Izrael Poznański
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Izrael Kalmanowicz Poznański (b. 1833 in Aleksandrów - 1900 in Łódź, Poland) was a philanthropist, textile magnate, a successful Polish-Jewish industrialist in Łódź, and the husband of Elenora Hertz Poznański.
One of the most eminent entrepreneurs in the Russian-dominated part of Poland, Poznański was the son of a Jewish merchant of Kowal, who built up a textile empire and became, next to Karl/Karol Scheibler, the most important manufacturer of Łódź, a 'multicultural' city mainly populated by Poles (Catholic and Jewish) and Germans. The bourgeoisie of these groups was described in Reymont's novel about Łódź The Promised Land (Ziemia Obiecana), later filmed by Andrzej Wajda.
The role of Poznański and other investors, typical representatives of early industrialization, has often been distorted, not only by partisan historians of the former socialist period (also influenced by subtle anti-Semitism). Until today, the role of 'capitalists', be it in Britain ("Manchester capitalism"), Germany or Poland has been depicted in a biased, negative way, underlining mass misery and exploitation. Credit must be given to the critics' aim, most prominently in the works of Marx and Engels, to depict the misery of the masses. However, a more balanced judgement has to take into account that it was market economy, vulgo 'capitalism', and industrialization which led the masses out of centuries of misery of feudalism, personal dependence and agricultural methods of production, by rapid growth with quick effects also on the social sitation of workers. Whatever can be said about social discrepancy and, e.g. in Poland, class society, it must be underlined that the thousands of peasants coming to Łódź (after 1830) and to other industrial centres did so because - in the logic of the market - their economic situation improved and was an alternative to labour in agriculture. Nor were the 'capitalists' of Łódź without 'social conscience'. On the contrary, they often engaged in philanthropic activities. In Central Europe, they provided especially their workers and families with well-organised facilities like dwellings, schools, hospitals and modest social security.
Since 1989 the city of Łódź has rediscovered its industrial heritage, a unique ensemble of architecture, preserved despite two World Wars. The sites linked to Poznański's memory are among the most prominent ones of the city: the huge factory buildings in Ogrodowa Street; the nearby Poznanski Palace, today a museum (including an exhibition about Arthur Rubinstein, another 'Lodschermensch'); and Poznański's marble tomb in the Jewish cemetery, the biggest Israelite graveyard in Europe. Although Poznański was devout to the belief of his ancestors, it must be noted that the generous style of his grave monument is scarcely compatible with Jewish tradition, as that religion forebids any luxury for funerals and tombs. (From Findagrave - copied by the author.)
More about Poznanski's Łódź can be found here. For the German reader, Doeblin's "Reise in Polen" can be recommended (although about the Jewish Łódź of the 1920s). Also see also the description of Karl/Karol Scheibler's monument, the gravesite of another Lodz tycoon here.
The mausoleum of Izrael and Eleonora Hertz Poznanski is probably the largest Jewish tombstone in the world. The mausoleum and mosaic covering the inside of the dome were restored in 1993.
