‘The choice of Marek Krajewski as this year’s Civitate Wratislaviensi Donatus is very natural for us,’ says Jacek Sutryk. Four years ago, the most important Wroclaw title went to the subsequent Noble Prize winner Olga Tokarczuk.
‘We want to reward another person strongly connected with culture who brings fame to Wroclaw, its inhabitants and history through literature. Mr Marek Krajewski has often proved over the years that he is great at this, and his books contain a rich and interesting history of our city that was not known to readers until then,’ the Mayor of Wroclaw justifies the writer’s candidature.
Marek Krajewski is one of the most popular and best-selling Polish prose writers. All of his novels have sold in 1.5 million copies and have been translated into 20 languages. In addition, the Capitol Theatre stages Mock. Czarna burleska [Mock. A Black Burlesque] – a musical based on Krajewski’s novels, which has been played over 70 times until now. In the past, Wroclaw Współczesny Theatre staged a play about Eberhard Mock. Mock was also a protagonist of one of TV Theatres (the scenes were shot in the Centennial Hall).
It is also worth noting the recent premiere of the TVP series Erynie, which is also based on Marek Krajewski’s novels (the filming partly took place in Wroclaw).
‘The honorary citizenship of Wroclaw – my home city, whose German and Polish past I have covered in many novels – is a great honour to me. I was happy to learn from the Mayor of Wroclaw Jacek Sutryk a few days ago that the formal procedure of granting this prestigious title to me had started. Civitate Wratislaviensi Donatus means “granted the citizenship of Wroclaw’ in my beloved ancient Roman language. I am grateful for this gift in spe already now,’ Marek Krajewski comments upon his nomination.
As you may remember, Krajewski has written not only a series of books on Eberhard Mock, but also a series of novels on Superintendent Edward Popielski with a plot set in pre-war Poland: Lwów, Warsaw and Vilnius...
'I hope that Marek Krajewski’s candidature will be unanimously supported by city councillors of Wroclaw. It is an unquestionably apolitical candidature. A writer of recognised reputation, whose novels help promote Wroclaw and its history around the world,’ says Sergiusz Kmiecik, the chairman of the City Council of Wroclaw.
The city councillors will vote on the choice of this year’s Honorary Citizen of Wroclaw during the April session. The award ceremony will take place as usual on 24th June, which is the holiday of Wroclaw.
Marek Krajewski (born 4th September 1966 in Wroclaw) – a Polish writer and classical philologist, a specialist in Latin linguistics, a PhD in humanities, a former lecturer of the University of Wroclaw. In 1985–1991, he studied classical philology at the University of Wroclaw. He received his master’s degree in 1992 and defended a doctoral dissertation The Prosody of Greek Loanworks in Plaut’s Works in 1999. He worked as a librarian, a sales assistant and a storekeeper; since 1992, he has been successively an assistant lecturer, an assistant professor and a senior lecturer at the Institute of Classical Philology and Ancient Culture of the University of Wroclaw. He has engaged professionally in writing since 2007.
He is the author of a series of detective novels on Eberhard Mock – an employee of the Wroclaw Police Praesidium (13 books published since 1999) and on Edward Popielski – a police officer working in various cities, including Lwów, in the interwar period (11 books).
Krajewski’s contribution to the promotion of Wroclaw in his novels was honoured in June 2008, when he received the title of Ambassador of Wroclaw. On 21st October 2015, he was awarded the Gloria Artis Silver Medal.
Apart from that, Marek Krajewski won the German Georg-Dehio-Buchpreis award for his literary output in 2016 and was decorated with the Medal of the 100th Anniversary of Independence in 2019.
