Józef Kożdoń (Czech: Josef Koždoň; 8 September 1873 – 7 December 1949) was a Silesian autonomist politician.

He was a teacher (from 1893) and principal (from 1902) of primary schools in Strumień (1893–1898) and Skoczów (1898–1918), an active member of the Country Teachers Union in Austrian Silesia,[1] the founder of the Polish public reading-room in Strumień and a co-founder of the German Reader's Association (Leseverein) in Skoczów, the founder (in summer 1908) and leader of the Silesian People's Party (1909–1938), a co-founder and general secretary of the Union of Silesians (1910–1938) in East Silesia, spokesman of autonomy or independence of Silesia and spokesman of Silesian nation,[2][3][4][5][6][7] founder of the Committee for the Maintenance of Clearness of the Silesian dialect in 1910, the deputy of the Silesian Parliament in Opava in the period 1909-1918, member of the town council in Skoczów from 1911, editor of the most popular Silesian newspaper[8][9] in East Silesia Ślązak (Silesian) and the magazine Śląski Kalendarz Ludowy (Silesian People's Calendar), member of the Austrian Committee to Support for Soldiers' Families in the period 1914-1918, and from October to December 1918 a political prisoner in Polish prison in Kraków.

Kożdoń was also a member of the Czechoslovak delegation at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, a member of the Administration Commission for Country Silesia in Opava in the period 1919-1927, four-time mayor of Český Těšín in the period 1923–1938, author of many political articles, letters, petitions and brochures, for example author of petition "representation of Silesian nationality" to Sir Walter Runciman on the question of a plebiscite in Cieszyn Silesia in 1938.

[11] His politics supported bilingual Polish-German education, for example Kożdoń supported insertion of German language to Polish primary school in Górki Wielkie and demanded insertion of Polish language to German grammar and gymnasial schools in Cieszyn.

[13] On 18 September 1938 Walter Harbich, as leader of "assembly of Silesian nationality", sent a telegram to Adolf Hitler, requesting independence of Cieszyn Silesia under a protection of Nazi Germany.