Wincenty Witos

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Wincenty Witos - Photo from 1920

Wincenty Witos (born January 22, 1874 in Wierzchosławice , † October 30, 1945 in Krakow ) was a Polish politician, co-founder of the Polish peasant movement and journalist.

Life

Witos was born in a small Polish hamlet in the municipality of Wierzchosławice not far from Tarnów , which at that time belonged to the Austro-Hungarian ruled Galicia . His parents were farmers and owned two acres of farmland. He was only allowed to go to school at the age of ten, after which he completed his military service in the Austro-Hungarian army from 1895 to 1897 .

Witos was a member of the Polish People's Party (PSL) as early as 1895, whose agricultural policy program was primarily geared towards the needs of the rural population in divided Poland . Witos quickly made a name for himself in the PSL because of his commitment and became a member of the highest party council from 1903 to 1913. From 1908 he was also community leaders of his birthplace and to 1914 member of the Galician regional parliament ( Sejm Krajowy Galicji ) in Lviv . From 1911 to 1918 Witos was finally a member of the Austrian Imperial Council in Vienna . After the break up of the PSL he became second chairman of the successor party PSL Piast and its first chairman from 1918 to 1931.

During the First World War Witos initially advocated cooperation with Germany and Austria-Hungary . In 1915, however, as the second chairman of a Polish national committee ( Komitet Narodowy ), he renounced cooperation with the Austro-Hungarian government. Until the end of the war, he made a clear plea in the Imperial Council for Poland's independence. From 1917 to 1918 he was a member of the National League ( Liga Narodowa ), a secret democratic organization in preparation for the regaining of independence in Poland. In October 1918 he headed the Polish Liquidation Commission in Krakow .

Wincenty Witos, (1931)

He was then from 1919 to 1930 a member of the Sejm , until 1931 (with interruptions) chairman of the parliamentary club of the PSL Piast. In late July 1920, he became the Premier of the Government of National Defense in the face of imminent threat of Warsaw by the Red Army designated . He remained head of government until September 1921. In 1923 he founded the first coalition government of the Christian Union of National Unity ( Chrześcijański Związek Jedności Narodowej ) and the PSL Piast (also called Chjeno-Piast ); in December 1923 he resigned. In May 1926 he conducted the affairs of state once again that his government was but very soon by the May Coup Józef Pilsudski toppled.

As an opponent of the Sanacja ( recovery , a general term for the policy of the Piłsudski regime from 1926), he founded the center-left party block Centrolew in 1929 . In 1930 he was arrested and interned in the Brest Fortress. In the 1931 trial he was sentenced to one and a half years in prison for an alleged coup attempt, which prompted him to emigrate to Czechoslovakia after his imprisonment . Overall, he remained in emigration from 1933 to 1939. Despite his exile he officially remained a member of the party authorities of the PSL Piast; 1931 to 1935 as chairman of the main council and 1935 to 1939 as chairman of the Supreme Executive Committee ( Naczelny Komitet Wykonawczy ).

In 1936 Witos worked with the opposition emigration movement " Front von Morges ". In March 1939 he returned to Poland. In September 1939 he was imprisoned by the German occupying forces . The German authorities tried to persuade him to found a collaboration government, which he repeatedly refused. In September 1941 he was released from custody, but remained under house arrest under constant surveillance by the Gestapo .

After the end of the Second World War , he was designated President of the National Council in Warsaw in now Soviet-occupied Poland , but declined this office, as did the invitation to talks in Moscow on the establishment of a Polish government of national unity ( Rząd Jedności Narodowej ). From August 1945 he became chairman of the PSL again, but fell seriously ill and died two months later in the Cracow Hospital of the Brothers of Mercy .

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Commons : Wincenty Witos  - album with pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Witos, Wincenty
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish politician, co-founder of the Polish peasant movement and journalist
DATE OF BIRTH January 22, 1874
PLACE OF BIRTH Wierzchosławice , Galicia , Austria-Hungary
DATE OF DEATH October 30, 1945
Place of death Krakow , Poland