Women founders and patrons

Not only erecting new buildings, but also protecting the valuable existing ones was important for the development of the city. A good example is the Górka Palace situated in the Old Market Square. Its fate was uncertain when the last member of the Górka Family died in 1592.

Then, Anna Petrusówna, a wealthy religious townswoman, decided to bring to the palace Benedictine nuns from Chełmno. When the Mother Superior of the order arrived in Poznań, she saw that the palace required a lot of renovation work. She asked Petrusówna to ‘take the tenement house into her care, commission craftsmen and pay them.’ Anna scrupulously saw all this work through. The nuns used the building for over 200 years until the dissolution of the order by Prussian authorities.

The drawings by the Prussian chief of police Julius von Minutoli allow us to have a glimpse of Poznań in the past. The Old Market Square with the Górka Palace and the Parish Church (1833), public domain

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Luisenschule

In the 19^th century the building renovated by Petrusówna housed a school called Luisenschule. This was the first girls’ school in Poznań established and financially supported by Princess Louise of Prussia. She was the wife of the Duke-Governor of the Grand Duchy of Posen, Prince Antoni Radziwiłł. Although she was born in Berlin, from the very beginning she was friendly towards the Poles. The school educated girls from German, Polish and Jewish families, teaching them, in particular, music and fine arts. Its graduates became valued governesses and teachers.

Princess Louise of Prussia, founder of the girls’ school, which operated in Poznań in the years 1830-1919, public domain

Julius von Minutoli – a Prussian chief of police with an artistic spirit

In 1832 Poznań saw the arrival of a young, educated official, Julius von Minutoli. Prussian authorities viewed him as ‘the most precious acquisition for the city.’ Poles were not happy about the task he was assigned. His job was to work in the interest of Germanisation, acting as the head of police – he was supposed to track and stamp out all signs of insurrectional activity. Despite that, he spoke Polish and was friends with many Poles. He tried to revive the cultural life of the city and set up the Society for Beautifying the City to make it look nicer.

Julius von Minutoli became most famous as a draughtsman. During his stay in Poznań, which lasted many years, he created more than one hundred sketches of the city. He immortalised Cathedral Island, the City Hall and Wilhelmsplatz (today’s Wolności Square) which was built in his times. His sketches were highly valued and some of them even hanged in Frederick William III’s suites in Berlin. Minutoli’s drawings are of enormous documentative value. After the war, they made it possible to reconstruct some of Poznań’s destroyed monuments.

The drawings by the Prussian chief of police Julius von Minutoli allow us to have a glimpse of Poznań in the past, public domain

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Women founders and patrons