This is the second part of my series about polish culture. One thing culture includes are important, well-known people: musicians, politicians, sportsperson, religious people, historic persons and scientists. I want to underline, that my choice is just an individual impression who plays an important role or is pretty well-known in Poland and I talked with other volunteers about it, but of course there are more people, different people, who may be as equally important or even more important than those I will present, but maybe this is a start:
Chopin – he is probably the most famous polish composer and musician. 1810 born in a small town not far from Warsaw. He grew up as a prodigy: componisized with very young age and gave concerts on the piano as a eight year old. He travelled a lot through Poland and into other countries and gave concerts all across Europe. With twenty years he moved to France, where he spend the rest of his life. After his death, his sister smuggled his heart under her skirt, at least the legend says it like this, back to Poland. It changed the place many times, was once in the hands of the Nazis and had famous people taking care of it until nowadays it is back in the holy cross church in Warsaw. But that’s not the only thing reminding people in Warsaw about Chopin. Besides the Fryderyk Chopin museum, big monuments, the main airport and music playing information banks on the streets, there are free concerts every week in the summer.
Jan Paweł II – He was the pope from 1978 until he died in 2005. He was polish and therefore the first non-Italian pope after more than 400 years. Furthermore Jan Paweł II travelled far more than the popes before him. During his time as pope he tried to appeal for a better relationship with other religions. On the other hand he was quite conservative especially when it came to women (for example: he was against contraception and the ordination of women) and to keep the celibacy. After his dead, Poland declared six days of national sorrow. Moreover the process of his sanctification was started just one month after he died, usually they wait five years to start the process. In 2011 he was sanctifiate and he still plays an important role in nowadays Poland, not just in the church, also in daily life. He is everywhere: statues, street names, postcards and of course almost every church has a poster with his picture on it and written when he visited the church. If you want to learn more about him you could watch the movie “The two popes”.
Marie Skłodowska Curie – one of the most amazing women. She was a scientist and a specialist for radioactive substances. She experimented with Uran and discovered Radium and Polonium. He got two Nobelprices for her work, one in physics and one in chemistry. Therefore she is one of the four people who have gotten two Nobelprices and the only person who got those in two different fields of science. Marie Skłodowska was born 1867 in Warsaw, but she moved for her studies to Paris, because in Poland it was not allowed for women to study. After her husband Pierre Curie died he got his place as a teacher at the Sorbonne. She was the first woman who taught there. In the First World War she developed a moveable X-ray equipment to check wounded people close to the front. After World War I she worked for the League of Nations and tried to establish more collaboration between the countries when it comes to supporting scientists. Marie Skłodowska Curie died in 1934. All the years working with radioactive materials without any security measures harmed her body and led in the end to her death. Marie Skłodowska Curie was definitely one of the most important polish scientists, even if most people don’t know that she was born in Poland. I thought before coming to Poland, too, that she was French. It is incredible what she achieved and she deserves a place in this list without any doubt. In Warsaw there is a statue to honour her and a Marie Skłodowska Curie museum. If you want to know more about Marie Skłodowska Curie you could watch the movie “Marie Curie: The Courage of Knowledge” or read here https://www.biography.com/scientist/marie-curie
Nicolaus Copernicus – He is one of the most important astronomers that have lived. He changed our view on the world and the whole cosmos: he was the one that said, that the earth is not the centre of our universe, the sun is. And all planets are turning around her, not around the earth. Copernicus was born 1473 in Torun and therefore you can visit his birth place there, see statues, the church, where he was baptized and visit a planetarium to learn about his discoveries. Also in Warsaw there is a big Copernicus monument, which can walk by. Furthermore the greatest scientific museum in Warsaw with a lot of exiting experiments is named after Copernicus.
Lech Wałęsa – former electrician, later leader of the Solidarnośc movement and then the first free elected president of Poland. The Solidarnośc movement was founded as a labour union and turned into the biggest opposition movement against the communist system in Poland in the 80’s. They did a lot of protests, never gave up and in the end it led to the fall of the communist system in Poland. He was an important person when it comes to turning Poland from a communist country into a modern democratic state. For his political engagement he was decorated with the Nobel Peace Prize. Later his reputation was scratched by the controversial opinion that he worked together with the former special security service of the police (SB). But nevertheless he was and is an important Polish politician and person.
Robert Lewandowski – Robert Lewandowski is the most famous polish football player – at least in the last decade. He was declared seven times as best polish football player in the last ten years and got several awards as best goalkeeper. But he didn’t just had main successes in Poland: 2010 he joined the German team Borussia Dortmund and had great victories with them. 2014 he changed the club and since then he plays for Bayern Munich. He is one of the best goal scorer the Budesliga has ever seen and with 4 goals in 15 minutes he set a new record in the Champions League. Furthermore he was announced as football player of the year in Germany this year. In almost every school class I went to, they mentioned Lewandowski when I talked about Germany and German football clubs with them and even I – a person who doesn’t really follows football leagues and especially doesn’t know a lot of players – heard about him before. As you can see Lewandowski is not just successful and known in Poland, he is probably in whole Europe – or at least in Germany – too.
I am sure there any many more great Polish people who have done a lot of important things, and I am sure not everybody will like my mix or some people may know much more about this topic, but I hope you enjoyed this post anyway, maybe you also learned something new or I could inspire you to do some research about great, famous and important Polish people on your own?! It would be definitely worth it, there are a lot fascinating, often underestimated, people coming from this country