Tradition and history of the university
The beginnings of SGGW
The Warsaw University of Life Sciences is the oldest agricultural university in Poland and the fourth of this type in Europe. Its origins date back to 1816. and are related to the establishment of the Agronomic Institute in Marymont. The advocates of its foundation were Stanisław Staszic and Stanisław Potocki, and its first director was Jerzy Benjamin Flatt (pictured left), one of the best experts in economic relations in the Kingdom of Poland.
The Agronomic Institute provided education on two levels: higher level for future economists and managers, as well as sons of landowners, and elementary level for future qualified workers. The first seat of the Institute was the Palace of Queen Marysieńka Sobieska. The university was allocated government property – Marymont with Bielany and farmhouses (Ruda Wawrzyszew, Buraków).
The fate of the Institute reflects the history of Poland. Russified, closed after the fall of the national uprisings of November and January, transferred to Puławy and then to Russia, it was continuously revived under different names. Meanwhile, in the Kingdom of Poland, attempts were still made to organize higher agricultural education. Many years of efforts led to the establishment of the Royal-Polish School of Life Sciences in 1918. After Poland regained its independence, the university was named the Warsaw University of Life Sciences.
In independent Poland
In 1919, The university was nationalized. The first statute was approved by the Head of State Józef Piłsudski. Initially, the university consisted of two faculties – Agricultural and Forestry. In 1921, Horticultural Faculty was created. The Second Republic cared about education. In 1923, the Sejm of the Republic of Poland gifted the University an 11-hectare area of land in the Mokotowski Fields, and then money for the construction of a school on Rakowiecka Street. The first Pavilion was opened in 1929. The outbreak of World War II interrupted the expansion. It was only after the war that the second pavilion was completed and the third was built. All three buildings are treated in a special way by the academic community.
World War II
During World War II, the University was closed by the occupiers, and German troops were stationed within its walls. The period of secret teaching began. During the occupation, 130 diplomas were awarded, and in 1945, 66 diplomas and three doctorates were submitted and approved. The great figures of SGGW during the occupation were: Franciszek Staff, Jerzy Grochowski, Tadeusz Gorczyński and Roman Kuntze. After the end of the war, SGGW became the first university in Warsaw to inaugurate the academic year on May 15, 1945. In 2000, the University Senate established to commemorate this event the celebration of the Festival of the University – SGGW Days.
Post-war times
After the war there was a further development of the University, expressed, among other things, by an increase in the number of faculties. In 1951, the Fourth Veterinary Faculty (formerly belonging to the University of Warsaw, located at Grochowska Street) was incorporated into the SGGW. Subsequently, further faculties were created: Agricultural Drainage (now Engineering and Environmental Shaping), Wood Technology, Zootechnical, Economic and Agricultural, and at the Horticultural Faculty a Section of Green Land Formation (now the Faculty of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture) was established.
In 1956, the Council of Ministers and the city authorities of Warsaw agreed to exchange the land on Ursynów together with neighboring farms in Wolica, Natolin and Wilanów for the land of property in Skierniewice and part of the Mokotowski Fields. The expansion of SGGW in the new location began in the 1960s, in 1989 it was transferred to the Palace in Ursynów – the former property of Krasiński – the headquarters of the University authorities, and since 2003 all faculties have been finally located here, creating one of the most modern university campuses in Europe, both in terms of architecture and equipment in research equipment. The campus was given the name Edward hr. Raczyński, which, being the heir to the Krasiński family, gave the area to the Polish state for educational purposes. The SGGW area is inextricably linked to Julian Ursin Niemcewicz, owner of these areas in the years 1822-1831.
Outstanding scholars associated with SGGW
Among the professors of SGGW there were many people of European fame and many who, in addition to scientific activities, played a great role in the development of an independent Polish state. This includes Józef Mikułowski-Pomorskie – first rector of SGGW, two-time Minister of Religious Denominations and Public Enlightenment, Minister of Agriculture, Władysław Grabski – an outstanding economist, two-time prime minister, creator of the Polish currency – zloty, Zdzisław Ludkiewicz – founder of the Agricultural Bank and Minister of Agricultural Reform. Other great figures includes Franciszek Staff, Jerzy Grochowski, Tadeusz Gorczyński, Roman Kuntze, Władysław Jedliński.
Honorary Doctors of SGGW are: Pope John Paul II, President Ignacy Mościcki,as well as nobel prize winners Norman Borlaug, Rolf Zinkernagel and Peter Doherty.