Tadeusz Białecki jako leksykograf i encyklopedysta
Tadeusz Biał􀃢ecki as a lexicographer and encyclopaedist

Summary/Abstract: The article presents part of the academic achievements of Professor Tadeusz Białecki ,a West-Pomeranian scholar, on the occasion of his 80th birthday anniversary. In his academic achievements a prominent place is occupied by onomastic dictionaries and research projects concerning the old and present-day Szczecin. Since the end of the 1940s Tadeusz Białecki had got gradually interested in those problems living in Western Pomerania, discovering it, becoming soaked in its charms and history, which he was always eager to know. After settling in Szczecin (1959) he could develop his youthful passion and start his academic career (1962). His first texts appeared in print in 1970; they dealt with the toponymy of Szczecin after 1945. At a later stage the ‘Dictionary of the Contemporary Geographical Names of Western Pomerania’ (Słownik współczesnych nazw geograficznych Pomorza Zachodniego z nazwami przejściowymi z lat 1945–1948, Szczecin 2002, pp. 414, with the dominance of local official names) was edited and published in order to officially disseminate the proper names introduced in Western Pomerania (in the former districts of the historical New March: Strzelce, Gorzów, Choszczno, Myślibórz, Chojna, Drawsko, Wałcz, Świdwin). At the same time in the ‘Dictionary of Physiographic Names of Western Pomerania’ (Słownik nazw fizjograficznych Pomorza Zachodniego, Szczecin 2001, pp. 839) Professor Białecki gathered an enormous index of geographical names for Pomerania, the German ones (used until 1945) and the Polish ones either introduced in the 1940s by administrative decisions or used spontaneously by people and institutions. At the end of the 1990s Professor Białecki concentrated all his efforts on the editorial work of his opus magnum, ‘Szczecin Encyclopaedia’ (Encyklopedia Szczecina, 1999 –2000), which covered the Great Szczecin within its 1997 borders. The idea had already been conceived in the 1970s. The Encyclopaedia renders the current state of knowledge about the City and its distinguished late inhabitants. Although Professor Białecki won over 255 co-workers to create the first volume, and 300 to create the second one, he was aware of threats and shortcomings of his masterpiece, as there were numerous problems that required a very specialized insight. His endeavors to win over more authors resulted in three supplementary volumes published in the years 2003–2010. The supplementary volumes included new entries, supplements and rectification of errors. At the same time, the Encyclopaedia was expanded by entries concerning places situated in the districts adjacent to Szczecin at the request of their inhabitants who complained of their ignorance of their local history; that expansion was accepted by the academic community.

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