Prince Ferdynand Fryderyk Radziwiłł (1834 in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

– 1926 in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

) was a Polish nobleman and Polish-German politician.

Early life

He was the son of Bogusław Fryderyk Radziwiłł and Leontyna von Clary und Aldringen. Through his paternal grandmother,

Princess Louise of Prussia Louise of Prussia (Luise Marie Elisabeth; 3 December 1838 – 23 April 1923) was Grand Duchess of Baden from 1856 to 1907 as the wife of Grand Duke Frederick I. Princess Louise was the second child and only daughter of Wilhelm I, German E ...

, he was a cousin of the German Emperors. He was educated in Berlin and received a law degree.

Career

During the

Franco-Prussian War The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 Janua ...

, he served as a soldier in the German army for one year. For much of his life he lived in the

German Empire The German Empire (),; ; World Book, Inc. ''The World Book dictionary, Volume 1''. World Book, Inc., 2003. p. 572. States that Deutsches Reich translates as "German Realm" and was a former official name of Germany. also referred to as Imperia ...

, where he was a member of the German parliament ( Reichstag) from 1874 to 1918. He was known as an important leader of the Polish minority and opponent of the

Germanization Germanisation, or Germanization, is the spread of the German language, German people, people, and German culture, culture. It was a central idea of German conservative thought in the 19th and the 20th centuries, when conservatism and ethnic nati ...

and

Kulturkampf In the history of Germany, the ''Kulturkampf'' (Cultural Struggle) was the seven-year political conflict (1871–1878) between the Catholic Church in Germany led by Pope Pius IX and the Kingdom of Prussia led by chancellor Otto von Bismarck. Th ...

policies. Prior to 1885, his political concerns fell mostly with the relation of the Church to the Kulturkampf. In 1901, he gave a speech at the Reichstag to protest the treatment of Polish school children in Września. In the speech, he denounced the alleged use of corporal punishment on children, noting that bonuses were paid to teachers who taught the most German. In response, Count von Bülow said that "foreign sentiments" could not influence domestic policy, and that Germans in the east will not "fall beneath Polish wheels." Bülow concluded by stating that efforts to bring about an independent Poland would be opposed. In 1908, he spoke out against expropriations. After Poland regained independence in 1918, he became a Polish citizen and a member of the Polish parliament (

Sejm The Sejm (), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (), is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of the Third Polish Republic since the Polish People' ...

). His political activity ended in 1919. In February 1926 he died in Rome.

Family

He married Pelagia Sapiezanka in 1864. They had five children.

Ancestry

References