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Ludwig Kasner (né Ludwik Marian Kaźmierczak) (born 1896 in Posen (Poznań), German Empire, died 1959 in Berlin) was a German policeman of Polish ethnicity〔()〕 who worked with the Berlin Police. He was the paternal grandfather of German chancellor Angela Merkel, whose birth name ''Kasner'' is the Germanized version of ''Kaźmierczak'' that Ludwig Kasner adopted in 1930. In 2013, he received significant media attention, in Poland and Germany, after a new book shed light on Merkel's family background. This was not only due to his being of Polish origin, but also because Kasner's nephew provided a photograph of him in the uniform of the Blue Army (also known as Haller's Army) which fought for Poland's independence in the late stages of World War I.〔(Polnische Erregung über Angela Merkels Herkunft ), Die Welt〕〔(All in the Family: Chancellor Merkel's Heritage Pleases Poles ), Der Spiegel〕〔(Merkel's Polish roots emerge in new book ), The Local〕 ==Biography== He was born out of wedlock to Ludwik Wojciechowski and Anna Kaźmierczak (1867–1943), ethnic Poles and citizens of the German Empire from Posen. His mother was the daughter of Bartłomiej Kaźmierczak (born 1828) and Apolonia Bielejewicz (1826-1903). The Kaźmierczak name derives from Jan Kaźmierczak, a Pole from the Poznan area who lived in the 18th century. During World War I, he was drafted into the German Army in 1915 and fought on the western front, before being taken as a prisoner of war in France. He subsequently joined the Blue Army, a unit that fought for Polish independence on the side of the Entente Powers; however, it is not known, if he took part in any fighting against Germany. Together with the army he returned to Poland to fight in the Polish-Ukrainian war and the Polish-Soviet war.〔(''Dziadek Angeli Merkel był w armii Hallera. Walczył z Niemcami?'' ) Gazeta Wyborcza (Poznań), 23 March 2013〕 After returning from the war, he opted for German citizenship in the aftermath of the Treaty of Versailles and relocated to Berlin, the hometown of his fiancée Margarethe. He worked as a policeman in the Berlin Police, most recently in the Pankow district of Berlin, and was promoted twice, reaching the rank of ''Hauptwachtmeister'' (chief watch master, the most senior constable rank). In 1926, their son Horst Kaźmierczak was born. The family Germanized their family name from ''Kaźmierczak'' to ''Kasner'' in 1930. They still kept in contact with the Polish side of the family, visiting them in Poznan several times in the 1930s as well as receiving visits in Berlin by Polish relatives. Despite the name change, Ludwig Kasner's nephew Zygmunt Rychlicki said he always stayed true to his Polish roots.〔(The German chancellor's Polish roots ), DW〕 He was raised a Catholic, but the family converted to Lutheranism in the 1930s, and his son became a Protestant pastor.〔(Six things you didn't know about Angela Merkel ), The Guardian〕 Even before the media reports on Ludwig Kasner in 2013, Angela Merkel had said that one of her grandfathers was originally from Poland in 1995 and reiterated that she was one quarter Polish in 2000.〔(Kanzlerin Angela Merkel ist zu einem Viertel Polin ), Die Welt〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ludwig Kasner」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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