Kasimir Lawrynowicz
Kasimir Lawrynowicz (born March 21, 1941 in Hoduciszki (lit. Adutiškis), Lithuania ; † February 21, 2002 in Kaliningrad ) was a Polish-Russian mathematician, astronomer and science historian in Kaliningrad and Olsztyn.
Life
Many Poles from Lithuania and Belarus bear the name Ławrynowicz . Even today, 75% of the population of Hoduciszki are Poles . Casimir's maternal and paternal ancestors had lived in the south-eastern border area of Lithuania for 200 years. His father Kleofas Ławrynowicz was a teacher of Polish language and history at the Hoduciszki grammar school. He gave his last son the first name Kazimierz Bolesław in memory of Casimir III. and Bolesław I. Kleofas was murdered on May 20, 1942 by his former Lithuanian students. They volunteered to help the Lithuanian police who shot 412 Poles. After a Wehrmacht officer and a German official were killed by Soviet partisans , the Wehrmacht demanded the death of 200 Poles twice in retaliation - even though the Poles had nothing to do with the partisans. The Lithuanians - who fought with the Germans against the Poles and the Russians from 1941 to 1944 - did well. In 1949 their mother Weronika moved with her 6 children to Znamensk (Kaliningrad) , the former Wehlau. Lawrynowicz spoke Russian in the local middle school , while Polish was spoken at home .
From 1959 to 1964 Lawrynowicz studied mathematics and astronomy at the Zhdanov State University in Leningrad . There he obtained his first doctoral degree ( candidate nauk ) with a dissertation on the movement of a special type of satellite . His second dissertation (1972, also in Leningrad) refers to his later historical research: “The Bessel reform of practical astronomy and the foundations of the Pulkowo astronomical school”. The work shows the key function of Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel's research at the Königsberg observatory .
In 1964 Lawrynowicz came to Kaliningrad. At the Kaliningrad State University he was a research assistant in the Faculty of Celestial Mechanics , then the Faculty of Mathematics, until 1969 . Here he continued to teach at the mathematics faculty before finally completing his habilitation in the mathematical-physical sciences in 1991. He not only researched German and Russian literature, but also visited the largely destroyed sites of Königsberg science: the Bessels observatory, remains of the university and the graves of scholars. In 1989 he published a book about Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel at the publishing house of the Russian Academy of Sciences . The German version was printed six years later. Also in 1995 was his story of the Albertus University in Königsberg, written in Russian . For the Gottingen Working Group concerned Dietrich Rauschning 1999, the German edition. The book illuminates the influence of the Albertina on the “neighboring” universities in Berlin, Gdansk, Warsaw, Prague, Dorpat to Pulkowo, Leningrad and Moscow.
In the collapse of the Soviet Union Kasimir Lawrynowicz organized the Polish minority in the Kaliningrad Oblast . Given the Russian leadership's fear of the Polish idea of freedom, this was previously strictly forbidden. Lawrynowicz was the first chairman of this minority and editor of the Polish monthly Głos znad Pregoły (The Voice of Pregel). The current editor is Kasimir's daughter Maria Ławrynowicz-Szczepaniak. From 1995 until his death Lawrynowicz worked as a professor of mathematics in Olsztyn at the Pedagogical University, which has been part of the Warmia-Masurian University since 1999 . In Olsztyn he was very involved in the Borussia Foundation . Not yet 61 years old, he succumbed to an acute lung disease.
“In his teaching and research, he made young Russian scientists and students familiar with an important part of the Königsberg scientific history, whose legacy he interpreted as a commission for the Kaliningrad University. Because wherever people like Kazimir Lawrynowicz deal with history with commitment and without prejudice, solidarity and friendship grow as a prerequisite for peaceful coexistence between Königsbergers and Kaliningraders.
Honors
- Citizen's Medal of the City of Königsberg (1996)
See also
- History of Lithuania # Second World War
- Pulkovo Observatory
- Scholars' Cemetery (Königsberg)
- Doctor # Ukraine and Russia
Works
- Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel . Birkhäuser, Basel 1995. GoogleBooks
- Albertina. On the history of the Albertus University in Königsberg in Prussia . Duncker & Humblot 1999.
- Catalogs of the Königsberg libraries from the time of the Seven Years' War , in: Axel E. Walter (ed.): Königsberger Buch- und Bibliotheksgeschichte (2004), pp. 325–351. ISBN 978-3412085025 .
literature
- Eberhard Neumann-Redlin von Meding : Obituary Prof. Kasimir Lawrynowicz . Königsberger Bürgerbrief 58 (2002), pp. 68-69.
Russian web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Adutiškis / Hoduciszki, Lithuania (JewishGen)
- ↑ http://www.tygodnik.lt/201222/bliska5.html
- ↑ Table of contents (SpringerLink)
- ↑ Review by Axel E. Walter (Journal for East Central Europe Research)
- ↑ Review by Christian Tilitzki (Junge Freiheit)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Lawrynowicz, Casimir |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Lavrinovich, Kazimir Kleofasovich (full name); Lavrinovič, Kazimir Kleofasovič (Polish spelling) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Polish-Russian mathematician and astronomer, university professor in Kaliningrad and Olsztyn |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 21, 1941 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Hoduciszki (lit.Adutiškis), Lithuania |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 21, 2002 |
| Place of death | Kaliningrad |