He was born in 1934 in Kraków as the son of Andrzej Rieger, a prosecutor and lieutenant of the Polish Armymilitary reserve force, and Antonina Latinik, the first champion of Poland in woman's foil; a grandson of Roman Rieger, mining engineer, lecturer and inventor, and Franciszek Latinik, General of the Polish Army. His father Andrzej Rieger was murdered in the Katyn massacre in 1940. In his youth, between 1940s and 1950s, Janusz Rieger was a scout and served as an altar boy at St. Florian's Church in Kraków, where Karol Wojtyła was a vicar. Rieger was a member of the Catholic student group that rejected Marxist ideology and was the narrow circle of Wojtyła's pupils, the so-called Environment. As a member of that group Rieger regularly took part in seminars and walking tours guided by Wojtyła. He remained in close touch with the future pope also in his mature life. Pirest Wojtyła blessed Rieger's marriage, baptised his children and was also Rieger's confessor. After Wojtyła was elected as Pope, Rieger visited him in Rome and Castel Gandolfo, he took part in the celebrations related to Pope's pilgrimages to Poland. They kept correspondence. In 1955 he graduated in Russian studies from the Jagiellonian University, where among his professors was Zdzisław Stieber. In 1956 he started working as a PhD student at the University of Warsaw, where he received PhD in 1967. In 1960 he started work at the Department of Slavic Studies, later converted into the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences, where he was employed until 1997 and was a chairman of the Institute Scientific Council. He was designated a professor of the humanities in 1989. From 1997 until 2004 he was a professor at the Institute of the Polish Language of the Polish Academy of Sciences. He lectured at the University of Warsaw, among others at its College Artes Liberales; at the University of Łódź and the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin. He was a promoter in eighteen doctoral dissertations. He was the organizer of the Polish Studies College for young scientists from the East at the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the initiator of the International School of Humanities at the Center for Research on Ancient Tradition in Poland and Central and Eastern Europe of the University of Warsaw. He was also one of the founders of the Slavic Foundation established in 1992, an institution supporting research and dissemination of knowledge about the languages and cultures of Slavic countries. From 1989 until 1997 he was a vice chairman of the Commission for the Determination of Place Names. Since 1983 he is a member of the Warsaw Scientific Society. He was a member of the Committee of Linguistics of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Committee of Slavic Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Since 1999 he is an honorary member of Kharkiv Scientific Society. From 1980 until 1981 he was a vice-chairman of Solidarity structures in the Polish Academy of Sciences. His interests include Polish language in Kresy, Ukrainian dialectology, history of the Ukrainian and Russian language and lexicography. He researched, among others, Polish dialects in Ukraine and the Lemko language and culture through gathering oral testimonies. Together with Vyacheslav Verenitsch, he was the initiator and co-editor of the series of the Linguistics Committee of the Polish Academy of Sciences Studia nad polszczyzną kresową and Język polski dawnych Kresów Wschodnich. From 1988, he cooperated in publishing the Carpathian Dialectological Atlas as the chairman of the Polish team and co-editor of all volumes, he was also a member of its editorial board. Since 1991, he has been a member of the editorial board of the journal Slavia Orientalis. In 1992, along with the team that was under his supervision he received the Kazimierz Nitsch Award for Atlas gwar bojkowskich. He edited and annotate his father's diary, which begins with enlistment in September 1939 and runs through Soviet captivity until his death in April 1940. The diary, titled Zapiski z Kozielska, was published in 2015. He is married to Ewa, an electronics engineer. By the decision of the President of Poland of November 22, 2017 "for outstanding contribution to the development of Polish Slavic studies, for achievements in scientific and didactic work and for popularizing the history and culture of Kresy" he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.
Works (selection)
With Ewa Wolnicz-Pawłowska.
With Ewa Rieger. Second extended edition 2003.
Developed by the team managed by Janusz Rieger, mainly based on field records of Stefan Hrabiec.
Second extended edition 1998.
Edited on the basis of notes of Jan Janów and his disciples.
Edited by Janusz Rieger.
Edited by Janusz Rieger.
With Irena Masojć and Krystyna Rutkowska.
With Orisâ Dems'ka-Kul'čic'ka.
Edited by Janusz Rieger.
Edited by Janusz Rieger.
A diary of Andrzej Rieger edited by Janusz Rieger.
Edited by Janusz Rieger.
A dictionary by Oleksandr Hoisak, edited by Janusz Rieger and Madina Alekseyeva.
