Władysław Ewaryst Plater (actually Broel-Plater;

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

, 7 November 1808 – 22 April 1889, Broelberg by Kilchberg, near

Zurich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

) was a Polish count, patriot, insurrectionist, and a cousin of

Emilia Plater Countess Emilia Broel-Plater (; 13 November 1806 – 23 December 1831) was a Polish-Lithuanian (adjective), Polish–Lithuanian szlachta, noblewoman and revolutionary from the lands of the partitions of Poland, partitioned Polish–Lithuanian C ...

. Together with

Agaton Giller Agaton Giller ( Opatówek, Congress Poland, Russian Empire, 1831 – 1887, Stanisławów, Austro-Hungary) was a Polish historian, journalist and politician. He and his brother Stefan Giller played notable roles in the Polish independence moveme ...

, he founded the Polish National Museum in

Rapperswil Rapperswil (Swiss German: or ;Andres Kristol, ''Rapperswil SG (See)'' in: ''Dictionnaire toponymique des communes suisses – Lexikon der schweizerischen Gemeindenamen – Dizionario toponomastico dei comuni svizzeri (DTS, LSG)'', Centre de dial ...

, Switzerland. Brother of Cezary Plater and cousin of

Life

A member of the noted polonised

Courland Courland is one of the Historical Latvian Lands in western Latvia. Courland's largest city is Liepāja, which is the third largest city in Latvia. The regions of Semigallia and Selonia are sometimes considered as part of Courland as they were ...

family, the Platers, Władysław Plater was a son of Kazimierz Plater and Apolinara Żaba. He took part in the November 1830 Uprising against

Imperial Russia Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor/empress, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imperial, Nebraska * Imperial, Pennsylvania * ...

. His older cousin,

, played a significant role in the struggle during which she died. His role in the armed insurrection forced him into exile. In 1832 he was one of several figures who succeeded in influencing British public opinion in favour of the Polish cause. While in exile in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

among Poland's

Great Emigration The Great Emigration () was the emigration of thousands of Poles and Lithuanians, particularly from the political and cultural élites, from 1831 to 1870, after the failure of the November Uprising of 1830–1831 and of other uprisings such as ...

, he founded the journal ''Le Polonais'' (1833–36). In 1863 Plater was again politically active in the next Polish

Uprising Rebellion is an uprising that resists and is organized against one's government. A rebel is a person who engages in a rebellion. A rebel group is a consciously coordinated group that seeks to gain political control over an entire state or a ...

against the

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

yoke. To mark the centenary of the

Bar Confederation The Bar Confederation (; 1768–1772) was an association of Polish nobles (''szlachta'') formed at the fortress of Bar, Ukraine, Bar in Podolia (now Ukraine), in 1768 to defend the internal and external independence of the Polish–Lithuanian C ...

, in 1868, Plater had a column erected surmounted by a Polish eagle with the Latin inscription, "''Magna res libertas''" (the great cause of liberty) in the Swiss town of

, on the shore of

Lake Zurich Lake Zurich (, ; ) is a lake in Switzerland, extending southeast of the city of Zurich. Depending on the context, Lake Zurich or can be used to describe the lake as a whole, or just that part of the lake downstream of the Hurden peninsula and ...

. Two years later, on 23 October 1870, he founded a Polish National Museum having taken out a 99-year lease on Rapperswil Castle. It was to become a major repository for Polish historic memorabilia, a library and archive based on donations and legacies from members of the Great Emigration. Barely a century later, the collection, previously returned to

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

in independent Poland, was set alight in 1944 by the German occupiers as part of their systematic decimation of Polish and Jewish heritage on Polish soil, in a resurgence of their earlier

Kulturkampf In the history of Germany, the ''Kulturkampf'' (Cultural Struggle) was the seven-year political conflict (1871–1878) between the Catholic Church in Germany led by Pope Pius IX and the Kingdom of Prussia led by chancellor Otto von Bismarck. Th ...

. Plater met and married the actress, Karoline Bauer in Rapperswil.

References

*Janusz S. Morkowski, ''Polish Museum, Rapperswil: Guide through the Exposition'' (triligual English-German-Polish guidebook), Rapperswil, 1994, . *Gabriela Pauszer-Klonowska, "''W Rapperswilu śladami Żeromskiego i Prusa''" ("In Rapperswil in the Footsteps of Żeromski and Prus"), ''Problemy: organ Towarzystwa Wiedzy Powszechnej'' (Problems: Organ of the Society of Universal Knowledge), ''rok XXV, nr 8 (281)''

ear XXV, no. 8 (281) In vertebrates, an ear is the organ that enables hearing and (in mammals) body balance using the vestibular system. In humans, the ear is described as having three parts: the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear. The outer ear cons ...

1969, pp. 466–70. *"Władysław Plater," ''Meyers Konversations-Lexikon'', 4. Aufl. 1888–1890, Bd. 13, S. 118 f. 1808 births 1889 deaths Activists of the Great Emigration Diplomats of the Hôtel Lambert Polish diplomats of the January Uprising Polish philanthropists Counts of Poland Wladyslaw Plater People from Rapperswil-Jona 19th-century philanthropists People from Vilnius {{Poland-noble-stub

Life

See also

References