Korfanty, Adalbert
Korfanty, Adalbert (Albert [Wojciech] Korfanty, after 1918 Wojciech Korfanty), 1903-18 member of the 2nd Chamber of the Prussian Landtag, 1903-12, 1918 member of the Reichstag of the German Empire. *20.4.1873 Sadzawka near Siemianowitz (today Siemianowice Śląskie), †17.8.1939 Warsaw, editor, newspaper editor, chairman of the board. Son of a mining family. After passing his A-levels in 1896 as a day pupil at the grammar school in Kattowice he studied at the Technical College in Charlottenburg. Between 1897 and1901 he studied philosophy, econnomy and law at the universities of Breslau and Berlin. In 1901 in Kattowice he set up the Polish newspaper Górnoślązak/The Upper Silesian, whose editor he was. In 1901 he was sentenced to 4 months in prison for offences committed by the press. From 1905 onwards he was the editor of the newspaper Polak/The Pole. In June 1903 and in January 1907 he was elected as a member of the Polish parliamentary group in the German Reichstag for the constituency of Kattowice-Zabrze. In 1918 he was once more elected to the Reichstag for the constituency of Gleiwitz in a by-election. Here he made a speech pleading for the inclusion of Polish language areas in Poland. After the uprisings he organised in Upper Silesia in 1919 and 1920 were put down he was commissioned by the Allies to implement a referendum. After the referendum was defeated he triggered off a third Uprising in 1921. On 16th July 1922 he was named Polish Minister President in Warsaw, but was unable to take up this office because of the opposition of Jósef Piłsudski. He subsequently returned to Kattowice, set up a press concern and became chairman of the board of the Polish-French Coal Consortium. Between 1922 and 1930 he was a member of the Sejm, and political opponent of Piłsudski. Between 1930 and 1935, following Piłsudski’s order to arrest his opponents, he went into exile in Czechoslovakia after the German invasion of France. After his return to Poland in 1939 he was once again arrested and imprisoned only to be released three months later because he was seriously ill. picture: 1905, Public Domain.
Further reading:
Amtliches Reichstag-Handbuch, 11. Legislaturperiode, Berlin 1903, 258; Reichstag-Handbuch, 12. Legislaturperiode, Berlin 1907, 306f., 487 (picture); Reichstagsprotokolle 1895-1918, Register 188, 204, 218, 238, 269, 314a; M. Orzechowski: Wojciech Korfanty. Biografia polityczna, Breslau 1975; S. Karski: Albert (Wojciech) Korfanty. Eine Biographie, Dülmen 1990; A. Kotowski: Zwischen Staatsräson und Vaterlandsliebe, Düsseldorf 2007, 33, 72, 74f., 81, 86f., 89, 152, 155-158, 164, 166, 170f., 183-185, 189, 191f., 196f.
Online:
http://zhsf.gesis.org, Parlamentarierportal, BIORAB Kaiserreich online (unvollständig)
http://www.reichstag-abgeordnetendatenbank.de/
http://www.reichstagsprotokolle.de
Axel Feuß, September 2016
Link to the minutes of the Reichstag: