The story
From the beginning, the history of the Adam Mickiewicz University has been inextricably linked to the history of Poznań itself and in some measure – the history of the entire Republic of Poland, which, partitioned by the neighboring countries (Prussia, Austria-Hungary and Russia) towards the end of the eighteenth century disappeared from the European map for more than a hundred years. On 28 October 1611, when under the Royal Charter granted by King Sigismund III Vasa, the Jesuit College became the first university in Poznań. These edicts were later affirmed with charters issued by King John II Casimir in 1650, and King John III Sobieski in 1678, the university in Poznań lasted until 1773. Based on these charters, the university granted scholar degrees to its members.
The inauguration ceremony of the newly founded took place on 7 May 1919, that is 308 years after it was formally established by the Polish king and the 400th anniversary of the foundation of the Lubrański Academy which is considered its spiritual predecessor. Its original name was Piast University (Polish: Wszechnica Piastowska), which later in 1920, was renamed to the University of Poznań (Polish: Uniwersytet Poznański). In 1920, sociologist Florian Znaniecki founded the first Polish department of sociology at the university, one of the first such departments in Europe. In the same period of the university's history, botanist Józef Paczoski founded the world's first institute of phytosociology.
After the invasion of Poland, Poznań was annexed by Germany and the university was closed by the Nazis in 1939. It was reopened as a German university in 1941, which operated until 1944. Staff and students of the Polish university, some of them expelled by Germans to Warsaw, opened an underground Polish University of the Western Lands (Polish: Uniwersytet Ziem Zachodnich), whose classes met in private apartments (see Education in Poland during World War II). Many of the professors and staff were imprisoned and executed in Fort VII in Poznań, including professor Stanisław Pawłowski (rector in the years 1932–33). The Polish university reopened, in much smaller form, after the end of World War II. In 1950, the Medical Faculty, including the Dentistry section and the Faculty of Pharmacy, were split off to form a separate institution, now the Poznań University of Medical Sciences. In 1955, the University of Poznań adopted a new patron, the 19th-century Polish Romantic poet Adam Mickiewicz, and changed to its current name.
From Wikipedia’s article on Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4