Wolfgang Templin (born on November 25, 1948 in Jena) was a student and doctoral candidate in philosophy at the Humboldt University in Berlin. His political departure from the GDR system began in 1976-1977, when he studied at the University of Warsaw and came into contact with the Polish opposition. In the 1980s he co-founded the human rights group "Initiative for Peace and Human Rights (IFM)" and was co-editor of the samizdat magazine "Grenzfall". Due to his dissident activities, during which his apartment became a meeting place for the opposition, the Ministry for State Security put him under massive pressure and forced him to emigrate to the Federal Republic of Germany after he was arrested in 1988. After 1989 he worked as a publicist, research assistant and in the political reappraisal of GDR history. From 2010 to 2013 he headed the office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Warsaw. On April 18, 2024, he was the first German to receive the 1st prize of the Polish Foreign Ministry in the Foreign Minister's historical competition in the category "Best foreign language publication on Polish history" for the book "Revolutionary and founder of the state. Józef Piłsudski - a biography, Berlin 2022; Polish edition: 2024). Based on the diaries of Harry Graf Kessler, who stayed in Berlin in the days around November 11, 1918 and previously put Józef Piłsudski on the train to Poland from his Magdeburg prison, Wolfgang Templin outlines his perception of this turning point that was so important for German history. He discusses the fleeing Kaiser and the surrender negotiations that went to Germany's disadvantage and were concluded on November 11, 1918. He looks at the proclamations of the Weimar Republic and the Soviet Republic on November 9th in order to paint a picture of the different political currents that proclaimed their opposing ideas for the future Germany and, according to Templin, the destructive forces of its end were already visible at the beginning of the Weimar Republic. For Poland, on the other hand, whose history was intertwined with that of Germany, not only in the case of the diplomat Harry Graf Kessler and Józef Piłsudski, the latter was sent to Warsaw with the intention of gaining a "breathing space for the German side" (Templin), where he was appointed commander-in-chief of the Polish army and the leadership of the Polish state on November 11th, 1918. The Piłsudski biographer Templin also traces the balance of power in the political landscape for the fateful day in Polish history, which marks the founding of the Second Polish Republic and, alongside Constitution Day on May 3, is still considered one of the country's most important national holidays: Piłsudski, who came from the socialist movement, knew that he had his comrades behind him and, as early as 1914, put everything on the line in order to use the opportunity for Polish independence militarily in the chaos of war. But the nationalists of the so-called National Democrats with Roman Dmowski as their leader, who fought for the borders of the new Polish state at the peace negotiations in Versailles, and the Polish educated elite, who often lived abroad, also contributed to the "miracle" of the founding of the state after 123 years. Selected publications: Wolfgang Templin, revolutionary and founder of the state. Józef Piłsudski - a biography, Berlin 2022. Wolfgang Templin, Józef Piłsudski. Od rewolucjonisty do marszałka (tłum. Marek Tybura), Warszawa 2024. Harry Graf Kessler, The Diary (1880-1937), Volume 6 1916-1918, ed. v. Günter Riederer, Roland S. Kamzelak and Ulrich Ott, Stuttgart 2024. Heidi Hein-Kircher, The Piłsudski cult and its significance for the Polish state 1926-1939, Marburg 2002 [Polish supplemented and updated version: Warszawa 2008]. Maciej Górny, Włodzimierz Borodziej, Nasza wojna. Europe Środkowo-Wschodnia 1917–1923. Tom II Narody [Our War. East Central Europe 1917–1923. Volume II. Nations], Warszawa 2018. Current web findings: Armistice of Compiègne. November 11, 1918, in: The Federal Archives 2024, URL: https://www.bundesarchiv.de/themen-en... Krzysztof Ruchniewicz, Józef Piłsudski in German prisons, Porta Polonica June 2018, URL: https://www.porta-polonica.de/de/atla... Witold Głowacki, Dominka Sitnicka, Na Marszu Niepodległości rodziny z dziećmi pięknie śpiewały: “Znajdzie się kij” [WIDZIMY TO TAK] [On the independence march, families with children sang beautifully: “A stick will find itself” [WE SEE IT LIKE THAT]], Oko.press November 12, 2024, URL: https://oko.press/na-marszu-niepodleg...