Zygfryd Wiktor Kordus Filister 1911-2011
Zygfryd Wiktor Kordus was born on October 30, 1911 in Charlottenburg (now a district of Berlin) in a family of craftsmen from Greater Poland. His parents were Michał and Franciszka née Marciniak. In 1919, he began studying at St. Maria Magdalena in Poznań. In 1930, he graduated from this school. In the same year, he began studying at the Faculty of Law and Economics of the University of Poznań, and joined the oldest Poznań Academic Corporation, Magna-Polonia. He met students – corporates before starting his studies at the University. Repeatedly visiting his mother, who was staying in one of the hospitals in Poznań, he met a student in a colorful – magenta cap who came to visit his mother, who was lying on the next bed in the same hospital room. This young man was a member of the Magna-Polonia Academic Corporation and was the first to instill corporate ideas in the heart of Zygfryd Kordus. In the academic year 1932/1933, Zygfryd Kordus was the vice-president of the Active Convention, while in the academic year 1933/1934 he took the honorable position of president of the Active Convention of the Association. In 1934 he obtained a master’s degree in economic and political sciences. in connection with the completion of studies, by the resolution of the Convention of December 7, 1934, he was awarded the title of Philistur of the Magna-Polonia Academic Corporation. F! Zygfryd Kordus was the last secretary of the Corporation Philistines Circle before the outbreak of World War II.
After graduation, he took an infantry cadet course. During the training, he was accommodated in a room with four other corporations, including his dear friend from his junior high school days, Filister Witold Leitgeber (K! Helionia) – a well-known post-war journalist of the Polish section of the BBC radio. From 1936 until the outbreak of World War II, he worked in export offices of the wood industry in Gdynia and Poznań.
In September 1939 he was mobilized. During the September Campaign, he commanded a platoon in the 69th Infantry Regiment of the 17th Wielkopolska Infantry Division commanded by Col. Mieczysław Mozdyniewicz. He was wounded on September 12, 1939 during fierce fighting near Modlna near Ozorków, during which he led his soldiers to attack with bayonets. After a few days he was taken prisoner by the Germans. He managed to escape from the POW camp in Żychlin and return to occupied Poznań. After a short stay in the capital of Wielkopolska, he was displaced with his whole family to Sokołów Podlaski. After some time, he settled in the Kutno poviat and took a job as an estate manager. After the 2nd Belorussian Front passed, he returned to Poznań and was drafted into the 2nd Army of the Polish Army. Promoted to the rank of captain, he became a company commander in the 12th Infantry Division. After the end of hostilities, he worked on the development of the Western Territories before accepting settlers from the former eastern voivodeships of the Second Polish Republic. After demobilization in 1946, he worked in managerial positions in state and cooperative institutions. He served, among others the function of the planning director of the Construction Company, as well as the Head of the Planning Department of the Voivodeship Office in Poznań. As a military invalid, he took early retirement, resigning from the position of the President of the National Communication Cooperative.
The time of retirement of Zygfryd Wiktor Kordus is a continuous effort to reactivate the St. Maria Magdalena – Marynki, which were crowned with success in 1990. Zygfryd Kordus was also active in the development of the corporate movement – his second passion in life. Largely thanks to his personal efforts, on March 13, 1983, in the cloisters of the Church oo. Dominican Republic in Poznań, a plaque commemorating the dead and murdered members of the Magna-Polonia Academic Corporation was embedded. Thanks to the efforts of other pre-war corporations, this board was followed by another one – dedicated to K! Lechia, as well as other academic corporations associated in the Poznań Intercorporate Circle. Zygfryd Kordus was also a co-founder of the Association of Philisturs of Poznań Academic Corporations, of which he was the president in the period from 1994 to 1997. However, he was particularly close to the idea of reviving the Magna-Polonia Academic Corporation, of which he was an active member during his studies at the University of Poznań and in whose ranks he survived the best years of my youth. These efforts were also crowned with success. In March 2004, Zygfryd Kordus was able to preside over the reactivation ceremony of the Magna-Polonia Academic Corporation.
Zygfryd Wiktor Kordus has always devoted himself to his passions with his typical energy and commitment. Almost until the day of his death, he actively participated in ceremonies and corporate meetings, during which he was bursting with humor and regaled the gathered with memories of the old days, and it must be said that he had a wonderful memory. In the Poznań corporate environment, he was an extraordinary figure, a man of legend. F! Zygfryd Kordus is the author of the Commemorative Book of the Magna-Polonia Academic Corporation, which describes the history of this Association in the period from 1930 to the present day.
In 1999, in recognition of his contribution to the development of the corporate movement, he received the golden badge of the Association of Polish Academic Corporations. In recognition of his contribution to the development of K! Magna-Polonia, as well as the entire Poznań corporate environment, by the resolution of the Circle of Philistines of April 12, 2008, he was granted the title of Patron K! Magna-Polonia. The Association of Philistines of Academic Corporations made him an honorary member.
Retired Major Zygfryd Wiktor Kordus was awarded: Commander’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta; Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta; the Cross of Valour; Gold Cross of Merit; the Silver Cross of Merit; Medal for participation in the Defensive War of 1939; the Cross of the September Campaign; Medal for the Odra, Nysa and Baltic Sea; Medal of Victory and Freedom 1945; Medal for Berlin.
Zygfryd Kordus was the oldest combatant from Poznań. As a token of appreciation, on October 29, 2010, on the eve of his 99th birthday, he received a commemorative officer’s saber from the voivode of Wielkopolska, Mr. Piotr Florek. He was the honorary president of the Poznań branch of the Union of Veterans of the Republic of Poland and Former Political Prisoners.
Zygfryd Wiktor Kordus died on April 20, 2011 at the age of almost 100 years.