15 November marks Wrocław Science Day, commemorating the first official Polish academic lecture given in Wrocław after World War II. On that day in 1945, at 9:30 a.m. in room 305 at the Wrocław University of Science and Technology, Prof. Kazimierz Idaszewski, an eminent electrical engineer and professor at the Lviv Polytechnic National University, gave the first post-war academic lecture in Polish in Wrocław. This event symbolically inaugurated the activities of the Wrocław University and the Wrocław University of Science and Technology.
However, it is worth remembering that the first scientific lecture in Polish in Wrocław was given on 6 September 1945 by Prof. Ludwik Hirszfeld.
A world-renowned immunologist and bacteriologist, founder of academic medicine in Wrocław, gathered a group of young people – members of the Academic Guard, soon to become medical students – at the Department of Microbiology on what is now Chałubińskiego Street (formerly Robert Koch Strasse). He spoke about the latest trends in bacteriological research, convinced that post-war youth were ‘thirsty for science and knowledge’.
Although the universities did not formally come into existence until 19 September 1945, and the official inauguration of the Wrocław University and the Wrocław University of Science and Technology took place in June 1946, it is Hirszfeld’s speech that is considered the first post-war academic lecture in Wrocław.
Therefore, when celebrating Wrocław Science Day, it is worth remembering both Prof. Idaszewski’s official inaugural lecture on 15 November 1945 and Prof. Hirszfeld’s earlier pioneering speech, which became the foundation for the rebirth of Wrocław’s academic community.
Photo: Henryk Poniewierski, collection of the Museum of the Wrocław University of Science and Technology