Count Adam Józef Potocki (24 February 1822,

Łańcut Łańcut (, approximately "wine-suit"; yi, לאַנצוט, Lantzut; uk, Ла́ньцут, Lánʹtsut; german: Landshut) is a town in south-eastern Poland, with 18,004 inhabitants, as of 2 June 2009. Situated in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship (si ...

– 15 June 1872,

Krzeszowice Krzeszowice (german: 1941-45 Kressendorf) is a town in southern Poland, situated in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship. As of 2004, its population was 9,993. Krzeszowice belongs to ''Kraków Metropolitan Area'', and lies 25 kilometers west of the ...

) was a Polish politician from Galicia, who was a prominent advocate for the autonomy of that region. He owned numerous estates, steel mills in

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...

, and shares in the consortium building Galicia's railway lines.

Biography

He was the son of an army officer, Artur Potocki, and his wife, Zofia née Branicka, a well-known art collector. He initially studied at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich hist ...

then, from 1839 to 1840, at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

and, in 1841, completed his studies at the

University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative ...

. Following the

Kraków uprising The Kraków uprising ( Polish: ''powstanie krakowskie'', ''rewolucja krakowska''; German: ''Krakauer Aufstand''; Russian: ''краковское восстание'') of 1846 was an attempt, led by Polish insurgents such as Jan Tyssowski and ...

of 1846, he supported the resolution that would have maintained it as a Free City, but it was annexed by Austria. In 1847 he married

Katarzyna Branicka Countess Katarzyna Branicka, Katarzyna Potocka, née Branicka Korczak coat of arms (1825–1907) was a Polish noblewoman and art collector. Through her paternal grandmother, Aleksandra Branicka, she was a putative great-grandchild of Cathe ...

, a distant relative of his mother, in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

. They had four children: Róża, who married a landowner,

Artur Artur is a cognate to the common male given name Arthur, meaning "bear-like," which is believed to possibly be descended from the Roman surname Artorius or the Celtic bear-goddess Artio or more probably from the Celtic word ''artos'' ("bear"). O ...

, a politician and insurance executive, , a politician, and . His first involvement in politics came during the

Revolutions of 1848 The Revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the Springtime of the Peoples or the Springtime of Nations, were a series of political upheavals throughout Europe starting in 1848. It remains the most widespread revolutionary wave in Europea ...

. That year, he was elected to the Imperial Diet, representing a constituency in Kraków, but resigned after only a few months, following a failed attempt to rescind the ordinance prohibiting political refugees from entering the city. Shortly after, he became a commander in the .''Polski słownik biograficzny'', 1983, Vol.XXVII After the defeat of the Revolution, he was sentenced to six years in prison, but was pardoned in 1852, He returned to politics and, from 1861, was a member of the Diet of Galicia and Lodomeria and was chosen to represent that area in the Imperial Council, and was one of the 34 members who rejected the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867. He served until 1870 when he resigned as part of a general protest against the government's continued refusal to grant autonomy to Galicia. In addition to his political career, he was active as a journalist and was one of the founders of ' ("Time"), a political magazine that was published until 1939. He died of "paralysis".

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Potocki, Adam Jozef 1822 births 1872 deaths People from Łańcut People from the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria Polish Austro-Hungarians 19th-century Polish nobility 19th-century Polish politicians Members of the Imperial Diet (Austria) Members of the Austrian House of Deputies (1861–1867) Members of the Austrian House of Deputies (1867–1870) Members of the Diet of Galicia and Lodomeria Polish journalists 19th-century Polish landowners