parliament , and later senator was .

Life

Ernest Adam was born on March 2, 1868 to a German merchant family from the Olsa region in Lemberg. From 1878 to 1886 he attended the Polish high school in Lemberg. Connecting he studied from 1886 to 1890 law at the University of Lviv , where 1893 he the doctor of law received.

In 1890 he moved to Krakow , where he worked as an editor for the newspaper " Nowa Reforma " under the direction of Adam Asnyk . When in 1891 the 100th anniversary of the Polish Constitution of May 3, 1791 was to be celebrated, he published the brochure Mieszczanin i chłop wobec Konstytucji 3 Maja (Citizens and Peasants versus the Constitution of May 3) as Secretary of the Citizens' Committee . During this time he brought the idea to the citizens' committee to strengthen the commemoration of this day in all outskirts of Poland, in which an organization like the German School Association or the Czech Ústřední matice školská is founded. This proposal was accepted and Adam was given the task of drawing up the statutes of such a society. This was founded in 1892 as " Towarzystwo Szkoły Ludowej " (TSL) in 1892 in Krakow. In the first years Adam was secretary in their general administration, then treasurer, from 1905 to 1920 vice-chairman and finally from 1920 to 1926 chairman of the general administration. In the first few years, counties were founded in the province and Adam published a few articles on them in " Przegląd Wszechpolski " in 1896 .

In 1896 he moved back to Lviv, where he worked as Vice Secretary of the Lviv Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He was also an editor from 1896 to 1898 for the newspaper "Przegląd Wszechpolski" in Lviv.

In 1900 he founded a credit cooperative with Maksymilian Liptay called "Kasa Pożyczkowa" (Credit Fund), which was immediately converted into "Galicyjska Kasa Zaliczkowa" (Galician Advance Fund). In 1910 it became a joint stock company as “Galicyjski Ziemski Bank Kredytowy” (Galician State Credit Bank) .

After the Lviv newspaper “Słowo Polskie” was taken over by leaders of the national democratic movement in 1902, I was involved in the administration and editing there.

As chairman of the Lviv TSL district, he helped finance the construction of the elementary school in Konopnica near Lemberg in 1903. From 1903 to 1920 he was chairman of the Lemberg Związek Okręgowy TSL and in this position founded the public "Książnica TSL" (TSL Library) in Lemberg, which soon numbered more than 30,000 volumes.

In 1904 he was co-founder of the Stronnictwo Narodowo-Demokratyczne in Galicia and in the following year 1905 he became a member of the Lviv City Council, of which he was a member until his death (except during the First World War 1915-1918). In 1908 and 1913 he was elected a member of the Galician Landtag, where he worked on several projects that aimed to achieve greater autonomy for Galicia vis-à-vis Austria.

In 1910 he founded the largest in Lesser Poland "Bursa Grunwalzka TSL" (Grunwaldinternat TSL) for 160 students in Lemberg.

From 1915 to 1919 he was president of the “Związek Stowarzyszeń Zarobkowych i Gospodarczych b. dzielnicy austrjackiej ”as well as founder and chairman from 1908 to 1926 of the Lemberger Handelsschulgesellschaft.

In the autumn of 1918 he was Vice-President of the Polish National Committee in the part of Lviv occupied by Ukrainians and immediately afterwards a member of the Lviv Provisional Government Committee, for which he went to Paris with Edward Dubanowicz in January 1919 in order to speed up the arrival of General Józef Haller's army to effect. In his absence he was elected in 1919 as a member of the Polish Constitutional National Assembly from Lviv . In 1919 he was also appointed President of the "Polska Krajowa Kasa Pożyczkowa" (Polish National Credit Bank).

In 1922 he was elected to the Senate from the Lviv Voivodeship .

literature

• Zdzisław Próchnicki: Adam Ernest . In: Polski Słownik Biograficzny . tape 1 . Krakow 1935, p. 21-23 .