Stefan Meller

Stefan Meller

Stefan Meller (born July 4, 1942 in Lyon , † February 4, 2008 in Warsaw ) was a Polish historian and diplomat . From October 31, 2005 to May 9, 2006, he was Polish Foreign Minister in the cabinet of Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz .

Meller, like his predecessor Adam Daniel Rotfeld , came from a Polish-Jewish family who emigrated to France on the eve of World War II, where his grandfather lived, who was deported and killed by the Nazis in 1943. His father joined the Resistance . The family returned to Poland in 1946, where he studied history at the University of Warsaw . From 1966 to 1968 he was a research assistant at the Polish Institute for International Affairs ( Polski Instytut Spraw Międzynarodowych , PISM) in Warsaw, then an employee of the Warsaw university branch in Białystok (1974-1981). From 1981 to 1984 he was Vice-Rector of the State Theater School in Warsaw. At the same time, he worked in the field of journalism, including for many years co-editor of the most important popular scientific historical journal in Poland, Mówią Wieki . From January 1993 he was employed as Deputy Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, later as Director of the European Department and Undersecretary of State. In 1996 he became the Polish ambassador to France . After another year-long stay at the Warsaw Ministry Headquarters, he was appointed Ambassador to Russia in 2002 . After almost six months in office, he resigned from his post as foreign minister at the end of April 2006 because he did not agree with the entry of the Samoobrona party of the populist and EU critic Andrzej Lepper into the government. As a member of the advisory board of the Genshagen Foundation , he campaigned for German-French-Polish understanding and played a decisive role in shaping the Weimar Triangle .

Meller was widowed and had three children. He died after a long and serious illness. His son Marcin Meller is the editor-in-chief of the Polish edition of Playboy .

Works

• Rewolucja francuska 1789–1794. Społeczeństwo obywatelskie , 1983 (French Revolution 1789–1794. Civil society.)
• Kamil Desmoulins , Warsaw 1982
• Pożegnanie z rewolucją , Chotomów 1991 (Farewell to the Revolution)
• Prawda ukryta czyli Tajemnice komuny , Warsaw 1990 (Hidden Truth or the Secrets of Communism)
• Rewolucja francuska 1789–1794, społeczeństwo obywatelskie , Warsaw 1983 (French Revolution 1789–1794, civil society)
• Rewolucja w Dolinie Loary: miasto Chinon 1788–1798 , Warsaw 1987 (Revolution in the Loire Valley: the city of Chinon 1788–1798)
• Zaledwie minuta , Warsaw 2006 (almost a minute)