5. 1864 – Father Doctor Jerzy Prutek
A priest, born in Cieszyn on 7 April 1807, he was a philosophy graduate of the University of Vienna and a theology graduate of the University of Olomouc. Later he was awarded his PhD. He was ordained in 1831, worked as a priest in Frýdek, and from 1848 was a teacher of religion at the Main School, and later also at an elementary school in Cieszyn. From 1850 he was a member of Cieszyn’s Municipal Office, and in 1861 he won a seat at the Provincial Diet in Opava. He was the founder of many grants and foundations, mainly for young people.
From 1862 he began to argue for the foundation of a national church in Austria, independent of the Pope, for which he came into conflict with the Church, resulting in his excommunication in 1874. He was supported by the Liberal press and Cieszyn Town Council, where German Liberals were in the majority. From 1861 to 1864 Prutek was a member of Cieszyn Town Council and the Executive Board. During a sitting of the Town Council on 19 May 1864, following a proposal by Dr. Leopold Bochenek it was resolved to award him with the title of honorary citizen of Cieszyn, but by only a two-vote majority. In the grounds for the award his 14 years of work for Cieszyn were cited, particularly as a schoolteacher, also for having established two “beautiful” foundations; for poor gymnasium and elementary school students, and for his work in local government in the years 1850-1861.
The town’s local authority remembered its honorary citizen again, some time later. One of the town’s streets, today’s ul. Wyższa Brama was named after him and when he died on 21 March 1875 the ceremonial funeral with the participation of members of the local authority was paid for by the town. During his funeral his diploma of honorary citizenship of Cieszyn was carried alongside the coffin. Prutek was also an honorary citizen of the town of Frýdek and of many local associations, generally of a Liberal persuasion.