Warsaw to mark 2017 as year of Woodrow Wilson
PR dla Zagranicy
Paweł Kononczuk
04.02.2017 11:00
Warsaw City Hall has decided that 2017 will be marked in the Polish capital as the year of Woodrow Wilson.
Former US President Thomas Woodrow WilsonPach Brothers, New York/commons.wikimedia.org
Concerts, exhibitions and seminars will highlight the former US president’s role in helping Poland regain its independence in 1918.
The move comes as Poland prepares to celebrate the 100th anniversary of its independence after World War I.
Warsaw mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz said at a conference in City Hall on Friday: "On 22 January 1917, Wilson delivered his famous speech... in which he recognized the rebirth of Poland as one of the objectives of the war.
“It was something unexpected, a special moment in history, because, let's be honest, who remembered a country which had not existed for 120 years.”
Wilson, (1856-1924) was US president from 1913 to 1921.
Gronkiewicz-Waltz said Wilson’s stance was largely due to Ignacy Jan Paderewski (1860-1941), the legendary Polish pianist and composer who was also a prominent statesman.
Paderewski "taught music to Wilson’s children, among others. He spoke with the president (...) he was a citizen of the world, all the while thinking about Poland and about Poland regaining its independence," Gronkiewicz-Waltz added.
(pk)
Source: PAP