Paweł Hulka-Laskowski

Paweł Hulka-Laskowski while studying in Heidelberg (around 1907)

Paweł Hulka-Laskowski (birth name: Paweł Hulka) (born June 25, 1881 in Żyrardów , † October 29, 1946 in Cieszyn ) was a Polish writer, translator and publicist.

Live and act

Paweł Hulka was born in Żyrardów as the son of textile workers Józef Hulka and Elżbieta, nee. Howork was born into a Czech immigrant family who were supporters of the Bohemian Brothers . At the age of 12 he worked in the textile factory in Żyrardów. Because of his poor health, Carl Dittrich jr. , the director and co-owner of the "Zyrardower Manufacturen Hielle & Dittrich ", first in his sanatorium Frankenstein- Rumburg (Podhájí). After completing the treatment in 1903, Paweł Hulka was able to with the help of a scholarship from Carl Dittrich jr. complete a degree at Heidelberg University . After returning to Poland, he lived with his wife Kazimiera Laskowska and his daughter Elżbieta, first in Grodzisk Mazowiecki , and later in the “Wanda” villa in Żyrardów. He was strongly committed to the interests of textile workers, for example, after the takeover of the textile factory in Żyrardów by the French stock corporation Marcel Boussac, he initiated a press campaign against the company management due to the poor working conditions, as a result of which the company was placed under state administration again in 1936. In 1939 he experienced the horrors of war when the German Wehrmacht marched into Żyrardów.

After completing his studies, he was already active as a writer. Together with his wife Kazimiera Hulka-Laskowska, he founded the independent newspaper "Echo Żyrardowskie" in 1921, the first newspaper in Żyrardów. He has translated numerous works by various authors from Czech, English, French, German and Russian into Polish, e. B. the trilogy: Hordubal , The Meteor and An Ordinary Life by Karel Čapek , the novel The Grandmother by Božena Němcová , Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift , novels by James Fenimore Cooper , Napoleon by Dmitri Sergejewitsch Mereschkowski , Ingenious People by Ernst Kretschmer , Der Son of Man by Emil Ludwig and The Thibaults by Roger Martin du Gard . He became known through his autobiographical novel "Mój Żyrardów" ( My Żyrardów ) and his translation of the novel " The good soldier Schwejk " by Jaroslav Hašek . In the interwar period he published for various magazines, especially for the weekly "Wiadomości Literackie" ( literary news ) and for the Protestant Jednota magazine. Due to his belief as a member of the Polish Province of the Bohemian Brothers, his works are socially, but above all religiously shaped. The writer is considered the most important citizen of Żyrardów. After the war he moved to Cieszyn (Teschen) in Silesia for health reasons , where he died shortly afterwards and was buried in the Protestant cemetery in Cieszyn .

Commemoration

On May 15, 1966, a plaque in memory of the writer was attached to the house in today's Gabriel-Narutowicz- Strasse 34. A museum cabinet of the writer Paweł Hulka-Laskowski was opened in 1991 (as a branch of the West Mazovian Museum Żyrardów) in his former apartment. In December 1996, on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the granting of city rights, the yrardów City Council awarded the writer the title of “Meritorious Citizen of the City of Żyrardów”. The years 2001 and 2011 were each declared the year of the writer Paweł Hulka-Laskowski.

literature

• Sprawozdanie z konferencji “Paweł Hulka-Laskowski - pisarz, religioznawca, bibliofil i pedagog”, Łódź, 29–30 May 2015 r. (Paweł Hulka-Laskowski. Writer, religious scholar, bibliophile and teacher - materials from the conference from May 29-30, 2015), University of Łódź (Polish)

Works

Front page of "My Żyrardów"

• The Czenstochau monastery trial - a cultural image from the 20th century, 1912
• Twórca religji Iranu Zaratustra i jego nauka (Zaratustra - creator of the Iranian religion and his teachings), 1914
• Czego uczy nas przeszłość? (What does the past teach us?), 1921
• Droga do kultury: szkic społeczno-religijny (Paths to Culture - A Social-Religious Sketch), 1922
• Dynamitem ku bogactwu i sławie: życie i dzieła Alfreda Nobla (Through dynamite to wealth and fame - the life and work of Alfred Nobel), 1926
• Porucznik Regier: powieść (Lieutenant Regier - a novel), 1927
• Słowo prawdy dla Ludu Polskiego (A word of truth for the Polish people), around 1930
• Mój Żyrardów: z dziejów polskiego miasta iz życia pisarza (My Żyrardów - from the history of the Polish city and the life of the writer), 1934
• Nowa publikacja o Polakach na Śląsku za Olzą (New publication about Poland in Silesia in the Olsa region ), around 1937
• Księżyc nad Cieszynem: (wspomnienie z lat niewoli i dni wyzwolenia) (Moon over Teschen - Remembrance of the years of slavery and the days of liberation), 1946

Web links

Commons : Paweł Hulka-Laskowski  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Biography of the writer Hulka-Laskowski (Polish) (accessed September 24, 2019)