Lviv Polytechnic

Lviv Polytechnic National University ( _ua. "Львівська політехніка Національний університет", _pl. Politechnika Lwowska, _ru. "Национальный Львовский Политехнический Университет") is the largest scientific university in Lviv. Since its foundation in 1844 it was one of the most important centres of science and technological development in Central Europe. In the interbellum period, the Polytechnic was one of the most important technical colleges in Poland, together with the Warsaw Polytechnic.

History

Austrian Empire

* 1817 : The Austrian Empire opened a secondary technical school in Lemberg [http://www.math.muni.cz/~sisma/English/enskoly.html] , divided into a technical school and a commercial school.
* November 4, 1844 : The school was upgraded to the Technical Academy Lemberg. Its first director was Austrian Florian Schindler, former director of the Technical College in Brünn (Brno). The building was situated at the corner of Virmenska and Teatralna streets in the building of Darovsky. The school had two departments - technical and commercial. Education lasted three years.
* November 1, 1848 : During the Revolutions of 1848, the town's center was shelled by the Austrian artillery of General Wilhelm Hammerstein. The building of the Technical Academy was destroyed by fire. Lectures were held in Town Municipality building (3-rd floor) and continued there till 1850.
* December 4, 1850: Studies resume in the newly-restored building.
* 1851 The number of students at the Technical Academy was 220, out of which 98 were Polish, 50 Jewish, 48 German, 19 Ukrainan/Ruthenian, 4 Czech and 2 Hungarian. In the same year, professor Wawrzyniec Zmurko (graduate of the Vienna Polytechnic) became director of the Department of Mathematics, as the first Pole in the history of the school. Zmurko is considered as founder of the Lemberg School of Mathematics.
* 1852/1853: The beginning of the Academy reorganization, which was suggested by Josef Weiser. He wanted the Academy to be modelled after Paris Polytechnic, with two-level education.
* 1870 : A Decree of Emperor Franz Joseph I established Polish as the official language of the school. Most professors not proficient in Polish left the Polytechnic.
* 1872 : The Ministry of Affairs of Religions and Education gave permission to teach chemical technologies.
* March 12, 1872 : Professor of physics Feliks Strzelecki was elected as the first Rector.
* April 1, 1874 - October 1877 : Academy obtained permission to build new academic premises. Julian Zachariewicz was elected as the construction superintendent. He ordered that the facade of the building be modelled after the building of the Munich Polytechnic.
* October 7, 1877 : The first telephone conversation on the territory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire took place, followed by a lecture of Doctor Roman Gostkowski. The Telephone line connected the Assembly Hall of the Main Building with the premises of the Department of Technical Chemistry.
* November 15, 1877 : Inauguration of the new Rector - Professor of architecture Julian Zachariewicz. On the same day, consecration of newly-constructed school's building took place, carried out by three Lvov's Archbishops - Roman-Catholic, Greek-Catholic and Armenian-Catholic and witnessed by Governor of Galicia, Alfred Potocki.
* 1877 : Technical Academy was renamed to Polytechnical School ("Technische Hochschule"). However, the rector as well as other professors refrained from using a German-sounding name, and insisted on calling it in Polish "Szkola Politechniczna".
* September 13, 1880 : Emperor Franz-Joseph visited the Polytechnical School. During that visit he ordered Jan Matejko to depict the technical progress of mankind in 11 pictures. Now these pictures decorate the Assembly Hall. The Emperor signed a guest book in Polish, the book is now kept in Wrocław.
Assembly Hall with 11 pictures

* 1893 Due to efforts of Stanislaw Madejski, Minister of Education of Galicia, diplomas of the Polytechnic are regarded equal to diplomas of other renowned European schools of this kind.
* 1894 The 50th jubilee of the Polytechnical School. To commemorate that date professor Władysław Zajączkowski published the book "The Imperial Polytechnical School in Lviv. Historical essay on its foundation and development as well as its present state".
* February 13, 1894 Polytechnic School Statute was adopted.
* 1905 Lviv Polytechnical School possessed the second place in the number of students after Vienna.
* 1914 As there were no limits on foreign students, in that year students from Russian part of Poland made some 30% of all. In that year, the school owned 11 laboratories and an astronomical station, and its library had some 20 000 books.

Second Polish Republic

* November 1918Students and professors of the Polytechnic take part in the Polish-Ukrainian war over Eastern Galicia. Among those fighting on Polish side, there are Kazimierz Bartel, Stefan Bryła and Antoni Wereszczynski, who later became the rector.
* November 8, 1919Polish Government Unifies the Agricultural Academy in Dublany and Higher School of Forestry (Lwow) with Politechnical School.
* June 28, 1920Adoption of the New Statute and renaming the Polytechnical School into Lviv Polytechnic (Polish: "Politechnika Lwowska").
* November 19, 1922The Polytechnic is awarded by the Polish Government with Cross of Defenders of Lwów. Earlier in that year, Marshall of France Ferdinand Foch comes to Lwow and is awarded the title of "doctor honoris causa" of the school.
* February 23, 1931 Council of the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry of Polytechnic conferred academic rank of Honorary Doctor to professor Nils Handson (Stockholm, Sweden).
* 1934Construction of the building of the Library on Professor Street 1 was finished.
* November 11, 1936President Ignacy Mościcki awards the school with Order Polonia Restituta in appreciation of its achievements.
* October 1939The Polytechnic was renamed to Lviv Polytechnical Institute.
* July 4, 1941 (at night) On Vuletsky Hills Germans, with help from Ukrainian nationalists, shot professors of the Polytechnic Institute - Wlodzimierz Krukowski, Antoni Łomnicki, Stanislaw Pilat, Włodzimierz Stożek, Kasper Weigel, Roman Witkiewicz and others.
* July 26, 1941 Professor Kazimierz Bartel was murdered in the basements of Gestapo headquarters.
* Spring 1942 - Spring 1944Special three-month courses for electrical engineers, road and bridge civil engineers, agrarian engineers, etc. were working in the premises, of the present Mechanical Technology Department. After the war, these classes were continued in Gliwice.
* Autumn 1944The 100th jubilee of Lviv Polytechnical Institute was celebrated very quietly in Lviv - the Second World War was still going on.

Ukraine

* 1945 the Geodetic Department was founded. Most professors of Polish ethnicity, leave Lviv for Poland. The Polish traditions developed at the Polytechnic were continued at the Silesian University of Technology in Gliwice and Wrocław University of Technology.
* In October 1946 the Lviv Polytechnical Institute began to publish the periodical newspaper "Lviv Polytechnic".
* 1952 the Radio-engineering Department was founded.
* 1962 the Automation, Electromechanical and Mechanical Technology Departments was founded.
* 1966 the Economical Engineering Department was founded.
* 1967 the Department of Technology of Organic Substances was founded.
* 1970 The second building of the Library was erected.
* 1971 the Heating Engineering Department was founded.
* 1989 Democratic changes began at Polytechnical Institute
* April 10, 1991 Inauguration of the first democratically elected Rector for the last 50 years - Yu. Rudavsky.
* 1992 Computer Engineering Department and Information Technology Department was founded.
* 1992 Institute of Humanities was founded on the basis of the following chairs:
** History of Ukraine, its Science and Technology
** Ukrainian Language
** Politology
** Philosophy
** Foreign Languages (English, German, French, Spanish, Russian, Japanese)
* 1993 the Department of Applied Mathematics was founded.
* June 1993 the Lviv Polytechnical Institute got the status of university, becoming Lviv Polytechnic State University.
* 1994 Lviv Polytechnic got the status of national university becoming Lviv Polytechnic National University.

Notable alumni

* Kazimierz Bartel
* Piotr Wilniewczyc
* Wilhelm Orlik-Rueckemann
* Władysław Sikorski
* Włodzimierz Puchalski
* Jan Jagmin-Sadowski

Notable professors

* Kazimierz Bartel
* Włodzimierz Stożek
* Kazimierz Kuratowski
* Antoni Łomnicki
* Otto Nadolski

Other

* Ignacy Mościcki

References

* [http://www.lp.edu.ua/general/history.html.en History overview] at the [http://www.lp.edu.ua/index.php?id=116 University web-site]