Joachim Lelewel

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Joachim Lelewel
Signature of Joachim Lelewel
Joachim Lelewel around 1825
Flag of the November uprising 1830 attributed to Lelewel : "In the name of God: For your freedom and ours"
Adam Mickiewicz (drawing by Joachim Lelewel)
Sketch by David d'Angers for Lelewel's Medal (1844)
August the Strong 1731: Christening gift for his godchild August von Jauch,
later cradle of Joachim Lelewels
(now the National Museum Krakow)
Joachim Lelewel's grave in the Rasos Cemetery in Vilnius
Manuscript "Historja Polska" 1813
Vilnius University Lelewel Hall

Joachim Lelewel (born March 22, 1786 in Warsaw , † May 29, 1861 in Paris ) was a Polish historian , Slavist , numismatist , heraldist and politician . Lelewel, who knows twelve languages, also supported the German Revolution of 1848 and is considered a freedom fighter in Poland .

Origin and family

Lelewel came from the Prussian noble house Lölhöffel von Löwensprung and also belonged to a family association that was important for the Kingdom of Poland . He was the second eldest son of the factory owner and member of the Sejm , Karol Maurycy Lelewel (1748-1830), who was raised to cupbearer of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ; an honorary position that Stanisław Poniatowski previously held before he was elected King of Poland .

His grandfather Heinrich Lölhöffel (1705–1763), however, was court advisor and at the same time personal physician to the Polish King August III. been. His wife and Lelewel's grandmother, Constance Jauch (1722–1802), later had the name Lölhöffel Polonized to Lelewel . Lelewel's great-grandfather Joachim Daniel Jauch (1684–1754), after whom he was named, was in turn major general and builder of the Saxon-Polish king Augustus the Strong .

His great-uncle Kasper Cieciszowski (1745-1831) was also Archbishop of the Diocese of Mińsk-Mohylew and most recently Roman Catholic Metropolitan of the Russian Empire . Lelewel's brother Jan Paweł Lelewel (1796–1847) was an important military engineer and his brother Adam Lelewel (1790–1884) was an officer of Napoleon Bonaparte . In addition, the first Polish Nobel Prize winner for literature , Henryk Sienkiewicz (1848–1916), was his great-nephew.

Working as a scientist

Lelewel was one of the most important historians in Poland. He received his training at the University of Vilnius , where, after a brief stint as a teacher at the grammar school in the small town of Krzemieniec , he taught himself from 1814, initially as a lecturer and later as a professor of history , interrupted by a professorship at the newly founded University of Warsaw in the years 1818 to 1821.

In 1824, because of the national enthusiasm that his lectures sparked among Polish students, he was removed from office by the Russian authorities and returned to Warsaw. Even as a freelance journalist, Lelewel's influence in all areas of history and geography remained stimulating and groundbreaking through his research. In addition to his twenty-volume main work on the history of Poland , he also wrote numerous fundamental works on history, geography, numismatics and mythology .

Lelewel founded several scientific journals and was an honorary member of the Poznan Society of Friends of Science, which is still active today .

Political career

Lelewel's life was shaped by the partition of Poland , during which there was primarily a Russian predominance in his homeland, which in turn meant significant cuts for large parts of society. For this reason, like his younger brothers, he made his talents and interests fully subservient to the patriotic-democratic movements in Europe. His role models included Tadeusz Kościuszko and Stanisław Kostka-Potocki . He was also at the forefront of the newest romantic school in history, and in this way, like his friend and poet Adam Mickiewicz , contributed significantly to the later November uprising of 1830 .

After he had no prospect of a position as a professor, Lelewel was in 1829 for the constituency Żelechów a member of the parliament of the constitutional Kingdom of Poland, the so-called Congress Poland, which has been linked to the Russian Empire since 1815 . The following year he became president of the so-called Patriotic Club and finally belonged to the revolutionary government under Adam Jerzy Czartoryski during the November uprising , where he held the post of minister of culture. At the same time he supported the republican movement of the Decembrists in the Russian Empire, who demanded the removal of the autocratic ruling Tsar Nicholas I. For these reasons, Lelewel was regarded as one of the most dangerous Polish rebels.

During the November uprising, Lelewel was briefly interned in a prison camp in Brodnica and fled into exile after the Polish defeat in 1831 . First in Paris and after his expulsion in 1833 in Brussels resident to Lelewel committed abroad in the democratic as well as Giuseppe Mazzini stamped secret society Young Poland and counted no later than 1837 of the most important leaders of the Polish emigration .

Lelewel saw himself as a democrat and republican , was close friends with Lafayette , the enlightened man , and did not limit his political commitment to the Poles' struggle for freedom against the partitioning powers. He also supported the abolition of all autocratic systems of rule , Jewish emancipation and the abolition of serfdom .

In 1847 Lelewel was with Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels a founding member and vice-president of the Democratic Association based in Brussels. The anarchist Mikhail Bakunin was also significantly influenced by Lelewel. Mostly from Posen , he worked again as a publicist and at the same time supported the March Revolution of 1848 , but after the failure of this he fled permanently into exile and settled in Paris until his death.

Lelewel was initially buried in the Montmarte cemetery, after Poland regained independence in 1929, according to his last will, he was reburied in the Rasos cemetery in Vilnius, then part of Poland. At this point in time, his extensive private library and map collection also became the property of the local university library; A reading room is named after him today.

Remarkable

  • Lelewel's cradle, which August the Strong as godfather of August Jauch gave his father Joachim Daniel Jauch in 1730 , is now in the National Museum in Krakow .
  • In addition to a number of portraits in the form of drawings, etchings and caricatures, there are various busts of Lelewel in Vilnius , ten commemorative medals with Lelewel's portrait and the like. a. by David d'Angers and Fernand Dubois and postage stamps with his likeness.
  • Adam Mickiewicz , the national poet of Poland sponsored by Lelewel , dedicated the poem "To Joachim Lelewel" (Polish: "Do Joachima Lelewela") to him in 1822, in which, decades before Karl Marx, he described the course of history as progress from barbarism to higher forms of culture , looked to peace and freedom (German translation by Karl Dedecius ).
  • The May 29 , Lelewel death is, for his commitment to the Jews , the Jewish day of remembrance of his work.

Quotes

Friedrich Engels said of him in 1848:

“But in the middle of this conservative revolution, in the middle of national government, there was a man who violently attacked the narrow-minded views of the ruling class. He proposed truly revolutionary measures, the audacity of which the aristocratic representatives in Parliament shrank; when he called all of old Poland to arms, when he made the war for the independence of Poland into a European war, when he emancipated the Jews and the peasants, when he let the peasants share ownership of the land than he did Restoring Poland on the basis of democracy and equality, if he wanted to make the national cause a matter of freedom, he wanted to identify the interests of all peoples with those of the Polish people. Do I have to name this man, whose genius devised this mighty and yet so simple plan? That man was Lelewel. "

Works (selection)

Lelewel's works included:

  • Edda czyli Księga religii dawnych Skandynawii mięszkańców. Zawadzki, Vilnius 1807, ( digitized version ).
  • Bibliograficznych ksiąg dwoje, w których rozebrane i pomnoźone zostały dwa dziela Jerzego Samuela Bandtke. Historja drukarń krakowskich - tudzieź historja bibljoteki Uniw. Jagiell. w Krakowie. A przydany catalog inkunabulow polskich. 2 volumes. Zawadzki, Vilnius 1823–1826, ( digital copies ).
  • Numismatique du Moyen-Age, Considérée sous le Rapport du Type; Accompagnée d'un Atlas Composé de Tables Chronologiques, de Cartes Géographiques et de Figures de Monnaies Gravées sur Cuivre. 3 volumes and a satin ribbon. Straszéwicz, Paris 1835, (digital copies: Volume 1 , Volume 2 , Volume 3 , Atlas ).
  • Études Numismatiques et Archéologiques. Voglet, Brussels 1840-1841;
  • Histoire de Pologne. 2 volumes. Librairie Polonaise et al., Paris 1844, (digital copies: Volume 1 , Volume 2 ).
  • Polska wieków średnich. 4 volumes. Żupańskiego, Posen 1846–1851, (digital copies: Volume 1 , Volume 2 , Volume 3 , Volume 4 ).
  • Geographie du moyen age. 5 volumes. Voglet, Brussels 1852–1857.
  • Polska. Dzieje i rzeczy jéj. 20 volumes. Żupańskiego, Poznan 1853–1876.
  • Histoire de la Lithuanie et de la Ruthénie jusqu'a leur union définitive avec la Pologne conclue a Lublin en 1569. Traduit par E. Rykaczewski avec les Notes du Traducteur. Franck, Paris et al. 1861, ( digitized ).

literature

  • Bert Andréas , Jacques Grandjonc et al. Hans Pelger (ed.): Association Démocratique, ayant pour but l'union et la fraternité de tous les peuples. An early international democratic association in Brussels 1847–1848 (= writings from the Karl Marx House, Trier. 44). Karl-Marx-Haus, Trier 2004, ISBN 3-86077-847-1 .
  • Ignacy Chrzanowski : Joachim Lelewel. Człowiek i pisarz. Do druku przygotował i przedmowa̜ poprzedził Stanisław Pigoń. Czytelnik, Warsaw 1946.
  • Andrzej Feliks Grabski: Niemieckie potrety literackie Joachima Lelewela (Joachim Lelewel in German literary portraits). In: Jerzy Topolski , Witold Molik, Krzysztof Makowski (eds.): Ideologie, poglądy, mity w dziejach Polski i Europy XIX i XX wieku. Studia historyczne. = Ideologies, Views, Myths in the History of Poland and Europe of the 19th and 20th Centuries (= Uniwersytet Imienia Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu - UAM. Seria historia. 170, ISSN  0554-8217 ). Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu imienia Adama Mickiewicza, Posen 1991, ISBN 83-232-0437-3 , pp. 145-153.
  • Jerzy Kolendo : Kolekcje numizmatyczne rodziny Lelewelów. In: Wiadomości Numizmatyczne. Vol. 45, No. 1, 2001, ISSN  0043-5155 , pp. 45-60, (The numismatic collections of the Lelewel family).
  • Joachim Lelewel. In: Polski Słownik Biograficzny . Volume 17: Legendorf Fabian - Lubomirski Aleksander. Polska Akademja Umiejetności, Krakau 1972, p. 21 ff. (With further references).
  • Marian H. Serejski: Joachim Lelewel 1786–1861. Sa vie son œuvre (= monograph z dziejów nauki i techniki. 17, ISSN  0077-054X ). Zakład Narodowy Imienia Ossolińskich et al., Warsaw et al. 1961.
  • Joan S. Skurnowicz: Romantic Nationalism and Liberalism. Joachim Lelewel and the Polish National Idea (= East European Monographs. 83). Columbia University Press (commissioned), New York NY 1981, ISBN 0-914710-77-X .
  • Teresa Wysokinska, Stéphane Pirard (eds.): Joachim Lelewel à Bruxelles de 1833 à 1861. Center International Lelewel d'Etudes et d'Informations Historiques, Brussels 1987.

Web links

Commons : Joachim Lelewel  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ Karol Maurycy Lelewel. In: Polski Słownik Biograficzny. Volume 17. 1972, p. 25.
  2. ↑ Since there were no titles of nobility in Poland, and therefore no titles of counts either, the Polish nobility instead received the lifelong possession of the titles of state offices such as Starost , Voivode , cupbearer , etc., cf. Szlachta .
  3. ↑ “In Brussels he (note: Bakunin) makes the momentous acquaintance of the Polish historian and revolutionary Ignacy Lelewel. His Slavophile vision of a democratic peasant republic impresses him very much, whereby he simply ignores the narrow nationalism of the whole thing in typical Bakuninian enthusiasm. The thought of a general uprising of the Slavic peoples, whom he believes have the power to act as the untamed engine of a general revolution against all tyranny, is taking shape and will not let go of it for many years. ”From: Horst Stowasser : Pure freedom. The idea of ​​anarchy, history and future. Eichborn, Frankfurt am Main 1995, ISBN 3-8218-0448-3 , p. 195.
  4. ↑ Published in 1991 as a limited, bilingual 36-page edition by the Bibliographical Society in Toruń .
  5. ↑ See The Jewish Encyclopedia, Memorial Dates, p. 460 jewishencyclopedia.com
  6. ^ Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels: Speeches at the commemoration in Brussels on February 22, 1848 on the 2nd anniversary of the Cracow uprising of 1846. In: Marx-Engels-Werke (MEW), Volume 4, Berlin (East) 1959, p. 523, online ( memento from September 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ↑ Only this volume, with atlas, has appeared. See: Michael O. Krieg: No more was published. A list of unfinished printed works. Volume 1: A-L (= Bibliotheca bibliographica. 2, 1, ZDB ID 407143-8 ). Krieg, Vienna 1954, p. 415.
personal data
SURNAME Lelewel, Joachim
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish historian and freedom fighter
DATE OF BIRTH March 22, 1786
PLACE OF BIRTH Warsaw
DATE OF DEATH May 29, 1861
Place of death Paris