Prominent Poles

Ignacy Moscicki, engineer-inventor, President of Poland

Born:  December 1, 1867, Mierzanow, Russian partition of Poland (presently Poland)

Died:  October 2, 1946, Versoix, Switzerland

The early days. He was son of a landowner, participant of the January 1863 Uprising.
Higher education.Clandestine activity.Completed the Real School in Warsaw and then studied chemistry at the Technical University in Riga, simultaneously pursuing clandestine activity in the "Proletariat" Party. After return to Warsaw, he participated in 1890 in a failed attempt on the tsarist governor of Warsaw.
Flees to England. Cooperates with the socialists.Threatened with arrest, in 1892 emigrated to London with his wife. There he co-operated with the Polish socialists, working mainly as a labourer. In 1896, he met Jozef Pilsudski and got attached to him forever. A year later, he was employed as an Assistant Professor at the Catholic Univeristy of Freiburg in Switzerland. Subsequently, he moved to industry. He was the first to use the atmospheric nitrogen to produce nitric acid on an industrial scale. As a designer of superpower capacitors he was recognized as one of the best European specialists in the field.
Professorship in Lwow.In 1912 he was appointed Head of the Chair of Physical Chemistry and Technical Electrochemistry of the Lwow (Lviv) Technical University. He was elected Rector of the Lwow Technical University in 1925, in which year he moved to the Warsaw University of Technology.
Achievements and honors.Author of Polish and foreign patents. Holder of Doctor Honoris Causa degree of numerous Polish and foreign universities.
President of Poland. After Pilsudski’s coup d’etat and after Pilsudski’s refusal do become a President of Poland Moscicki is sworn in as President of the Republic on 4 June 1926 before the National Assembly at the Royal Castle in the presence of the government, the diplomatic corps, the press and the family. Sworn in before the National Assembly for the second term on 9 May 1933 also at the Royal Castle, which he made his residence. His term of office expired in September 1939 upon his internment in Romania. From there he moved to Switzerland. He passed his office to Wladyslaw Raczkiewicz. Died in Versoix near Geneva on 2 October 1946.

Based on the biography appearing at:
President of Poland
Copying of this material is unrestricted.

Other sources:
Biographies (in French)
l'Universite de Fribourg (in French)

Return to home page:
Prominent Poles