Tadeusz Mazowiecki | |
---|---|
1st Prime Minister of Poland | |
In office 24 August 1989 – 12 January 1991 |
|
President |
Wojciech Jaruzelski Lech Wałęsa |
Deputy |
Leszek Balcerowicz Czesław Janicki Jan Janowski Czesław Kiszczak |
Preceded by | Edward Szczepanik (in Exile), Czesław Kiszczak |
Succeeded by | Jan Krzysztof Bielecki |
Chairman of the Freedom Union | |
In office 1994–1995 |
|
Preceded by | (Party formed) |
Succeeded by | Leszek Balcerowicz |
Chairman of the Democratic Union | |
In office 1991–1994 |
|
Preceded by | (Party formed) |
Succeeded by | (became a chairman of the Freedom Union) |
Member of Sejm of the People's Republic of Poland | |
In office 1961–1972 |
|
Member of Sejm of the Republic of Poland | |
In office 1991–2001 |
|
Constituency |
Poznań (1991–97) Kraków (1997–2001) |
Personal details | |
Born |
Płock, Second Republic of Poland |
18 April 1928
Died | 28 October 2013 Warsaw, Poland |
(aged 85)
Political party |
PAX Association (1949–55) Znak (1961–72) Solidarity (1980–91) Democratic Union (1991–94) Freedom Union (1994–2005) Democratic Party (2005–06) |
Spouse(s) | Krystyna (d.) Ewa (d.) |
Children | Wojciech Adam Michal |
Profession | Author, journalist, social worker |
Religion | Roman Catholicism |
Awards |
Tadeusz Mazowiecki [taˈdɛuʂ mazɔˈvʲɛt͡skʲi]; (18 April 1928 – 28 October 2013) was a Polish author, journalist, philanthropist and Christian-democratic politician, formerly one of the leaders of the Solidarity movement, and the first non-communist Polish prime minister since 1946.
Tadeusz Mazowiecki was born in Płock, Poland on 18 April 1928 to a Polish noble family, which uses the Dołęga coat of arms. Both his parents worked at the local Holy Trinity Hospital: his father was a doctor there while his mother ran a charity for the poor. His education was interrupted by the outbreak of World War II. During the war he worked as a runner in the hospital his parents worked for. After the German forces had been expelled from Płock, Tadeusz Mazowiecki resumed his education and in 1946 he graduated from "Marshal Stanisław Małachowski" Lyceum, the oldest high school in Poland and one of the oldest continuously-operating school in Europe. He then moved to Łódź and then to Warsaw, where he joined the Law Faculty of the Warsaw University. However, he never graduated and instead devoted himself to activity in various Catholic associations, journals and publishing houses.
Already during his brief stay at the Warsaw University Mazowiecki joined the Caritas Academica charity organisation, he also briefly headed the University Printing Cooperative between 1947 and 1948. In 1946 he also joined Karol Popiel's Labour Party. However, later that year the party was outlawed by the new Stalinist authorities of Soviet-controlled Poland. Almost all other non-communist organisations soon also became a target of state-sponsored repressions.