Agata Kornhauser-Duda (born 2 April 1972) is a Polish former teacher and the current

First Lady of Poland First Lady of the Republic of Poland is an informal designation customarily applied to the wife of the president of the Republic of Poland (as so far all Polish presidents have been male). The First Lady does not hold a constitutional position and ...

. She is married to the

president of Poland The president of Poland ( pl, Prezydent RP), officially the president of the Republic of Poland ( pl, Prezydent Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej), is the head of state of Poland. Their rights and obligations are determined in the Constitution of Polan ...

Andrzej Duda Andrzej Sebastian Duda (; born 16 May 1972) is a Polish lawyer and politician who has served as president of Poland since 6 August 2015. Before becoming president, Andrzej Duda was a member of Polish Lower House (Sejm) from 2011 to 2014 and the ...

Background and family

Kornhauser was born in

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

, the child of

Julian Kornhauser Julian Kornhauser (born 20 September 1946 in Gliwice, Poland) is a Polish poet and literary critic. He was born to a Jews, Jewish father and a Catholic Church, Catholic mother, as a son of Jakub and Małgorzata Kornhauser. He is an author of poe ...

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

descent writer, translator and literary critic and Alicja Wojna, a Polish philologist. She has one brother, Jakub, a poet and translator. She has been married to

since 21 December 1994. Together they have one daughter, Kinga, born in 1995, a law student.

Professional career

She is a German teacher at the

Jan III Sobieski High School, Kraków Jan III Sobieski High School in Kraków is a high school in Kraków, Kraków, Poland. It was founded in 1883. History The school was founded as a tribute to King Jan III Sobieski and his victory at battle of Vienna. The new building, which is sti ...

, where she has worked since 1998. She has been described as a demanding but fair and dedicated teacher, and during the presidential campaign only took one day off, vowing to stay with her students until the end of the school year. The school is her husband's alma mater, she herself attended its rival

Bartłomiej Nowodworski High School Bartłomiej Nowodworski High School (''I Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. Bartłomieja Nowodworskiego''; unofficially known as: Nowodworek) in Kraków, Poland is one of the oldest secondary schools in Poland. Its current location is on Na Groblach Sq ...

. She wrote her dissertation on the

tetralogy A tetralogy (from Greek τετρα- ''tetra-'', "four" and -λογία ''-logia'', "discourse") is a compound work that is made up of four distinct works. The name comes from the Attic theater, in which a tetralogy was a group of three tragedies ...

Horst Bienek Horst Bienek (May 7, 1930 in Gleiwitz – December 7, 1990 in Munich) was a German novelist and poet. Life Born in Gleiwitz, Upper Silesia, Germany (today Gliwice, Poland), Bienek was forced to leave there in 1945, when Germans were expelled ...

at the

Jagiellonian University The Jagiellonian University (Polish: ''Uniwersytet Jagielloński'', UJ) is a public research university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1364 by King Casimir III the Great, it is the oldest university in Poland and the 13th oldest university in ...

, where she and her husband met.

First Lady of Poland

She became the

first lady of Poland First Lady of the Republic of Poland is an informal designation customarily applied to the wife of the president of the Republic of Poland (as so far all Polish presidents have been male). The First Lady does not hold a constitutional position and ...

on 6 August 2015, when her

husband A husband is a male in a marital relationship, who may also be referred to as a spouse. The rights and obligations of a husband regarding his spouse and others, and his status in the community and in law, vary between societies and cultures, ...

became president. On 24 May 2015, he won the second round of the

presidential election A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President. Elections by country Albania The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public. Chile The pre ...

, achieving 51.55% of the vote against the 48.45% won by his rival, the incumbent

Bronisław Komorowski Bronisław Maria Komorowski (; born 4 June 1952) is a Polish politician and historian who served as President of Poland from 2010 to 2015. Komorowski served as Minister of Defence from 2000 to 2001. As Marshal of the Sejm, Komorowski exercised ...

. During the campaign she supported her husband by appearing in party broadcasts. In terms of her own political beliefs, she has been described as more liberal than Andrzej Duda by her brother.

Honours

Foreign honours

*: Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold (13 October 2015) *: Dame Grand Cross of the

Royal Norwegian Order of Merit The Royal Norwegian Order of Merit (Norwegian: ''Den Kongelige Norske Fortjenstorden'' (Bokmål) or ''Den Kongelege Norske Fortenesteordenen'' (Nynorsk)) was instituted by King Olav V in 1985. It is awarded to foreigners, Norwegian citizens livin ...

(23 May 2016) *: Grand Cross of the

Order of the White Rose of Finland The Order of the White Rose of Finland ( fi, Suomen Valkoisen Ruusun ritarikunta; sv, Finlands Vita Ros’ orden) is one of three official orders in Finland, along with the Order of the Cross of Liberty, and the Order of the Lion of Finland. ...

(24 October 2017)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kornhauser-Duda, Agata 1972 births First Ladies of Poland Schoolteachers from Kraków Jagiellonian University alumni Language teachers German-language education Polish people of Jewish descent Living people