If you are interested in the history of the Ossolineum, we recommend a timeline which clearly presents the most important events in the history of the Ossolineum. If you are curious, you may want to take a look at a more detailed calendar of the Ossolineum, which includes references to further reading and biographical sketches of the Ossolineum's founders.
The history of the National Ossolinski Institute is more than two hundred years old. It was founded in 1817 during the Austrian partition and operated under the partitions for more than a century. Lwów (Lviv) changed hands several times during the two world wars. This did not leave the Ossolineum unscathed.
Although the agreement on the establishment of the Lubomirski Museum was signed by Ossoliński and Lubomirski in 1823, it was not opened to the public until almost half a century later. The condition for its opening was the establishment of the Entail of Przeworsk. In the meantime, Prince Henryk had to spend a lot of time in St Petersburg, suing for his estates. These were turbulent times. In 1831 an uprising broke out in the neighbouring Partition of Russia. The second director of the Ossolineum was imprisoned for his independence activities and the printing house, a source of income for the institute, was closed for 13 years. The Galician Rabacja took place in 1846. Although the Springtime of Nations in 1848 was relatively peaceful in Lwów (Lviv), it ended with an unexpected bombardment, during which the Austrian commander happily forgot about the Ossolineum. In the Austrian partition, a conciliatory attitude began to prevail - a belief that more freedoms could be achieved through reconciliation and loyalty. It was only in 1868 that the Entail of Przeworsk was founded by Henryk's son, Jerzy Henryk (1817-1872). The Lubomirski collections were moved from Przeworsk to Lvov in 1869, and a year later, in 1870, the Lubomirski Museum was opened to the public. Shortly afterwards, in 1878, the Ossolineum was granted the exclusive right to print and sell school textbooks in the area of the Austrian partition. This was a new and stable source of income. The end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century were periods of development for the Ossolineum.
During the First World War, Lwów (Lviv) was occupied by Russia and then retaken by Austria, before becoming part of independent Poland. However, the beginning of the 20th century was marked by the Polish-Ukrainian conflict over Lwów (Lviv), which lasted from November 1918 to May 1919. The inter-war period, on the other hand, was a period of prosperity for the Institute. In 1919, the Ossolineum Publishing House was established as a separate company on the basis of the former School Book Publishing House, bookbindery and printing house, and soon became one of the leading publishers of academic works and school textbooks. In 1933 it took over the publication of the National Library (Biblioteka Narodowa) series, which has been published since 1919. Today it is the oldest publishing series in Poland. It publishes academic editions of Polish and foreign literature.
After the outbreak of the Second World War, Lwów (Lviv) fell into Soviet hands. The occupiers liquidated the Lubomirski Museum and its collections were dispersed and distributed among the emerging Ukrainian institutions. The Ossolineum Library survived. However, it was administered by the Soviet authorities. The collections of the Institute became de facto the collections of the Library of the Academy of Sciences in Kiev. In 1941, Lwów (Lviv) passed into German hands. The Ossolineum was incorporated into the structure of the Lwów (Lviv) State Library (Staadtsbibliothek Lemberg). For some time the authorities of the Ossolineum worked in conspiracy. At the end of the war, Lwów (Lviv) again passed into Soviet hands and the Ossolineum was taken over by the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
When the war ended, Lwów (Lviv) became part of the Soviet Union. The Communists began to take power in Poland. The Polish scientific and cultural community demanded the restoration of the Ossolineum. It was reconstructed in 1946 in the "Recovered Lands" in Wroclaw. Unfortunately, only about 30% of the Ossolineum's pre-war collections made it to the new location. These were mainly library collections. The collection of the liquidated Lubomirski Museum remained almost entirely in Lwów (Lviv).
In 1951, the communist authorities of People's Poland established the Polish Academy of Sciences. In its early days, this institution was in fact an instrument of control over scientific life in Poland, taking over a number of scientific societies and foundations. The National Ossolinski Institute was not spared. From 1953, two independent structures operated within the Polish Academy of Sciences: The Ossolinski Institute - Library and the Ossolinski Institute - Publishing House. The adjective 'national' disappeared from the official names.
From 1990 to 1995, Adolf Juzwenko (b. 1939) was the director of the Ossolineum Library, the oldest and largest part of the Ossolineum. From the moment he took up his post, he endeavoured to restore the Ossolineum's status as a foundation. This was finally achieved by a decision of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland, which on 5 January 1995 passed an Act on the Foundation - the National Ossolinski Institute. Dr. Adolf Juzwenko was the director of the National Ossolinski Institute from 1995 to 2022. Since 2022, the position has been held by Dr. Łukasz Kamiński (born in 1973).
For those interested in history, there is also a subpage with short biographies of all the historical directors.
