Hipolit Wawelberg (1843–1901) was a

Polish Jewish The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Ashkenazi Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the lon ...

banker, and one of the most prominent members of the Wawelberg banking family. He was a known Polish patriot and a lifelong

philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...

. In 1869, following the

January Uprising The January Uprising ( pl, powstanie styczniowe; lt, 1863 metų sukilimas; ua, Січневе повстання; russian: Польское восстание; ) was an insurrection principally in Russia's Kingdom of Poland that was aimed at ...

, Hipolit Wawelberg moved to

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

where he launched a new venture, the Wawelberg Bank. Wawelberg made a fortune in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

, though he was equally well known as a generous philanthropist.

Banking career

By 1900, Wawelberg was at the helm of the Wawelberg Bank and held the title of honorable citizen of

, an appellation that could be passed on in the same way as a

title of nobility Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. The characteristi ...

. He was also a member of the management board of the Warsaw Bank of Commerce (Bank Handlowy w Warszawie), the treasury of the Jewish Colonist Society in St. Petersburg, an honorable member of the Jewish Educational Society (Obshchestvo rasprostraneniya prosveshcheniya sredi yevreyev), and a benefactor of the Roman Catholic Beneficial Society (Rimsko-katolicheskogo blagotvoritel'noye obshchestva). In 1875, in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

, Wawelberg co-founded the

Museum of Industry and Agriculture The Museum of Industry and Agriculture ( pl, Muzeum Przemysłu i Rolnictwa) is a former museum of technology and agriculture at 66, ''Krakowskie Przedmieście'' in Warsaw, Poland. History It was founded in 1866 on the initiative of Jan Tadeusz Lu ...

(''Muzeum Przemysłu i Rolnictwa w Warszawie''). It was in a physics laboratory there that, in 1890–91,

Maria Skłodowska Marie Salomea Skłodowska–Curie ( , , ; born Maria Salomea Skłodowska, ; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934) was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first ...

(Marie Curie), future investigator of radioactivity and future double

Nobel laureate The Nobel Prizes ( sv, Nobelpriset, no, Nobelprisen) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make out ...

, did her first scientific work. Wawelberg also founded the Warsaw Mechanical-Technical School in 1895, together with his faithful friend and collaborator, his brother-in-law Stanislav Rotwand (Cтанислав Ротванд), an 1860 alumnus of the

University of Saint Petersburg A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

law school.

Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wawelberg, Hipolit 1843 births 1901 deaths Bankers from the Russian Empire Polish bankers Russian philanthropists Polish philanthropists Jewish philanthropists 19th-century philanthropists