Tadeusz Schaetzel de Merxhausen (1891âÂÂ1971) was a Polish Army colonel, intelligence officer, Promethean leader, diplomat and politician.
During World War I Schaetzel served in the Polish Legions and as deputy director of the Chief Command of the 3rd Polish Military Organization (KN-3), in Kiev.
After Poland had regained independence in November 1918, he was posted in 1919 to the Staff of the Commander-in-Chief as head of intelligence on Russia in the General Staff's Section II (the intelligence section).
In 1922 he was sent on a secret mission to Switzerland to Turkish General Ismet Pasha, who would become the second president of Turkey in 1938 after the death of Kemal Atatürk. In 1924âÂÂ26 Schaetzel was military attaché in Ankara, Turkey.
In 1926âÂÂ29 he was chief of the General Staff's Section II (the intelligence section). In this capacity he was very supportive of Marshal Józef Pià Âsudski's Promethean project, aimed at liberating the non-Russian peoples of the Soviet Union.
In 1929âÂÂ30 Schaetzel served as Counselor of the Polish Embassy and Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary in Paris; next, as Chief of Cabinet to Presidents of the Council of Ministers Walery Sà Âawek and Józef Pià Âsudski, and (1931âÂÂ34) as director of the Foreign Ministry's Eastern Department. In 1934âÂÂ35 he was vice director of the Foreign Ministry's political department. In 1930âÂÂ38 he was a Sejm deputy (in 1935âÂÂ38, Vice Marshal of the Sejm).
When the Soviet Union invaded Poland on 17 September 1939, Schaetzel, along with other Polish political and military leaders, crossed the border into Romania, where he was interned in 1939âÂÂ44 with Foreign Minister Józef Beck. In August 1944 Schaetzel left for Turkey, then Egypt.
From 1947 he resided in Great Britain, where he co-founded the Józef Pià Âsudski Institute in London and the League for Polish Independence. In 1949 he revived the Prometeusz (Prometheus) group, which he headed.
Schaetzel was decorated with the Silver Cross of the Order of Virtuti Militari.