Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski

Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski (30 December 1888, Kraków – 22 August 1974, Kraków) was a Polish politician and economist, Deputy Prime Minister of Poland, government minister and manager of the Second Polish Republic.

Biography He studied at the prestigious Jesuit college in Chyrów, and then graduated chemistry at the University of Lwów and the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU).

After Józef Piłsudski's May coup d'état of 1926 in the Second Polish Republic, he was recommended by president Ignacy Mościcki for the post Minister of Industry and Trade in the government of Kazimierz Bartel. Kwiatkowski was a minister in eight successive governments (1926–30) and Deputy Prime Minister of Poland and Minister of Finance of Poland in two governments (1935–39).

Among the most famous achievements of Kwiatkowski are the giant construction projects: the construction of Gdynia seaport, the development of the Polish Merchant Navy and sea trade, and the creation of Centralny Okręg Przemysłowy (The Central Industrial Region).

After the Soviet Union joined Nazi Germany in the invasion of Poland in 1939, he evacuated Poland with the rest of the Government on 17 September. He was interned in Romania until 1945. He returned to Poland and supervised the projects of reconstruction of the Polish seacoast, and in the years 1947–1952, he was a deputy to the Polish parliament (Sejm).

With the strengthening of the communist and Soviet grip on the Polish government, which he opposed, he fell out of favour of the communist government of the Polish People's Republic and was forced to retire in 1948. From 1952 onward, he concentrated on studies of chemistry, physics, and history.

He died in Kraków on 22 August 1974.

Honours and awards + Country

Date of issue

Order of the White Eagle 11 November 1996

Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta 9 November 1931

Commander's Cross with Star of the Order of Polonia Restituta 1972

Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta 19 July 1947

Cross of Independence 20 December 1932

Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour Unknown

Grand Cross of the Order of the Star of Romania Unknown; 1930s

Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown of Romania Unknown

Works Zagadnienie przemysłu chemicznego na tle wielkiej wojny (1923) Postęp gospodarczy Polski (Economic Progress of Poland) (1928) Polska gospodarcza w roku 1928 (Economic Poland in 1928) (1928) Powrót Polski nad Bałtyk (The Return of Poland to Baltic) (1930) Dysproporcje. Rzecz o Polsce przeszłej i obecnej (1932) "Rzecz najważniejsza Polska" - Wybór myśli politycznych i społecznych (1988) - selection of his papers