Poznań and the development of Polish sociology

Abstract

The article is devoted to the development of Polish sociology from the 19th century until the period of the Second Republic, when sociology became an established academic field. The first Polish sociologists studied sociology at various European universities, but later worked in different professions i.e., Supinski was an owner of a textile weaving shop, Krupinski was a priest and a teacher, while Limanowski, Świetochowski and Krzywicki worked as journalists. Their sociological interest was secondary to their professional life. What is interesting is that they first joined European sociological institutions as members of the Institut international de sociologie (The International Institute of Sociology), gave papers at international Sociological congresses and only much later spoke at Polish conferences. They published in „Annee sociologique” and „Revue international de sociologie.” At times they also taught at different European universities, for example Gumplowicz taught at the University of Grazu and Petrazycki in the St. Petersurg University. The first sociology programs were established in Poland after it regained its independence: in 1920 Leon Petrazycki was appointed chair of sociology at the University of Warsaw and Ludwik Krzywicki was appointed chair of a program called the history of socio-political systems. Sociology was treated then as an auxiliary academic field for the study of law. Sociology as an autonomous field was first created in Poznan and its main inspirer was Florian Znaniecki. Not until the second decade of the Second Republic was sociology established as a separate department at the universities in Kraków and Warsaw. At the wake of the WWII sociology was a well established academic field in Poland with its own programs of study, research intstitutes, scholarly journals and a professional association of practitioners.