Józef Piłsudski (1867-1935) is considered the founder of modern Poland, which emerged in 1918 after more than 120 years of partition, and one of the most important European statesmen of his time. Wolfgang Templin portrays him as a person full of contradictions. Leader of the Polish Socialists before World War I, Piłsudski ruled autocratically in the Second Polish Republic from 1926. But he kept his distance from fascist and totalitarian regimes in other countries. He saw Poland as a home for many nations. Today, it is above all the national Catholics who want to appropriate him for themselves. At that time, the Polish right accused him of his origins in what is now Lithuania, his religious indifference and his closeness to the socialists.

Wolfgang Templin reads excerpts from his new book and talks with publicist Marko Martin not only about Józef Piłsudski, but also about the long history of Polish-Soviet/Russian relations.

An event in cooperation with the Robert-Havemann-Gesellschaft e. V. (The Robert-Havemann-Gesellschaft is supported by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media and the Berlin Commissioner for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship)

The book "Revolutionary and Founder of the State. Józef Piłsudski - A Biography" is available on site. The book is published by @Ch.Links.Verlag.

Admission is free.

For participation please register at kontakt(at)museum-karlshorst.de