Juliusz Karol Kunitzer

Known among Łódź's elites as a shrewd businessman, "cotton king" who became a tycoon due to his personal skills and luck, respected for this and his philanthropy and other public initiatives, for others – particularly radicals and socialists, he was a vicious exploiter of workers and a leader of anti-labor industrialists.

[2] His family had roots in German burgher society, and moved to the Polish territories in the 1830s[2] Kunitzer described himself as a Pole, including during a public speech to Russian businessmen in Nizhny Novgorod which caused a brief sensation.

[2] Over the next few decades his factory complex expanded, with a dedicated railway line, worker's housing (150 homes), a hospital, a school, church, shops, and other buildings, which saw Widzew transformed from rural village to a quarter of Łódź.

[2] He was also involved in philanthropy, and presided for many years over the Łódzkie Chrześcijańskie Towarzystwo Dobroczynności (Łódź Christian Society of Goodwill).

[2] He was hated by the workers in Łódż, due to his particularly vicious treatment of employees in his factories, and due to fact that he remained in close contact and cooperated with Russian authorities[5] Kunitzer often denied his workers their salaries in order to "teach them reason" which threatened them with hunger; such threat was also used to break down strike at his factory.

[10] On 30 September 1905 he was assassinated by Polish Socialist Party activists in the aftermath of the 1905 Łódź insurrection in which he refused any concessions to the workers.

[12] His assassination became the topic of the day for Polish and Russian newspapers; the event was condemned by conservative media, and praised by the radical, socialist ones.