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 Adam Mickiewicz University is located in the City of Poznań and was established in 1919. Its original name was the Piast University. Since the moment of its foundation many distinguished scholars from all over the world as well as many outstanding personalities from politics and the fine arts have received the Honorary Degree of Doctor Honoris Causa of the University. The few names that ought to be mentioned in this respect are: Marshall Józef Piłsudski, Marshall Ferdinand Foch, Maria Skłodowska-Curie, Ignacy Paderewski and Pope John Paul II. The Ceremony of bestowing the Honorary Degree upon those whom the University Senate has decided to so distinguish is always held in the University's Small Auditorium and all those present may enjoy looking at a famous painting entitled "The Foundation of the Lubrański Academy in 1519" which has been hanging on the central wall of the Auditorium for quite some time. It was painted by our distinguished 19th century painter, Jan Matejko, in commemoration of the historic event of establishing an institution of higher education in Poznań in the early part of the sixteenth century. This was the first successful attempt to found an institution of higher learning in Poznań. One should also mention the fact that King Zygmunt III Waza granted the Jesuit College the status of a university. Unfortunately, the King's decree evoked a sharp protest on the part of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków as a result of which Pope Paul V issued a bulla in which the Kraków Academy's privileges had to be reconfirmed. The Jesuit College managed to maintain a high level of academic instruction and it conferred academic degrees as well as continued extensive publishing activities. The College was closed in 1773, following the annulment of the Jesuit Order. At the tragic time of the Partitions, through a period of over a hundred years of direct German rule, the dreams of the Poles who lived in the Wielkopolska Region to have an independent university were doomed.
However, success was finally achieved with the end of World War I as the Poznań Society of Friends of Arts and Sciences together with the Society for Academic Lectures managed to bring about the great result of establishing a university in the City of Poznań. In particular, the honour goes to the people most actively involved in the process of founding that university, that is, to Dr. Heliodor Święcicki, Dr. Michał Sobeski, Dr. Józef Kostrzewski, the authorities in Poznań, and the representatives of the Polish Government in Warsaw. With Poland's regained independence, the establishment of a University in Poznań in 1919 became a fact, and the Polish Parliament's formal decision to found the Piast University in this year marked the official beginning of the University of Poznań. That is why we may say that the foundation of the University of Poznań coincided with the rebirth of the Polish State after World War I.
On 7 May 1919, which marked the four hundredth anniversary of the foundation of the Lubrański Academy, the Commencement Ceremony of the Piast University took place. This was the name of Poznań University in the first year of its existence. At the beginning it consisted of two faculties — the Faculty of Philosophy, and the Faculty of Law. However, i 1925, already five faculties were in operation. They were: the Faculty of Law and Economics, the Faculty of Medicine, the Faculty of Humanities, the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, and the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry.
After World War II, another deeply tragic period in Poland's history, the University of Poznań was promptly reactivated and its first post-war enrolment amounted to over 4,000 students. In 1951, the Faculty of Medicine separated from the University and was organized into an independent school, the Medical Academy. In 1952, in a similar vein, the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry was separated from the University and was organized into the Higher School of Agriculture and Forestry.
The present Academy of Physical Training may also be traced back to its beginnings at the University of Poznań. At present, as in the past, the University has followed its ultimate goal of conducting high-quality research in the natural sciences and in the humanities, of offering high standards of teaching to thousands of students as well as providing Polish society and the country with highly-qualified individuals in many areas of knowledge.
From the beginning, the University had taken an extremely active part in the struggle for international recognition of the Polish western territories. Until 1955 it was officially named the University of Poznań. However, since the year 1955 the University has been named after Adam Mickiewicz, our greatest Polish Romantic poet of the first half of the 19th century. Today, the University is unquestionably the largest University in Western Poland, which enjoys a very high appreciation on the part of the community of the Wielkopolska Region.
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