Hipolit Wawelberg (1843–1901) was a Polish banker, and one of the most prominent members of the

Wawelberg The Wawelbergs were a History of the Jews in Poland, Polish Jewish family whose banking house was active in both Congress Poland and the Russian Empire. Hyppolite Wawelberg The Russian branch was founded by Hyppolite Wawelberg (1843–1901). ...

banking family. He was a known Polish patriot and a lifelong

philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...

. In 1869, following the

January Uprising The January Uprising was an insurrection principally in Russia's Kingdom of Poland that was aimed at putting an end to Russian occupation of part of Poland and regaining independence. It began on 22 January 1863 and continued until the last i ...

, Hipolit Wawelberg moved to

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

where he launched a new venture, the

Wawelberg Bank The Wawelbergs were a History of the Jews in Poland, Polish Jewish family whose banking house was active in both Congress Poland and the Russian Empire. Hyppolite Wawelberg The Russian branch was founded by Hyppolite Wawelberg (1843–1901). ...

. Wawelberg made a fortune in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

, though he was equally well known as a generous philanthropist.

Banking career

By 1900, Wawelberg was at the helm of the

and held the title of honorable citizen of

, an appellation that could be passed on in the same way as a

title of nobility Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy (class), aristocracy. It is normally appointed by and ranked immediately below Royal family, royalty. Nobility has often been an Estates of the realm, estate of the rea ...

. He was also a member of the management board of the Warsaw Bank of Commerce (Bank Handlowy w Warszawie), the treasury of the Jewish Colonist Society in St. Petersburg, an honorable member of the Jewish Educational Society (Obshchestvo rasprostraneniya prosveshcheniya sredi yevreyev), and a benefactor of the Roman Catholic Beneficial Society (Rimsko-katolicheskogo blagotvoritel'noye obshchestva). In 1875, in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

, Wawelberg co-founded the Museum of Industry and Agriculture (''Muzeum Przemysłu i Rolnictwa w Warszawie''). It was in a physics laboratory there that, in 1890–91,

Maria Skłodowska Maria Salomea Skłodowska-Curie (; ; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934), known simply as Marie Curie ( ; ), was a Polish and naturalised-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first wo ...

(Marie Curie), future investigator of

radioactivity Radioactive decay (also known as nuclear decay, radioactivity, radioactive disintegration, or nuclear disintegration) is the process by which an unstable atomic nucleus loses energy by radiation. A material containing unstable nuclei is conside ...

and future double

Nobel laureate The Nobel Prizes (, ) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make outstanding contributions in th ...

, did her first scientific work. Wawelberg also founded the Warsaw Mechanical-Technical School in 1895, together with his faithful friend and collaborator, his brother-in-law Stanislav Rotwand (Cтанислав Ротванд), an 1860 alumnus of the

University of Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg State University (SPBGU; ) is a public research university in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in Russia. Founded in 1724 by a decree of Peter the Great, the university from the be ...

law school.

Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wawelberg, Hipolit 1843 births 1901 deaths Bankers from the Russian Empire Polish bankers Russian philanthropists Polish philanthropists 19th-century philanthropists