The most famous figure to have come from Bolesławiec is undoubtedly Martin Opitz. He was born on 23 December 1597 in a townhouse standing at the intersection of the former Gr. Kirchstrasse and Zollstrasse streets (today Karpecka and Prusa), belonging to the Opitz family, whose ancestors had lived in our town for more than two centuries.
The town chronicles already record in the 14th century, among names such as Piotr Smolko and Piotr Striczka, the name of the painter Piotr Opeć. Apparently, in the 15th century Michał and Krzysztof Opicz are mentioned. This does not alter the fact, however, that Martin Opitz himself was already raised in the German spirit. In his youthful lyric poetry, the poet repeatedly expressed his attachment to the German nation. Opitz’s later works were written only in two languages: German and Latin. It is therefore difficult to regard Opitz as a Pole and forcibly change his surname to Marcin Opeć.
After completing parish school in Bolesławiec, Martin was sent by his father, Sebastian Opitz, to the St. Mary Magdalene Gymnasium in Wrocław, and after completing it he began university studies at the Calvinist Academic Gymnasium in Bytom Odrzański. After leaving Bytom, Opitz stayed alternately in Bolesławiec, Zgorzelec and Frankfurt an der Oder. After brief studies in Heidelberg, he returned to his native Bolesławiec, where he published the poetics treatise “Buch von der deutschen Poeterey,” in which he set out a programme for a new German poetry.
In 1625, Opitz joined a condolence delegation sent to Vienna by the Silesian princes. His Bolesławiec teacher Kaspar Kirchner, a princely councillor, also took part in the journey. (Kirchner’s magnificent epitaph can be found at the southern entrance to the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary).
At the Viennese court, Opitz presented the emperor with a condolence poem, which he translated at the emperor’s request from German into Latin within one hour. The delegation was honoured on this occasion. Kirchner became an imperial councillor, while Opitz received the poet’s laurels and shortly afterwards became secretary to Karol Hannibal von Dohna, who exercised authority over Silesia on behalf of the emperor.
From then on, political activity came to the forefront of his life. For services rendered to the Habsburgs, he was ennobled in 1627 by Emperor Ferdinand II as “von Boberfeld”.
In January 1629, a company of Lichtenstein’s dragoons, under the command of the brutal de Solis, seized Bolesławiec. The poet’s father was forced to leave the town. At Opitz’s request, Dohna sent a letter ordering the Bolesławiec town council to allow Sebastian Opitz, his wife and children to return to the town.
In 1630, Opitz went on a diplomatic mission to Paris. After the fall and death of his Catholic patron in 1633, he entered the service of the Silesian Piast princes (Jan Christian of Brzeg and Jerzy Rudon of Legnica). When, after the conclusion of the Peace of Prague in 1635, Silesia was occupied by imperial troops, Opitz went to Poland. By then he was already famous as the most highly regarded German poet, the κορifeus of poetry and leader of the so-called “first Silesian school of poetry”.
In Toruń, Opitz received the protection of the starost of Kościerzyna, Gerard Denhoff. It was probably Denhoff who recommended Opitz to the Polish king Władysław IV Vasa. To win the king’s favour, the poet wrote an encomiastic poem, “Lobgetlicht an die Konigliche Majestat zu Polen und Schweden”.
From June 1636, Opitz planned to move to Gdańsk, hoping to take up the office of royal historiographer. For the time being, he served as the king’s agent as his “secretaris iuratus”, collecting information for Władysław IV about political events in the West and sending the king’s foreign mail from Gdańsk. He corresponded constantly with the Swedish chancellor A. Oxenstierna, mainly in connection with the anti-Habsburg policy of the Piast princes, with whom he remained in contact.
In 1637, a German translation of the “Psalms of David”, on which Opitz had worked for many years, was published in Gdańsk and dedicated to the Piast princes. That same year, he published a treatise dedicated to Chancellor Tomasz Zamoyski, “Vardorum lectionum liber in que preacipue Sarma tica”, in which he dealt with the alleged ancestors of the Poles—the Sarmatians. On 24 June 1637, he finally received his appointment as secretary and historiographer to Władysław IV, ultimately approved by the Sejm.
When Władysław IV’s wedding to Cecylia Renata took place in Warsaw in September 1637, Opitz hastened to prepare a wedding panegyric, which he personally presented to the king after the ceremony. Fate, however, gave Opitz no chance for a longer life. In mid-August 1939, an epidemic of plague raged in Gdańsk, claiming many victims. Opitz also contracted the terrible disease and, three days after becoming infected, died on 20 August 1639 in his home on Chlebnicka Street. The poet’s body was laid to rest in the crypt of St. Mary’s Church in Gdańsk on 22 July 1639.