Stanisław Głąbiński (25 February 1862 – 14 August 1941) was a Polish politician, academic, lawyer and writer who served in 1918 as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Poland.
Early years Głąbiński was born on 25 February 1862 in Skole, in the Stryi district, Eastern Galicia, in what was then the Austrian Empire. His father, Jan Głąbiński, was a participant in the Krakow Uprising in 1846 and the Revolutions of 1848. Jan worked as a tax official in Brzozów, Czortków, Sambór and Skole. He became a town councillor and assessor in Sambor. Little is known about Stanisław Głąbiński's mother, Teofila, née Niedzielska.
After graduating from grammar school in Sambór in 1880, Stanisław Głąbiński's was admitted to the Faculty of Law at the University of Lwów. He was a member of the Academic Reading Room and of the Brotherly Aid of Law Students of the Lwów University of Technology, and participated in the meetings of the scientific "Tourist Circle". In 1882, Głąbiński's published his first work in "Wędrowiec" [Wanderer]. It discussed the situation of Poles in Silesia.
Academic career After graduating from university in 1885, Głąbiński began legal training in Sambór. In 1887, he received his doctorate in Lwów. At the same time, he completed his studies in economics in Berlin and Munich.
In 1888, Głąbiński' started lecturing on social economy, economic policy and statistics at the National Agricultural College in Dublany, In 1889, he became a lecturer at the University of Lwów on the history of socialism and social legislation in the 19th century, and later on social economics. He got his postdoctoral lecturing qualifications on the basis of a small dissertation entitled "On the Physiocratic System in Social Economics". He also dealt with treasury, financial and fiscal policy, and economic history. He also published his articles, studies and dissertations in Oesterr. ung. Revue, Polski ekonomista [Polish Economist], Przegląd Prawa i Administracji [Review of Law and Administration], and Kraj [Country].
Głąbiński became a member of the Academy of Social Sciences in Philadelphia; the Scientific Society in Lwów, the National Statistical Council, and the Institute of Science for Emigration and Colonization. He co-founded the General Academic Lectures and the Society of Academic Courses.
In 1892, Głąbiński became an associate professor at the Lwów University of Technology, and three years later (from 5 September 1895) a full-time professor. From 1899 to 1900 he held the office of dean of the Faculty of Law, and from 1908 to 1909 he was the rector of the University of Lwów.
Głąbiński helped establish the Raiffeisen Credit Unions in Galicia. He took part in organizing the General National Exhibition in Lwów in June 1894. He was a city councillor in Lwów (chairman of the budget committee).
Political career
Advocacy for Galicia Around 1890, Głąbiński started working with Gazeta Narodowa [National Newspaper], a Galician daily newspaper closely linked to the Eastern Galician conservatives (the so-called Podolacy). Between 1890 and 1892, he served as deputy editor-in-chief and manager of the paper.
In 1896, Głąbiński tried to run as an independent candidate in the supplementary elections to the National Sejm (Parliament) in Lwów, but was defeated In 1897 Przegląd Wszechpolski [The All-Polish Review] printed his work entitled "Economic Development and National Culture" (1 April 1897, No. 7). Soon after, the paper started publishing his other work.
In 1897, Głąbiński became part of the National Democracy Party. However, he was not admitted to the National League, possibly because he opposed their illegal activity. From 1901 onwards, Głąbiński published in Słowo Polskie [Polish Word], where he promoted the building of a national-democratic group in the Austrian partition.
In 1903, using the structures of the National League, OKN and , Głąbiński joined in organising National Democracy in Eastern Galicia. On 6 January 1904, Głąbiński held a meeting in his flat with , Jan Ludwik Popławski, , and the Galician democrats and . The men decided to set up the Galician National Democratic Party (NDP). On 17 January 1904, Głąbiński participated in the First Congress of the NDP in Galicia. He became a member of the statutory (programme and organisation) committee and the so-called "tighter" committee - the one from Lwów. He was one of the co-organizers of the Second NDP Congress, which took place in Lwów on 8–9 December 1905. He was elected the president of the party.
In 1902, Głąbiński won a seat in the elections to the Council of State (he held it continuously until 1918). He spoke on Polish-Ukrainian relations, the budget, financial and economic policy, the reform of electoral law for parliament and the National Sejm, railway reform. He defended the Polish character of the University of Lwów ). In addition, he advocated the need to expand Galicia's autonomy, which he expressed in his brochure The Idea of Independence and Galicia's Finances (1902). Głąbiński also took part in the work of the program committee of the Polish Circle (he co-wrote the economic program). Głąbiński was the president of the Polish Circle (12 November 1907 – 9 January 1911); later he was one of the vice-presidents; he was also the president of the NDP parliamentary club and the president and later the vice-president of the Joint Delegation to the Imperial Council in Austria and the Hungarian Parliament.
Głąbiński was in favor of extending political and economic autonomy for Galicia. During the negotiations on electoral reform for the Council of State, he was the Circle committee's electoral law specialist, and also took part in negotiations with the Government. Like most of the members of the Circle, he was regarded as an opponent of the four-party electoral system. After the electoral reform to the State Council was passed, he took part in the negotiations on electoral reform to the National Sejm as a member of the electoral reform commission. On 20 September 1908, Głąbiński was elected the chairman of the new commission, but on 28 December 1910, he resigned from the commission in the Sejm and on 12 January 1911 from its chairmanship. He also spoke on budgetary, fiscal and financial matters, as well as on education. He fought the national demands of Ukrainians, and spoke out against strikes and slogans for far-reaching social reforms raised by socialists.
Between 1904 and 1918, Głąbiński was a member of the National Sejm, and between 1910 and 1918 a member of the Bukovina Sejm. He worked in three committees: the Tax Committee, the Budget Committee, and the Railway Committee. In the Sejm (as well as in his journalistic texts), Głąbiński dealt with the railways, taxes, finance, education, and sought to extend the scope of Galician autonomy. In 1906-1907, throughout Galicia, the NDP (including Głąbiński) organised about 200 political rallies, during which they called for a reform of electoral law, "separation" of Galicia, liberating it from economic dependence on Vienna, and gaining legislative independence.
Głąbiński opposed the so-called Blok Namiestnikowski (Governor’s Bloc) created by Michał Bobrzyński. Głąbiński opposed the plans of the new Governor to conclude a Polish-Ukrainian agreement. He demanded that a Polish-national state of ownership be maintained in Galicia. He participated in works on a new national program for Galicia. Głąbiński advocated broadening the scope of powers of the National Sejm. increasing the powers of the National School Council and establishing a special National Administrative Court at the Governor's Office. In 1910. Głąbiński was considered as a possible Minister for Galicia. However, his candidature met with immediate opposition from Bobrzyński. Instead, he took up the post of Minister for Railways in Bienerth's cabinet. As a minister, against the stance of the Viennese financial and political circles (including the military), he decentralised and commercialised the railways, and Polonised the administration in Galicia.
Between 1912 and 1913, Głąbiński worked to establish a People's National Coalition. As a result, in September 1913, the National Christian and People's Union was established. Despite this success, his position in the structures was not stable. The national democratic movement underwent internal decomposition. Secession was made by the "Fronda" group within the "Zet" brothers, demanding independence from LN and SDN. In 1908-1909 another group of dissenters formed - the so-called "Rzeczpospolita" group.
Głąbiński was still perceived as the leader of the Galician NDP, but SDN was led by the tandem of Stanisław Grabski and Jan Gwalbert Pawlikowski. Before the outbreak of World War I, in opposition to the activists of National Democracy from the Congress Kingdom, Głąbiński advocated a loyal policy towards Austria-Hungary (he was skeptical about the orientation towards Russia, and was also seen as a critic of neo-Slavism). However, the decisions taken at the SDN conventions of May 1910 and March 1912 maintained Roman Dmowski's strategy.
World War I On 28 July 1914. Głąbiński took part in the establishment of the so-called Committee for the Implementation of the "Unification and Independence of the Polish Lands" - then in the Central National Committee established in Lwów. As a delegate, Głąbiński took part in talks in Vienna with Count Leopold Berchtold, Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister, and General Franz Conrad Hotzendorf, Chief of General Staff, regarding the creation of a Polish army. However, the talks ended in a fiasco. After the formation of the Supreme National Committee, Głąbiński became its member, but after a conflict with the socialists (also over the oath of the Eastern Legion), he resigned.
After Lwów was occupied by the Imperial Russian Army, Głąbiński moved to Vienna, where he was very active in the Polish Circle for the Polish cause. In 1915, he established contact with the Central Polish Agency in Lausanne, headed by Erazm Piltz (a former member of the Party for Real Politics from the Kingdom of Poland) and Marian Seyda (a member of the LN and SDN board in the Prussian partition). He supported the agency by sending texts and expert opinions on economic policy, national economics and commentaries on current political events. In the same year, he also established close cooperation with the "Rok Polski” [Polish Year] - a magazine promoting national ideas. Głąbiński also participated in a series of programme and discussion meetings with activists from the Inter-Party Political Circle in the Kingdom of Poland, seeking to build a broader agreement with the agrarian members of the PSL "Piast" and other circles and groups of the political centre-right. In Galicia, such a half-hearted agreement was reached in July 1917. At that time the SDN, PSL Piast and the National Union set up the Inter-Party Union.
After the proclamation of the Act of 5th November 1916 announcing the creation of a Polish state from the Russian partition (occupied by German troops), Głąbiński started to clearly distance himself from Austria-Hungary. Among other things, he announced a project on behalf of the Polish Circle in Vienna, which counteracted the imperial plans to separate Galicia and create the Kingdom of Lesser Poland, subordinated to the Austro-Hungarian monarchy.