Poznan, University of

(Adam Mickiewicz University), one of Poland’s foremost institutions of higher education, founded in 1919 through the efforts of the Poznań Society of Lovers of Learning, headed by H. Święcicki. During the 1920’s and 1930’s the university had faculties of economics and law, medicine, the humanities, the natural sciences and mathematics, agriculture, and forestry. During World War II it was closed (a German university was organized on the premises), but it continued to function underground in Warsaw as the University of the Western Lands. Many members of the faculty perished during the occupation, and the university buildings were destroyed.

The university was reopened in 1945, and since 1951 it has had five faculties: biology and earth sciences; philology; philosophy and history; law; and mathematics, physics, and chemistry. In 1955 it was named in honor of Adam Mickiewicz. In the academic year 1973–74 the university had a student body of 13,000 and a faculty of 1,200, including 180 professors. The university library contains about 2 million volumes.