KWIATKOWSKI, Eugeniusz Felicjan

From 1907 to 1910, K. studied at the Faculty of Chemistry of the Swiss Technical College. He continued his education until 1912 at the Faculty of Chemistry of the Technical College in Munich. He conducted scientific research on synthetic dyestuffs in the workshop of G. Schultz. He was particularly interested in the chemistry of carbon and similar raw materials. He conducted experiments in this field in the laboratory of the Gas Institute in Lodz, and in the National Administration for Gases in Lwow. Between 1913 and 1916, he ran the municipal gasworks in Lubin. After publishing his findings on the use of local raw materials in the chemical industry, he was accepted as an assistant professor at the Faculty of Chemistry of the Technical College in Warsaw in 1921. There he lectured on the processes of gas extraction and on the chemistry of carbon. Ignacy Mościcki, the then director-general of the national factory of azo compounds in Chorzów and the later president of the Republic of Poland, appointed K. as the director of this factory in 1923. From 1926 to 1930, as the minister of industry and commerce, K. was a member of the government. He supported the building of a harbour in Gdynia. Under his leadership, this place became one of the cargo harbours of the Baltic Sea and one of the largest harbours in Europe. In 1930, he resigned his post and became the director-general of the national factory of azo compounds in Mościce, today Tarnów near Krakow. The factory, which was one of the most important industrial plants in Poland in the interwar years, went bankrupt due to the economic crisis. K. saved the company by introducing an appropriate pricing and credit policy. In 1933, he became the director-general of the merged factories of azo compounds in Chorzów and Mościce, thus contributing to the creation of a Polish chemical industry. From 1935 to 1939, he was the deputy minister of scientific affairs and the deputy finance minister. In addition to building a harbour in Gdynia, one of his greatest successes was the building of a central industrial zone under the four-year investment plan, which was adopted in 1936. On his initiative, numerous industrial plants for weapons production, power plants, and mechanical factories were set up. During World War II, K. was interned in Romania. At that time, he was occupied with scientific work. The manuscript Description of the History of World Economy was published in book form in 1947. In 1945, he returned to his homeland and took over the office of the plenipotentiary for coastal affairs, and contributed to the fast renovation of the destroyed harbours in Gdańsk, Gdynia, and Szczecin. Nonetheless, due to political reasons, he was replaced as soon as 1948. Afterwards, K. once again focused on his scientific work. In 1934, K. became a member of the Academy of Technical Sciences in Warsaw, and in 1974 the University of Gdańsk awarded him the title doctor of economic science.