Wincenty Witos

Prime Minister of Poland

22 January 1874 Wierzchosławice, then Austro-Hungary, now Poland

31 October 1945(1945-10-31) (71) Kraków, Poland

10 May 1926 – 14 May 1926

Wincenty Witos (Polish pronunciation:  ; 22 January 1874 – 31 October 1945) was a Polish politician, prominent member and leader of the Polish People's Party (PSL), who served three times as the Prime Minister of Poland in the 1920s. He was a member of the Polish People's Party from 1895, and the leader of its "Piast" faction from 1913. He was a member of parliament in the Galician Sejm from 1908–1914, and an envoy to Reichsrat in Vienna from 1911 to 1918. Witos was also a leader of Polish Liquidation Committee (Polish: Polska Komisja Likwidacyjna) in 1918, head of the Piast party, and member of parliament in the Polish Sejm from 1919-1920. He served three times as the premier of Poland, in 1920–1921, 1923 (Chjeno-Piast), and 1926. In 1926 the third Witos government was overthrown by the May coup d'état led by Józef Piłsudski. Witos had been one of the leaders of the opposition to the Sanacja-government as head of Centrolew (1929–1930) and co-founded the People's Party. Having been imprisoned shortly thereafter and for a time living in exile in Czechoslovakia from 1933, he returned to Poland in 1939 only to be imprisoned again by the invading Germans. In ill health by 1945, he was nominated one of the vice-chairmen of the State National Council (Polish: Krajowa Rada Narodowa) after World War II. In 1945-46 the People's Party was reorganized and taken over by Stanisław Mikołajczyk.