Alexzander Kazcinowski

Alexzander Kazcinowski (3 November 1819 - 25 December 1894) was a prominent German politician and diplomat of Polish origin. In 1845 he entered the Landtag as a member of the Radical Faction. From 1848 until 1860, he was a member of the Deutsche Fortschrittpartei.

## Early life

Born in Poznan in 1819, his childhood was rough, his father served in the Vistula Legion during the Russian Campaign and the battle of Leipzig, his father's service in the Napoleonic Wars meant that their family was met with hostility by the Prussians who controlled Poznan. His family would be forced to move in secret across the border in Congress Poland, where his grandfather owned a small farm. There he was raised, through the occasional food shortage and Russian raid.

He did not receive any formal education due to his agrarian childhood, although his grandfather and father raised him with stories of the glory of the Commonwealth and the Winged Hussars. His grandfather claimed that an ancestor of the family rode with King Sobeiski at the Battle of Vienna, although Alexzander never personally believed this.

In 1830, his family would be forced to move again, his grandfather had his property seized by the Russian Government due to suspicion that both Alexander's grandfather and father were supporters of the Polish Uprising that occurred. His grandfather was also arrested for his ties to the uprising, after that his family fled back into Prussia where they resettled in the city of Dortmund, his father took up a job as a cobbler and Alexzander was sent to apprentice under a bookseller, where the owner sympathetic to Alexzander taught him how to read and write. It was in bookstore in Dortmund were Alexzander spent his adolescence,  reading the works of Kant, Rosseau, Smith and Hoene-Wroński, he self taught himself both French and English in order to read the works of Rousseau and Adam Smith in their native languages. He also became engrossed with the writings of the American Founding fathers.

## Diplomatic career

When he turned 18 in 1837, he was formally made a member of the Booksellers guild and released from his internship. He temporarily continued his work in the store, until in late 1837  when in the newspaper it was announced that Jozef von Tresckow-Tazcanoswki was being sent to America to act as an ambassador of sorts for the Prussian Monarchy (he was most likely sent out there in order to distance him from Prussian Political life, where his growing wealth worried established Junkers). He was looking for staffers who could speak Polish, German and English. Kazcinowski was interviewed personally in Berlin and was selected by the Half-Bastard Junker to serve as a translator.

In America he quickly integrated in American society, where he was popular among social circles for his knowledge of philosophy and American political life. He claims to even have met the President at an official state dinner, although such a claim is only spread by him. Von Tresckow-Taczanowski's failing health forced him to return to Prussia in 1841. Kazcinowski, now somewhat known in the Prussian bureaucracy, was reassigned to the Prussian embassy in Paris, where he once again served as interpreter. There he met his future wife, the daughter of a well known Pole living in exile in Paris. They were married in 1842.

In 1844, he was once again reassigned to America, once again as an interpreter for the Prussian ambassador to the USA. Since he was already well known among American elites he once again became a feature at American social gatherings. He was told stories about famed American patriots from Europe: Baron Von Steuben, Lafayette, Kościuszko and Pułaski. He was engrossed with American culture and government, believing that the American Republic with its constitution and federal system would be the best way to organize the state. Including a new Polish Republic, with its lands from Russia, Austria and Poznan, although he keeps this idea mostly to himself. He is however rather open about his love of the American Republic and how its liberal principles could be applied to Prussia.

In 1845 he was finally discharged from the foreign office and allowed to return home, once back in Prussia, he first visited the grave of Baron Jozef von Trasckow-Tazcanowski, who died in 1845 and then returned back to Dortmund, where he purchased a small townhouse to live in with his family. He then turned to the world of politics, and quickly made connections among the growing radicals in the Ruhr. While not formally in the Landtag, it was almost assured that he will win a seat in the next general election. His first son was born soon after he returned home.

*“I believe that we are all created equal,that we were born with inalienable rights and that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”*

-Alexzander Kazcinowski, 1846 at a Radical Congress. It is his personal version of the opening of the American Declaration of Independence.

## Political career

In 1845, Kazcinowski was elected to the Prussian Landtag for the Radical Faction. In 1848, he joined the DFP and remained a loyal member of the party until he migrated back to the United States in 1860.