Fight for a great, powerful, Catholic, law-abiding, and always just Poland.
— W. Korfanty, in his political testament to the Silesian people
How relevant is this message today, when all the above values have faded, and their adherents are ridiculed and humiliated. They were valued especially by the Silesians, whose ethos was shaped by hard work and waiting for the day when they would be united with the Motherland — with Poland. Thanks to the Silesian patriots, led by Wojciech Korfanty, this day was getting closer and closer, until it arrived in November 1918.
Wojciech Korfanty was the leader of the Second and Third Silesian Uprisings and the Greater Poland Uprising. Two of them were victorious. After Józef Piłsudski, Roman Dmowski and Józef Haller, he is the fourth of the fathers of Polish independence. He is a colourful and great figure, and little known outside of historians and Silesians. On another anniversary of regaining independence, it is worth presenting his profile.
Wojciech Korfanty in a portrait by Stanisław Witkiewicz ("Witkacy"), 1931 (Source: Wikipedia)
He was born on April 20, 1873 in Siemianowice Śląskie into a mining family. His mother taught him to read from Piotr Skarga's "Lives of the Saints." In 1879, he began his education at a German elementary school in Siemianowice, then, from 1885, he attended the Royal Gymnasium in Katowice, from which he was expelled on August 14, 1895 from the graduating class. He finished high school in December 1895 as an external student. He studied at the Charlottenburg Polytechnic and the Royal University in Wrocław, with breaks in which he worked for money to pay for his studies. He worked in a mine and as a tutor for wealthy families.
Hit the Poles so hard that they lose their will to live. I personally sympathize with their situation, but if we want to exist, there is nothing left but to exterminate them. The wolf was not responsible for the fact that God created him the way he is, which is why he is killed whenever possible.
These words, setting the tone for Otto von Bismarck's anti-Polish policy, aroused a strong opposition in the young Korfanty. Educated in German schools, at some point he switched to "Polishness". This decided that he became a Pole — fierce and stubborn.
Already in high school he organised actions against Germanisation.
In 1902 he became the president of the reactivated "Sokół" (Falcon) Gymnastics Society in Katowice. The Falcon movement was a natural support for the Polish armed forces being reborn. Many independence activists both in Poland and abroad came from the Falcon movement. The Falcon movement was the source of recruits and support for the Polish army. Korfanty was active in "Sokół" until Poland regained independence, and also after 1918. Especially during the preparations for the Silesian uprisings and plebiscites.
In the years 1901-1908 he was a member of the National League, in which he collaborated with Roman Dmowski. From 1902 he was the editor-in-chief of "Górnoślązak". For publishing a series of articles in 1901 entitled To the Germans and To My Brothers Upper Silesians, he was arrested. He stood trial and was sentenced to four months in prison. He served his sentence in a hard prison in Wronki. He did not break down, he did not give up the fight for Poland.
In 1905 he initiated the publication in Katowice of the press organ of the Upper Silesian National Democracy entitled "Polak", of which he was the owner and editor-in-chief. In 1912 he co-founded the Polish Party in Upper Silesia. He always supported the creation of an independent Polish state. He was a Pole with a broad outlook and a thorough education. He graduated in law and economics.
The Silesians, in proof of their trust in his knowledge and patriotic attitude, entrusted him with the mandate of a deputy to the Reichstag and the Prussian Landtag in the years 1903–1912 and in 1918, where he represented Polish interests. This was the first Polish mandate from Upper Silesia. He held it until 1918.
Wojciech Korfanty in 1920 (Source: Wikipedia)
In his last speech, delivered on October 25, 1918, he demanded the incorporation of the Prussian partition lands, along with Silesia, Warmia, Masuria and Gdańsk, into Poland.
After Poland regained independence, Wojciech Korfanty had a different vision of Poland than Józef Piłsudski. He remained in political conflict with the leader of Sanacja, but he did not stop fighting for Polish Silesia. He was a plebiscite commissioner in Upper Silesia, at the same time becoming one of the leading leaders of the fight for the Polishness of this land. He was the head of the Second and Third Silesian Uprisings and sought a favorable verdict for Poland from the Allies. In 1923, he served as deputy prime minister in the government of Wincenty Witos.
His opponents accused him of tax abuse and taking subsidies from Upper Silesian German industrial magnates. They could not forgive him for being a Christian Democrat. The verdict of the Marshal's Court acquitted him of some of the charges, but indicated his conduct incompatible with the dignity of a deputy and a publicist.
After the May Coup of 1926, Wojciech Korfanty, along with other members of Centrolew, was imprisoned in the fortress in Brest. He was tortured physically and mentally there. After his release, fearing further repression, he left Poland for Prague, the capital of Czechoslovakia. He could not return to Poland even in 1938 for the funeral of his son Witold, because the government of Prime Minister Sławoj Składkowski refused to issue him a safe conduct. He returned only in April 1939. He was immediately arrested and, despite protests, imprisoned in Pawiak, where he was held in extreme conditions for three months. After his release, in very poor health, he died in hospital on the eve of the outbreak of World War II — on August 17, 1939, on the day of the 20th anniversary of the outbreak of the Second Silesian Uprising. His funeral became a great manifestation. Five thousand Silesians said goodbye to him, paying tribute to him as a son of the Silesian land and a great patriot.
Monument to Wojciech Korfanty in Warsaw, 2020 (Source: Wikipedia)
In his political testament to the Silesian people, he appealed: "Fight for a great, powerful, Catholic, law-abiding and always just Poland". Neither the reborn Second Polish Republic nor the Polish People's Republic appreciated Wojciech Korfanty's contribution to the construction of a free Poland. It was not until 1979 that what Poles thought of Korfanty began to come to light. In many Silesian cities, but also in Warsaw, monuments commemorating the Silesian Uprisings and their leader were erected.
The current generation of Poles should remember the message left in Wojciech Korfanty's testament and fight first and foremost for a law-abiding and just Poland, in which there will be room for various paths to make it sovereign and great.
Translated from Polish by Andrew Woźniewicz.
