The inauguration ceremony of the newly founded took place on 7 May 1919 that is 308 years after it was formally established by the Polish king and the 400th anniversary of the foundation of the Lubrański Academy which is considered its spiritual predecessor. Its original name was Piast University (Polish: "Wszechnica Piastowska"), which later in 1920 was renamed to the University of Poznań (Polish: "Uniwersytet Poznański"). In 1920 sociologist Florian Znaniecki founded the first Polish department of sociology at the university, one of the first such departments in Europe. In the same period of the university's history, botanist Józef Paczoski founded the world's first institute of phytosociology.