Geremek was highly respected as a scholar, statesman and key adviser in the Soviet bloc's first free trade union, Solidarity, which helped topple communism in Poland and across the Soviet bloc. He also served as Poland's foreign minister and since 2004 as a member of the European Parliament.
The 76-year-old died July 13 in a car accident in western Poland.
President Lech Kaczynski, Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Walesa were among those at the Mass in St. John's Cathedral. Geremek's coffin, draped in Poland's red and white national flag, was flanked by four rifle-bearing soldiers.
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Poland bids farewell to Solidarity activist Bronislaw Geremek at Warsaw funeral
International Herald Tribune
WARSAW, Poland: Solidarity activist Bronislaw Geremek was honored by thousands at a funeral Mass in Warsaw on Monday, with former President Lech Walesa calling him "the greatest of Poles."
Geremek was highly respected as a scholar, statesman and key adviser in the Soviet bloc's first non-government trade union, Solidarity, which helped topple communism in Poland and across the region. He was Poland's foreign minister in the late 1990s and became a member of the European Parliament in 2004.
He died at 76 on July 13 in a car accident in western Poland.
President Lech Kaczynski, Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Walesa led some 3,000 mourners, who packed the pews and aisles for the funeral Mass at St. John's Cathedral. Others huddled under umbrellas on the wet cobblestones outside.
Geremek's coffin, draped in Poland's red and white national flag, was flanked by four rifle-bearing soldiers standing at attention.
"In my view, you were the greatest of Poles, the greatest of patriots," Walesa said. "I thank God that I met you."
Members of the Solidarity labor union, one in a yellow worker's helmet and others holding up union banners, stood to the side of the church in homage.
Tadeusz Mazowiecki, the first non-Communist prime minister in the former Soviet bloc, remembered his friend as a man of "superior intelligence and bravery."
"He created a Poland ruled by democratic laws and values," Mazowiecki said. "There was no great event, no great moment, in which you cannot feel his influence."
At the burial service at Warsaw's Powazki cemetery, a military band played the Polish national anthem and Beethoven's Ode to Joy, the European Union's anthem.
Geremek, born in Warsaw to a Jewish family in 1932, escaped the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II. In postwar Poland, he joined the Polish Communist Party, but quit in 1968 to protest the crushing of dissidents in neighboring Czechoslovakia.
In the 1970s, Geremek became a leading dissident, pushing for more rights from the communist regime. He supported the nationwide strikes in Gdansk in August 1980 that shook Poland and gave birth to Solidarity.
When Poland's communist leaders declared martial law on Dec. 13, 1981, Geremek was jailed along with other leading Solidarity figures — including Walesa.
After the fall of communism in Poland in 1989, Geremek earned a seat in Poland's parliament in the country's first free elections. He served as foreign minister from 1997-2000.
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Associated Press writer Ryan Lucas contributed to this report from Warsaw.
The funeral of Bronislaw Geremek, Polish statesman and Solidarity activist, who died on July 13 in a car crash, took place in Warsaw today.
The funeral service began at noon with a mass in the John the Baptist Cathedral in Warsaw. Despite the rain, throngs of people gathered in front of the church to say goodbye to the Polish politician.
At the beginning of the service, a special telegram from Pope Benedict XVI was read out, in which his Holiness expressed his sorrow at the death of Professor Geremek and described it as a great loss for Poland and Europe.
During the ceremony, fellow Solidarity activist Lech Walesa gave an address:
"Bronek, I always called you that, so let it stay that way. You were the greatest among Poles."
The former president also recalled how he met with Geremek at the shipyard in Gdansk during the strikes of 1980, and said that the victory over the communist system could not have happened without the professor.
The professor's family attended the mass, as well as President Lech Kaczynski, Prime Minister Donald Tusk, President of the European Parliament Hans-Gert Poettering, former presidents Lech Walesa and Aleksander Kwasniewski, Tadeusz Mazowiecki, former prime ministers Jozef Oleksy, Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz, Jerzy Buzek, along with the parliament speakers and members of the government, as well as other politicians from all sides of the Polish political scene.
Archbishop Tadeusz Goclowski, who co-celebrated the mass with Archbishop Kazimierz Nycz, said:
"Professor Bronislaw Geremek, despite his dramatic experiences, loved people and worked for them all his life. Today, a saddened Europe and a grateful fatherland say goodbye to him."
The archbishop stressed Professor Geremek's humanism and his devotion to peace and freedom in Europe, as well as his trust in people.
Hans-Gert Poettering said before the funeral that not only Poles, but al Europeans are honouring Bronislaw Geremek. The EP President described Geremek as a great personality, a great patriot and a great European. He also said that he valued Professor Germek very much and thought him one of the best MEPs in the European Parliament.
On Tuesday, the Polish parliament is to honour Geremek with five minutes of silence and a special resolution. There are also plans to name one of the rooms in the parliament building after the deceased politician.
Geremek, aged 76, died in a car crash near Nowy Tomysl, western Poland, July 13. He was a former Solidarity activist and one of the architects of democratic change in Poland. Later on, he became Member of the Polish Parliament three times and in years 1997-2000 served as the minister of foreign affairs under PM Jerzy Buzek. He later moved on to the European Parliament. (mo)
Poland's top figures have joined hundreds of mourners at a Warsaw cathedral to honour a leading anti-communist, Bronislaw Geremek.
Former President Lech Walesa called Mr Geremek, who died in a car crash a week ago, "the greatest of Polish patriots".
Like Mr Walesa, Mr Geremek was a member of the banned trade union, Solidarity. He served as foreign minister after the collapse of communism in 1989.
He was credited with inspiring a whole generation of East European dissidents.
Mr Geremek, who was 76, died when the car he was in hit an oncoming vehicle in western Poland on 13 July.
His funeral Mass was held in St John's Cathedral in Warsaw on Monday.
Soldiers stood watch over his coffin, which was draped in Poland's red and white national flag.
"What I'll tell you today is of no use to you, but conscience demands the truth in the face of death: in my view, you were the greatest of Poles, the greatest of patriots," Mr Walesa said.
"I thank God that I met you."
President Lech Kaczynski and Prime Minister Donald Tusk were among those present, and the archbishop of Warsaw read a letter noting that Pope Benedict XVI had been saddened at Mr Geremek's death.
"His departure is a huge lost to the world of scholarship and politics," the Vatican letter read.
The former politician was also a widely respected medieval historian.
