WODZICKI LUDWIK (1834 - 1894)
Marshal of Sejm of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria of IV term (8 August 1877 -
24 July 1880)
Born on 19 August 1834 in Cracow, died on 11 August 1894 in Douai (France). He came
from a well-off aristocratic family. Educated at home, he continued learning at the Saint Anna
Gimnazjum (Secondary School) in Cracow 1850 - 1852, studied law at the Jagiellonian
University 1852 - 1855 and in Vienna 1855 - 1856. He took numerous trips to Europe, Africa
and Asia Minor, and having returned home, he took to managing his own land estate at
Tyczyn near Rzeszów. During his trips abroad he made contact with the political emigration
of the Lambert Hôtel in Paris and was a correspondent of its Foreign Bureau 1860 - 1864.
During the January Insurrection 1863 a follower of the 'white' camp, became a member of a
secret National Committee of West Galicia. He participated in fights in the Kingdom of
Poland in a detachment of general Zygmunt Jordan. Avoided an arrest in Cracow 1864,
emigrated to England, where he returned from after an amnesty declaration 1865. In Cracow
he founded and published, together with Stanisław Koźmian, Józef Szujski and Stanisław
Tarnowski, a political-literary monthly 'Przegląd Polski' (Polish Review) 1866. There they
published a series of political pamphlets "Teka Stańczyka" , which gave name to a
conservative political group in Galicia. Elected deputy to the National Sejm in Lvov from
Cracow district of I kuria, 1865. In subsequent years, he ran for parliament in his home area,
first from the kuria of larger property (Rzeszów district, 1867, 1870) then from the kuria of
rural communes (Tyczyn and Strzyżów districts, 1876, 1883 and Nisko district, 1888), each
time getting a sejm seat. A member of the Deputy Chamber of the State Council in Vienna
1867 - 1877, he gradually came to the fore of the Polish Club politicians, advocated Galicia's
autonomy. As a member of joint delegations of Austrian and Hungarian parliaments, he
participated in their debates from 1873. Nominated national marshal by the emperor on 10
July 1877 and raised to the rank of secret chancellor thanks to the influence of Alfred Potocki,
the governor of Galicia,. Holding that office, he inclined towards softening an anti-Russian
atmosphere in the country caused by the Russian-Turkish war of 1877 - 1878, won Vienna's
respect and a life membership in the Chamber of Lords on 3 April 1878. Emperor Franz
Joseph's visit to Galicia in 1880, which was co-organised by Wodzicki, proved to be his
unquestionable political success. With his nomination to the president of a newly formed
Bank for Crown Countries in Vienna on 21 November 1880, he resigned the marshal's office.
He settled in Vienna and opened a salon, highly esteemed in Polish social circles. A member
of numerous organisations in Galicia, among others, the Galician Farming Society in Lvov
from 1861, chairman of the Board of Directors of the Galician Bank for Trade and Industry in
Cracow 1874 - 1877. Awarded the Order of Iron Crown.
Portrait of Ludwik Wodzicki, 1880
Painted by Henryk Siemiradzki
oil, canvas, 122 x 85 cm
National Museum in Cracow, cat. No II-a-530.