ADAM FISCHER - WORK, PERSONALITY, AND CHOICES IN EXTREME SITUATIONS

The article discusses the academic work and personality of Adam Fischer (1889-1943), whose contribution to the development of Polish ethnology is noteworthy. In the interwar period, between 1918 and 1939, he held the Chair of Ethnology at Lvov University and was president of the Polish Ethnological Society. Moreover, he was editor of the periodical 'Lud', and published a lot, including handbooks for ethnology. An exponent of the social and national roles of ethnology, he developed cooperation with worldwide scholarship. In 1939, after Lvov was occupied by the Soviet Union, Adam Fischer, in an extremely difficult political and material situation, continued his work at a Russian university, and exchanged correspondence with the Russian ethnologist Dmitri Zelenin. The author also demonstrates the significance of biographical studies for the history of scholarship.