Letter from the President of The Republic of Poland
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Thankful for the invitation to the Ceremonial Meeting of the 48th Baltic Nations Kommers I am sending warm greetings to all participants of the event from Estonia, Latvia, Germany and Poland. Holiday, you are celebrating today, is important and needed. I am happy that—for the first time in its history—Baltic Nations Kommers takes place in Poland.
Poles were present at the Baltic universities, Tartu University and Riga University of Technology, nearly from the very beginning of their existence. On one side, spirit of these schools had a great influence on shaping the intellectual and moral character of the Polish intelligentsia of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, on the other side, numerous Polish students attending the schools had a great influence on life and social relations of both universities. Uniqueness of Tartu and Riga Almae Matris was shaped by their liberal character, unknown to other Russian universities and the presence of students’ fraternities. In both, Tartu and Riga, rules of students’ conduct, was defined by fraternities which taught taking responsibility for one’s own deeds, shaped men’s characters and prepared them for service of benefit to the society after graduation. Multinational character of Tartu and Riga burschenstaats enabled students to learn each other, understand and respect one another, and cooperate through life among different nationalities.
Friendships and cooperation between Polish, Latvian and Estonian fraternities, that had begun before the Great War were confirmed with cartels between Welecja and Talavija (1923), Konwent Polonia and Fraternitas Estica (1933) and Welecja and Vironia (1936). At the beginning of the 21st century those acts were confirmed as material documentation of the durability of these relationships.
Tartu and Riga have given Poland many extraordinary scientists, community organizers and politicians.I am thinking here especially about Arkonia’s philister LtGen Władysław Anders, framer of Polish socialism Konwent Polonia’s philister Bolesław Limanowski and one of my predecessors President of the Republic of Poland prof. Ignacy Mościcki who was a philister of Welecja. Personally I am proud of the fact that my great-grandfather, Piotr Jan Komorowski, was an alumni of Tartu University and a philister of Konwent Polonia.
I am convinced of the need of maintaining close mutual relationships between corporants from Germany, Latvia, Estonia and Poland. The history confirms my belief that they are an excellent starting point for building good relationships between our nations.
I wish you that the 48th Baltic Nations Kommers will be a good starting point.
Bronisław Komorowski