Karol Libelt (8 April 1807, neighborhood of Chwaliszewo in

Poznań Poznań () is a city on the River Warta in west-central Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business centre, and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint Joh ...

Duchy of Warsaw The Duchy of Warsaw ( pl, Księstwo Warszawskie, french: Duché de Varsovie, german: Herzogtum Warschau), also known as the Grand Duchy of Warsaw and Napoleonic Poland, was a French client state established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1807, during ...

- 9 June 1875, Brdowo) was a Polish philosopher, writer, political and social activist, social worker and liberal,

nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...

politician, and president of the Poznań Society of Friends of Learning.

Life and work

Libelt took part in the failed

November Uprising The November Uprising (1830–31), also known as the Polish–Russian War 1830–31 or the Cadet Revolution, was an armed rebellion in the heartland of partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. The uprising began on 29 November 1830 in W ...

against Russia in 1830, and was imprisoned for nine months at

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; nds, label=Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river. Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Magdebu ...

. Since 1839 he became the head of a secret committee started to organise yet another uprising against the partitioning powers, which was nicknamed the ''Libelt Committee'' - ''Komitet Libelt''). He was sentenced by the

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...

n authorities to 20 years of imprisonment in a fortress for taking part in the Greater Poland Uprising (1846). However, he was amnestied in 1848 and returned to Posen (Poznań), where he took part in the Greater Poland Uprising (1848) and joined various organisations supporting the independence of Poland ( Polish National Committee and Revolutionary Committee). During the Spring of Nations he was elected as one of the members of the

Frankfurt Parliament The Frankfurt Parliament (german: Frankfurter Nationalversammlung, literally ''Frankfurt National Assembly'') was the first freely elected parliament for all German states, including the German-populated areas of Austria-Hungary, elected on 1 Ma ...

; he also took part in the Slavic Congress in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

in June 1848. In 1849 he was elected a member of the Prussian parliament and became the director of the liberal ''Dziennik Polski'' (Polish Daily). The following year Libelt began to establish various scientific and social organisations in

Greater Poland Greater Poland, often known by its Polish name Wielkopolska (; german: Großpolen, sv, Storpolen, la, Polonia Maior), is a historical region of west-central Poland. Its chief and largest city is Poznań followed by Kalisz, the oldest cit ...

, including the Society of Friends of the Sciences in Posen (Poznań), which became a ''de facto'' university. Between 1868 and 1875 he headed the Society and gave lectures in æsthetics. In 1873, he was elected to the Prussian Lower House. In his philosophical works, Libelt described the so-called Polish messianism, or a belief that the history of the world would be redeemed by the Polish people, who gained moral excellence because of the suffering of their fatherland. He believed in existence of a super-rational cognitive power, visible through art. He is known internationally mainly because of the word

intelligentsia The intelligentsia is a status class composed of the university-educated people of a society who engage in the complex mental labours by which they critique, shape, and lead in the politics, policies, and culture of their society; as such, the i ...

popularized by him in one of his books (''Filozofia i krytyka'' - ''Philosophy and Critics'').

Writings

* ''Filozofia i krytyka'', Hegelian in tendency (1845–50) * ''Estetyka'' (1851) * ''Umnictevo'', a system of ethics (1857) * ''Dziela'' (1875) * ''Zbior pism pomniejszych'', political papers (1849–51) * ''Dziewica Orléanska'' (1847) * ''Humor i pravada'', sketches (1852)

References

* Witold Jakóbczyk, ''Przetrwać na Wartą 1815-1914'', ''Dzieje narodu i państwa polskiego'', vol. III-55, Krajowa Agencja Wydawnicza, Warszawa 1989 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Libelt, Karol 1807 births 1875 deaths Writers from Poznań Politicians from Poznań Polish politicians 19th-century Polish philosophers Polish male writers November Uprising participants Recipients of the Virtuti Militari People from the Grand Duchy of Posen Members of the Prussian House of Representatives Members of the Frankfurt Parliament Poles - political prisoners in the Prussian partition Polish social activists of the Prussian partition Participants of the Slavic Congress in Prague 1848 Polish messianism

Life and work

Writings

See also

References