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The Emergence of “Two Warsaws”: Transformation of the University In The emergence of “two Warsaws”: Transformation of the University in Warsaw and the analysis of the role of young, talented and spirited mathematicians in this process Stanisław Domoradzki (University of Rzeszów, Poland), Margaret Stawiska (USA) In 1915, when the front of the First World War was moving eastwards, Warsaw, which had been governed by Russians for over a century, found itself under a German rule. In the summer of 1915 the Russians evacuated the Imperial University to Rostov-on-Don and in the fall of 1915 general Hans von Beseler opened a Polish-language University of Warsaw and gave it a statute. Many Poles from other occupied territories as well as those studying abroad arrived then to Warsaw, among others Kazimierz Kuratowski (1896–1980), from Glasgow. At the beginning Stefan Mazurkiewicz (1888–1945) played the leading role in the university mathematics, joined in 1918 by Zygmunt Janiszewski (1888–1920) after complet- ing service in the Legions. The career of both scholars was related to scholarly activities of Wacław Sierpi ński (1882–1969) in Lwów. Janiszewski worked there since 1912, nostrified a doctorate from Sorbonne and got veniam legendi (1913), Mazurkiewicz obtained a doctorate (1913). During the war Sierpi ński was interned in Russia as an Austro-Hungarian subject. In 1918 he was nominated for a chair in mathematics at the University of Warsaw. The commu- nity congregating around these mathematicians managed to create somewhat later a solid mathematical school focused on set theory and its applications. It corresponded to a vision of a mathematical school presented by Janiszewski. Warsaw had an efficiently functioning mathematical community for several decades. Since 1888, it was more concentrated around the journal Prace Matematyczno-Fizyczne (Mathematical and Physical Works) published by S. Dickstein, W. Gosiewski, E. and W. Na- tanson. The two mathematical communities, or more precisely, two parts of the mathematical community functioned as “two Warsaws”, led respectively by W. Sierpi ński and S. Dickstein. Janiszewski, Mazurkiewicz, Sierpi ński as well as logicians Jan Łukasiewicz (1878– 1956) and Stanisław Le śniewski (1886–1939) became amazing leaders of a mathematical school. The group was soon joined by very young graduates of the University: B. Knaster, K. Kuratowski, A. Tarski and others. Since 1920 they published the journal Fundamenta Ma- thematicae , of worldwide renown. 32 volumes appeared before 1939; in the first volume there were papers by S. Banach (Lwów), Z. Janiszewski, K. Kuratowski, S. Mazurkiewicz, S. Ru- ziewicz (Lwów), W. Sierpi ński, H. Steinhaus (Lwów), W. Wilkosz (Kraków). Within the “second Warsaw” a group of mathematicians gathered around Aleksander Rajchman (1890–1940) was active, which included Stanisław Saks (1897–1942) and Antoni Zygmund (1900–1992). They were interested in mathematical analysis in a broad sense, but they also published in Fundamenta Mathematicae. In the talk we will also pay attention to difficult living conditions in the Second Re- public, shortage of academic positions for creative mathematicians, ethnic problems and the imminent approach of World War II, which caused immigration of a number of mathemati- cians and logicians from Poland. .
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