Author
Adam Heydel 1893-1941

He was born on 6 December 1899 in Gardzienice near Radomsko. He studied law at the Jagiellonian University where he gained his PhD in 1922. In parallel with his studies, from 1919 to 1921 he worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and then dedicated himself to academic work, obtaining a habilitation in political economics in 1925. From 1927, he taught economics at the Jagiellonian University and in 1929 he became associate professor. He also taught at the School of Political Sciences and at the Cracow Higher School of Commerce. He was a strong supporter of economic liberalism, whereas politically he was associated with the moderate wing of the nationalist camp. He was a vocal critic of the statism and interventionism that dominated the economic policy of interwar Poland. In the years 1930–1931, he was president of the National Club in Cracow. His university chair was taken away from him in 1933 for his harsh criticism of the Piłsudski camp and he only returned in 1937. From 1934, he was the Head of the Institute of Economics of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences. In November 1939, he was arrested by the Germans together with a group of Jagiellonian University professors and spent several months in the Sachsenhausen camp. He was released in February 1940, but in January 1941 he was arrested again and sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp where he died on 14 March 1941.Most important works: Podstawowe zagadnienia ekonomii [Basic Issues of Economics] (1925), Kapitalizm i socjalizm wobec etyki [Ethics of Capitalism and Socialism] (1927), Czy i jak wprowadzić liberalizm ekonomiczny? [Whether and How Economic Liberalism Should Be Introduced] (1931) Pojęcie produktywności [The Concept of Productivity] (1934), Teoria dochodu społecznego [A Theory of Social Income] (1935).

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