DOI article:
Gawlikowski, Michał; Bernhard, Maria Ludwika [Honoree]: Maria Ludwika Bernhard: 1908-1998
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41273#0009
OBITUARY
Maria Ludwika Bernhard
1908-1998
The life of Maria Bernhard covered three very different periods in Polish history, and she lived to see
the promise of a new one. To all who have known her she epitomized the courage and optimism of
a young person and the experience and good counsel of mature age, coupled with an ever-present
warmth and openness toward all. To those who remember her, as the present writer, only from her later
years, she somehow never seemed old, in spite of the difference in age.
Her first known ancestor was a grognard of the Napoleonic wars, who made the decision to settle
on Polish soil. A century later his great granddaughter still held a French passport, maintaining
strong links with the old country. At the same time, she never wavered in her commitment, sometimes
against considerable odds, to the country where she had grown up and which she very definitely
considered as her own.
She enrolled in Warsaw University in the thirties to study art history and Classical archaeolo-
gy, the latter with Kazimierz Michalowski, then a young professor appointed to the chair created for
him at this University. She became his first assistant. Her Ph.D. examination in June 1939 was
the last at the University before the outbreak of World War II.
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Maria Ludwika Bernhard
1908-1998
The life of Maria Bernhard covered three very different periods in Polish history, and she lived to see
the promise of a new one. To all who have known her she epitomized the courage and optimism of
a young person and the experience and good counsel of mature age, coupled with an ever-present
warmth and openness toward all. To those who remember her, as the present writer, only from her later
years, she somehow never seemed old, in spite of the difference in age.
Her first known ancestor was a grognard of the Napoleonic wars, who made the decision to settle
on Polish soil. A century later his great granddaughter still held a French passport, maintaining
strong links with the old country. At the same time, she never wavered in her commitment, sometimes
against considerable odds, to the country where she had grown up and which she very definitely
considered as her own.
She enrolled in Warsaw University in the thirties to study art history and Classical archaeolo-
gy, the latter with Kazimierz Michalowski, then a young professor appointed to the chair created for
him at this University. She became his first assistant. Her Ph.D. examination in June 1939 was
the last at the University before the outbreak of World War II.
7