Walenty Stefański (12 February 1813 in Śródka, Poznań County - 30 June 1877 in

Pelplin Pelplin () is a town in northern Poland, in the Tczew County, Pomeranian Voivodship. Population: 8,320 (2009). Pelplin is located in the ethnocultural region of Kociewie in Pomerania. It is home to one of the finest collections of medieval art ...

) was a bookseller and publisher from the

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (, ) was a German state that existed from 1701 to 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Rev. ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1946. It played a signif ...

. He was also a political activist and co-founder of the Polish League (Liga Polska). He supported autonomy for

Greater Poland Greater Poland, often known by its Polish name Wielkopolska (; ), is a Polish Polish historical regions, historical region of west-central Poland. Its chief and largest city is Poznań followed by Kalisz, the oldest city in Poland. The bound ...

during the Greater Poland Uprising of 1848 against

, and was a member of the

Polish National Committee (1848) Polish National Committee () was as organisation created during the Greater Poland Uprising of 1848. It was organized on March 20, 1848, at the Hotel Bazar in Poznań. During the uprising, the Polish people mounted a military insurrection in the ...

. Son of a fisherman, Stefański came from a lower-class family and was mostly self-educated. He taught himself French and Latin and learned German while working as an apprentice to a German owned printer. As a teenager he took part in the

November Uprising The November Uprising (1830–31) (), also known as the Polish–Russian War 1830–31 or the Cadet Revolution, was an armed rebellion in Russian Partition, the heartland of Partitions of Poland, partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. ...

Congress Poland Congress Poland or Congress Kingdom of 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 was established w ...

against Russian rule.

References

Witold Jakóbczyk Witold Jakóbczyk (; 15 January 1909 in Sosnowiec – 3 October 1986 in Poznań) was a Polish historian and professor at Poznań University, specializing in the history of Greater Poland in the 19th century. Publications * * * * Witold Ja ...

, ''Przetrwać na Wartą 1815-1914'', ''Dzieje narodu i państwa polskiego'', vol. III-55, Krajowa Agencja Wydawnicza, Warszawa 1989 1813 births 1877 deaths Businesspeople from the Kingdom of Prussia German publishers (people) German booksellers People from Poznań County People from the Grand Duchy of Posen Polish politicians November Uprising participants Polish political prisoners in the Prussian partition {{Poland-business-bio-stub