Ostap Ortwin

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Ostap Ortwin was the pen name of Oskar Katzenellenbogen (born 23 November 1876; murdered in spring 1942 in Lwów). He was a Polish Jewish journalist and literary critic.

He was born in Tłumacz, near Stanisławów (now Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine). His father, Henryk, was a director and engineer at a sugar factory, and his mother was Maria Jadwiga. In 1899 he finished law studies at the University of Lwów, with Kazimierz Twardowski as his thesis adviser.

Ortwin belonged to the Young Poland literary group "Płanetnicy," which met at the house of the poet Maryla Wolska. He gained fame for defending the literary critic Stanisław Brzozowski in court. In 1904 he left the legal profession to focus on poetry and other writing, including theater reviews. In 1905 he became editor for the Polish Bookstore publishing house.

When World War I began, he was drafted into the Austrian army. He started as a private in the 55th Infantry Battalion, later worked as a lawyer in the military court of Lwów and Ostrawa, and rose to the rank of captain and then major. He retired to the reserves in 1922.

Ortwin became vice president of the Polish Writers' Union in 1920 and, in 1934, the president of the Lwów Literary Club. He was a member of the Lwów-Warsaw School of Logic. After Lwów was occupied by the Soviets in 1939, he helped create a new literary organization for writers opposed to communism.

Lwów fell to Nazi Germany in 1942. Despite offers from friends to help him escape, Ortwin refused to flee. He was shot in the street sometime in 1942. Józef Wittlin described him as an aristocratic and formidable figure who played a key role in making Brzozowski famous. Ortwin was known as a strong, fearless critic who read everything and spoke his mind, often loudly.