Jan Buzek

Who was Jan Buzek?

Dr. Jan Jerzy Buzek was a Polish physician, activist and politician from the region of Zaolzie, Czechoslovakia.

Buzek was born in Końska as a son of a peasant. He graduated from primary school there, and later from the German gymnasium in Cieszyn. He later decided to study medicine at Jagiellonian University in Kraków and graduated in 1901. In 1902 he became a municipal and miners' doctor in the coal mining village of Doubrava. He worked in Orlová, where he helped to found the Juliusz Słowacki Polish Grammar School. In World War I he served in the Austrian Army as a doctor.

Buzek also lectured at various schools. From a young age he was active in Polish cultural and educational organizations, eventually becoming chairman of many of them, including Związek Harcerstwa Polskiego in Czechoslovakia. He was a co-founder of the Polish People's Party, a Polish political party in Czechoslovakia of a Protestant and liberal character. In 1931 Buzek became a leader of this party. He was a member of the National Assembly of Czechoslovakia in Prague from 1929 to 1935.