Stefan Giller (1833–1918) was born in

Opatówek Opatówek is a town of 3,800 inhabitants in central Poland, situated southeast from Kalisz, in the Kalisz County in the Greater Poland Voivodeship. The commune ( Gmina) of Opatówek, including the town of Opatówek and 26 other villages, has abo ...

Congress Poland Congress Poland, Congress Kingdom of Poland, or Russian Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It w ...

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. ...

. With his elder brother, Agaton Giller, Stefan played an active role in the Polish independence movement and in the

January 1863 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 ...

Life

Stefan Giller was a poet, an epigone of

Polish Romanticism Romanticism in Poland, a literary, artistic and intellectual period in the evolution of Polish culture, began around 1820, coinciding with the publication of Adam Mickiewicz's first poems in 1822. It ended with the suppression of the January 1863 ...

, a teacher of Polish language and literature at schools in Kalisz when the

Imperial Russia The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, 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 th ...

n government sought to eradicate the Polish language from public life. He was highly valued and respected by his students, who included the future president of Poland, Stanisław Wojciechowski, the future chancellor of the University of Vilnius, Alfons Parczewski, and many leading physicians and lawyers. In 1997, librarians from Opatówek found many documents, letters, manuscripts, books and objects that had been owned by the Gillers, in their attic. The letters, the most valuable part of the find, have been published as ''Unknown Letters of the Giller Family''.

References

1833 births 1918 deaths 19th-century Polish writers Polish poets People from Kalisz County {{Poland-poet-stub