100 Years of Poznań Economic History

Abstract

Department of Economic History associates the beginning of its hundred-year history with the appointment, from 1 July 1920, of prof. Jan Rutkowski (1886-1949) as the first head of the Chair of Economic History at the Faculty of Law and Economics of the University of Poznań, prof. Jan Rutkowski [AUAMP, 208/49: 422]. Prof. Jan Rutkowski is considered one of the founders and the first promoters of economic history in Poland. Together with prof. Franciszek Bujak led to the separation of historical and economic research as an independent academic discipline. He was also involved in work for didactics and the organization of higher education. He promoted teamwork [Graban M., Błażejczyk-Majka L. 2019]. It is worth emphasizing that prof. Jan Rutkowski belonged to a group of scientists who had been invited to work at the Faculty of Philosophy by the University Commission established to organize the Polish university in Poznań [1918 listopad 18, Poznań... 1973]. He also participated, as a delegate of the Faculty of Law and Economics, in the first sessions of the senate of the newly established University of Poznań [Uniwersytet Poznański: skład osobowy... 1920: 3, 15; Protokoły posiedzeń.. 2019: 3–38]. The establishment of the Chair of Economic History at the University of Poznań was preceded by prof. Jan Rutkowski conducting, from the first semesters of the newly established University, seminars on economic history and obligatory lectures on the economic history of Poland [Uniwersytet Poznański: spis wykładów... 1919: 47–50; Uniwersytet Poznański: spis wykładów... 1920: 8]. As mentioned earlier, from 1920 prof. Jan Rutkowski took the position of the chair of an independent department. In accordance with the organizational structure of the University of Poznań in force in the interwar period, he was the director of an independent research institution Seminar. Initially, it was an economic seminar at the Faculty STUdIa HISToRIaE oEConoMICaE