Mieczysław Jan Gębarowicz (17 December 1893 – 18 February 1984) was a Polish

art historian Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...

, soldier, dissident, museum director and custodian of

cultural heritage Cultural heritage is the heritage of tangible and intangible heritage assets of a group or society that is inherited from past generations. Not all heritages of past generations are "heritage"; rather, heritage is a product of selection by soci ...

Early years

Gębarowicz was born in

Jarosław Jarosław (; uk, Ярослав, Yaroslav, ; yi, יאַרעסלאָוו, Yareslov; german: Jaroslau) is a town in south-eastern Poland, with 38,970 inhabitants, as of 30 June 2014. Situated in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship (since 1999), previ ...

, one of three sons in a patriotic Polish family. His mother was Bronisława, née Smolek. His father, Teofil, was a railway engineer who served as assistant

station master The station master (or stationmaster) is the person in charge of a railway station, particularly in the United Kingdom and many other countries outside North America. In the United Kingdom, where the term originated, it is now largely historical ...

in Stanisławów and later as station master in

Buczacz Buchach ( uk, Бучач; pl, Buczacz; yi, בעטשאָטש, Betshotsh or (Bitshotsh); he, בוצ'אץ' ''Buch'ach''; german: Butschatsch; tr, Bucaş) is a city located on the Strypa River (a tributary of the Dniester) in Chortkiv Raion of Te ...

. In 1912 he completed his schooling at Buczacz Lyceum and was already a member of two youth organisations, "Zet" and "

Zarzewie Organisation of Independent Youth Zarzewie was a clandestine Polish youth organization, formed in May 1909 in Lemberg, Austrian Galicia. Based on Association of the Polish Youth "Zet", its objective was the restoration of independent Poland. As par ...

". He went on to study History and the History of Art at

Lwów University The University of Lviv ( uk, Львівський університет, Lvivskyi universytet; pl, Uniwersytet Lwowski; german: Universität Lemberg, briefly known as the ''Theresianum'' in the early 19th century), presently the Ivan Franko Na ...

. His studies were interrupted by the outbreak of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

when he served in the ranks of the

Austro-Hungarian Army The Austro-Hungarian Army (, literally "Ground Forces of the Austro-Hungarians"; , literally "Imperial and Royal Army") was the ground force of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy from 1867 to 1918. It was composed of three parts: the joint arm ...

(1915–1918). At the end of that conflict he took part in the Defence of Lwów with Polish forces during the

Polish–Ukrainian War The Polish–Ukrainian War, from November 1918 to July 1919, was a conflict between the Second Polish Republic and Ukrainian forces (both the West Ukrainian People's Republic and Ukrainian People's Republic). The conflict had its roots in ethn ...

, after which he was able to graduate. Between 1920 and 1922 he was a lecturer in the History faculty of

Jan Kazimierz University The University of Lviv ( uk, Львівський університет, Lvivskyi universytet; pl, Uniwersytet Lwowski; german: Universität Lemberg, briefly known as the ''Theresianum'' in the early 19th century), presently the Ivan Franko Na ...

in a newly independent Poland. In 1921 he was awarded a

doctoral degree A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''li ...

at the university. In 1922 he took up a post in the National Ossoliński Institute, known as the "Ossolineum" in Lwów, where the following year, he was promoted to

curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

of the Lubomirski Museum. He continued with academic duties and undertook research and lecturing assignments in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

and

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

. In 1928 he became an

Assistant professor Assistant Professor is an academic rank just below the rank of an associate professor used in universities or colleges, mainly in the United States and Canada. Overview This position is generally taken after earning a doctoral degree and general ...

in the History of Art the Department of

Humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...

at the university. In 1936 he became

Honorary professor Honorary titles (professor, reader, lecturer) in academia may be conferred on persons in recognition of contributions by a non-employee or by an employee beyond regular duties. This practice primarily exists in the UK and Germany, as well as in m ...

at Jan Kazimierz University. Between 1923 and 1938 he also lectured in Art History in the faculty of Architecture at

Lwów Polytechnic Lviv Polytechnic National University ( ua, Націона́льний університе́т «Льві́вська політе́хніка») is the largest scientific university in Lviv, Ukraine. Since its foundation in 1816, it has bee ...

World War II

After the outbreak of the

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

and the sudden death on 18 September 1939 of Ludwik Bernacki, the director of the Ossolineum, Gębarowicz found himself alongside Kazimierz Tyszkowski and Władysław Wisłocki, one of three directors of the Institute. In December 1939 the Soviet authorities had inserted as director, their

Polish Communist Communism in Poland can trace its origins to the late 19th century: the Marxist First Proletariat party was founded in 1882. Rosa Luxemburg (1871–1919) of the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (''Socjaldemokracja Królest ...

place-man,

Jerzy Borejsza Jerzy Borejsza (; born Beniamin Goldberg; 14 July 1905 in Warsaw – 19 January 1952 in Warsaw) was a Polish communist activist and writer. During the Stalinist period of communist Poland, he was chief of a state press and publishing syndicate ...

. Following the German occupation of Lwów in 1941 and the murder, in unexplained circumstances, of Władysław Wisłocki who had been lead director of the Institute, the patron of the institute now allied with the Baworowscy Library, prince Andrzej Lubomirski, covertly nominated Gębarowski as lead director of the institute. Throughout this period until the return in July 1944 of the Soviet occupiers, Gębarowicz strove to safeguard the priceless collections of the Ossolineum. In 1944 still under German occupation, he arranged secretly to despatch with a

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

-bound German train consignment, 2,300 literary manuscripts. These included works by

Juliusz Słowacki Juliusz Słowacki (; french: Jules Slowacki; 4 September 1809 – 3 April 1849) was a Polish Romantic poet. He is considered one of the "Three Bards" of Polish literature — a major figure in the Polish Romantic period, and the father of mode ...

Aleksander Fredro Aleksander Fredro (20 June 1793 – 15 July 1876) was a Polish poet, playwright and author active during Polish Romanticism in the period of partitions by neighboring empires. His works including plays written in the octosyllabic verse ('' Zemst ...

Władysław Reymont Władysław Stanisław Reymont (, born Rejment; 7 May 1867 – 5 December 1925) was a Polish novelist and the 1924 laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature. His best-known work is the award-winning four-volume novel '' Chłopi'' (''The Peasants ...

Henryk Sienkiewicz Henryk Adam Aleksander Pius Sienkiewicz ( , ; 5 May 1846 – 15 November 1916), also known by the pseudonym Litwos (), was a Polish writer, novelist, journalist and Nobel Prize laureate. He is best remembered for his historical novels, especi ...

and

Adam Mickiewicz Adam Bernard Mickiewicz (; 24 December 179826 November 1855) was a Polish poet, dramatist, essayist, publicist, translator and political activist. He is regarded as national poet in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. A principal figure in Polish Ro ...

's original of ''

Pan Tadeusz ''Pan Tadeusz'' (full title: ''Mister Thaddeus, or the Last Foray in Lithuania: A Nobility's Tale of the Years 1811–1812, in Twelve Books of Verse'') is an epic poem by the Polish poet, writer, translator and philosopher Adam Mickiewicz. The b ...

''. In addition there were 2,400 Polish works on paper, prints and several hundred

numismatic Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, medals and related objects. Specialists, known as numismatists, are often characterized as students or collectors of coins, but the discipline also includ ...

items which would later become the nucleus of the relocated Ossolineum in

Wrocław Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, rou ...

. Gębarowicz decided to remain in Lwow when the renewed occupation began.

Post-war

1946 saw Gębarowicz become deputy manager of the Faculty of Theory and History of Art of the renamed

Ivan Franko National University of Lviv The University of Lviv ( uk, Львівський університет, Lvivskyi universytet; pl, Uniwersytet Lwowski; german: Universität Lemberg, briefly known as the ''Theresianum'' in the early 19th century), presently the Ivan Franko Na ...

. Thanks to his efforts, in July 1946 as "a gift of the Soviet People to the People of Poland" a further 7,083 manuscripts, 35,565 antiquarian books and 107,397 prints from the 19th and 20th centuries arrived in Wrocław. In March 1947 a further 67,000 books followed. His decision to stay in the city as custodian of the remaining Polish heritage in Lwów was conditional on his accepting Soviet citizenship and rejecting not only the offer to become director of the

National Museum in Krakow National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

, but also the offers of professorships at the Universities of Wroclaw and

Toruń )'' , image_skyline = , image_caption = , image_flag = POL Toruń flag.svg , image_shield = POL Toruń COA.svg , nickname = City of Angels, Gingerbread city, Copernicus Town , pushpin_map = Kuyavian-Pom ...

. Along with other long-term employees of the Library, in February 1950 he was dismissed on the grounds of being an "undesirable element". He was later able to find work as a librarian in various Lviv institutions that recognised his status as that of a "junior researcher". He first travelled to the

Polish People's Republic The Polish People's Republic ( pl, Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL) was a country in Central Europe that existed from 1947 to 1989 as the predecessor of the modern Republic of Poland. With a population of approximately 37.9 million nea ...

in 1957 and declined an offer to become director of the Ossolineum in Wrocław. Not until 1962, when he was aged 69, did the Soviet authorities offer him advancement to "senior researcher". Later that year he was forced into retirement as a probable reprisal for the publication in Poland of his "Study of the history of the arts in

Late Renaissance Mannerism, which may also be known as Late Renaissance, is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Italy, ...

Poland". An additional punishment was to bar him from access to the archives in his erstwhile national collection. Nevertheless, Poland awarded him a medal in 1970 for developing the National Ossoliński Institute. In 1981 the Historical Institute of the

Polish Academy of Sciences The Polish Academy of Sciences ( pl, Polska Akademia Nauk, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society of ...

commissioned him to write an autobiography as part of a compendium of biographies of leading Polish academics. The Polish authorities balked at his completed manuscript and it could only be published a year later by a small Catholic publisher, ZNAK. He was the author of a considerable number of research papers despite his straitened circumstances and no access to the Ossolineum sources. Two well received studies on the art of the Ukraine and of Lwów were published posthumously: his ''The oldest

iconostasis In Eastern Christianity, an iconostasis ( gr, εἰκονοστάσιον) is a wall of icons and religious paintings, separating the nave from the sanctuary in a Church (building), church. ''Iconostasis'' also refers to a portable icon stand t ...

of the volosian orthodox church in Lwów'' (Wrocław 2016) and ''Mater Misericordiae - Pokrow - Pokrowa in the art and legends of

East-Central Europe East Central Europe is the region between Germanic languages, Germanic, West Slavic languages, West Slavic, and Hungarian language, Hungarian-speaking Europe and the East Slavs, East Slavic countries of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine. Those lands a ...

'' (Wrocław 1986). Gębarowicz died in Lviv in 1984 and was buried at Lyczakow cemetery in the city. He was remembered as the "Pope of the Polish diaspora" in Lwów. A lecture hall in the National Ossoliński Institute is named in his honour.

Works

In Polish

* . Znak 5. 1982 * . Mieczysław Gębarowicz i Kazimierz Tyszkowski. Lwów: Zakład Narodowy imienia Ossolińskich, 1926 * . Toruń: Towarzystwo Naukowe, 1962 * yd. 1.Toruń, 1966 * . Lwów: Zakład Norodowy im. Ossolińskich, 1939 * .

Polska Akademia Nauk The Polish Academy of Sciences ( pl, Polska Akademia Nauk, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society of ...

, Instytut Sztuki Wrocław : Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich, 1981 * . yd. 1./ Wrocław: Zakład Norodowy im. Ossolińskich, 1965 * Lwów: .n. 1923 * . Ed. opracowali Stanisław Jan Gąsiorowski, Mieczysław Gębarowicz, Tadeusz Szydłowski, Władysław Tatarkiewicz, Jan Zarnowski, Józef Zurowski... Lwów, Wydawnictwo zakładu narodowego imienia Ossolińskich 1934. 3 vol. in-4°, fig., pl., carte * . Polska Akademia Nauk, Instytut Sztuki. Wrocław tc.Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich 1981 Wroc WDNSK * . Toruń Towarzystwo naukowe 1962 * . Towarzystwo miłośników historii i zabytków Krakowa. opracowali Mieczysław Ge̡barowicz i Tadeusz Mańkowski. Kraków Ossolineum 1937 * Toruń Towarzystwo naukowe 1966 * . Kraków: Znak 1980. * . Wrocław, Warszawa, Kraków: Zakład narodowy imienia Ossolińskich, wyd. Polskiej Akademii nauk 1969 * . Wrocław: Zakład narodowy im. Ossolińskich 1986

In German

* . Hrsg. von M. Gebarowicz und Hans Tietze. Wien: A. Schroll & co., 1929 * . (Aus: Das polnische Schlesien). Kattowitz: .n. 1935

Legacy

Aside from his scholarly work, it is probably due to his leadership, determination and guile in wartime, the

Occupation of Poland (1939–1945) The occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union during World War II (1939–1945) began with the German-Soviet invasion of Poland in September 1939, and it was formally concluded with the defeat of Germany by the Allies in May ...

, during the

Fourth Partition The Partitions of Poland were three partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that took place toward the end of the 18th century and ended the existence of the state, resulting in the elimination of sovereign Poland and Lithuania for 12 ...

and after, that a major part of Polish cultural heritage survived and was made available to succeeding generations. Largely owed to his initiative are: * The National Ossoliński Institute and its associated archival and publishing facilities * The Lubomirski Museum * The

Museum in Wrocław. "not only books. The Ossolineum's collections and their custodians".

References

Bibliography

* Maciej Matwijów, ''Mieczysław Gębarowicz 1893-1984'', Wydawnictwo DiG, 2013. . * Stanisław Nicieja, "Papież Polonii lwowskiej" ''Przegląd Humanistyczny''., nr 12. 1987 * Witold Szolginia. 1997 ''Tamten Lwów. Arcylwowianie''. Wrocław: Oficyna Wydawnicza "Sudety" * „Czasopismo ZNiO” nr 4/1994 artykuły opublikowane w poświęconym w całości M. Gębarowiczowi * Mariusz Urbanek
''Mieczysław Gębarowicz. Strażnik polskich skarbów Ossolineum we Lwowie''

Gazeta Wyborcza ''Gazeta Wyborcza'' (; ''The Electoral Gazette'' in English) is a Polish daily newspaper based in Warsaw, Poland. It is the first Polish daily newspaper after the era of "real socialism" and one of Poland's newspapers of record, covering the g ...

, 16 March 2018 * * * Robert Bogdanowicz
"Przedwojenny profesor ze Lwowa" (in Polish) A portrait of Mieczysław Gębarowicz (TVP) ''Tygodnik'', 23 February 2018 with video clips and illustrations

External links

* ttp://www.lwow.home.pl/gebarowicz.html professor Mieczysław Gębarowicz's role in rescuing collections of Polish heritage in Lwów, in Polish
Mistrz i nauczyciel - A student's memoir of professor Gębarowicz, in Polish
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gębarowicz, Mieczysław 1893 births 1984 deaths Polish male writers 20th-century Polish historians Polish male non-fiction writers Polish art historians Polish bibliographers People from Ternopil Oblast People from the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria Austro-Hungarian military personnel of World War I Polish Military Organisation members Polish people of World War I Polish people of the Polish–Ukrainian War University of Lviv alumni Academic staff of the University of Lviv Polish librarians 20th-century Polish male writers Cultural historians European art curators Polish art critics Directors of museums in Poland Polish publicists Ukrainian archivists Burials at Lychakiv Cemetery Polish curators