Jan Bohuchwał Dejka

Jan Bohuchwał Dejka (German Johann Gottlob Doecke et al .; * February 18, 1779 in Budissin ; † August 2, 1853 ibid) was a Sorbian publicist . He published the first Sorbian magazine Serbski powědar a kurěr .

Life

Jan Dejka was the son of a Sorbian day laborer and his wife. After a short school visit and apprenticeship as a carpenter, from 1800 he went on a journey through northern Germany, Denmark, later through Silesia, where he stayed among other things with Russian troops, then to Vienna and Prague, where he came into contact with the emerging Czech striving for independence and nationalism. During his wanderings he became familiar with the ideas of the French Revolution .

In 1807 Jan Dejka returned to Upper Lusatia, where he wrote, among other things, two poems in praise of Napoleon's arrival in Bautzen. In 1808 the publisher Johann Christian Schlenker entrusted him with the editing of the weekly magazine Sächsischer Postillon in Löbau . In 1809 he began to publish the monthly magazine Sserßki Powedar a Kurier ('Sorbian narrator and courier'), which he also distributed himself. After Měsačne pismo k rozwučenju a wokřewjenju, which was only published in one issue in 1790 , Dejka's work was the first ever periodically published magazine in the Sorbian language . In it he wrote about political, cultural, economic and other topics in the spirit of the Enlightenment. In 1812 the magazine was banned by the Napoleonic censors.

Since 1823 Jan Dejka published the magazine Oberlausitzer Landbote in German, with a comparable content and concerns. In 1831 he ended his activity with the Saxon Postillon , in 1837 with the Oberlausitzer Landbote . After that he was probably no longer active as a journalist.

In 1847 Jan Dejka was one of the first members of the Sorbian scientific society Maćica Serbska .

literature

• Jan Šołta , Peter Kunze , Franc Šěn (eds.): Nowy biografiski słownik k stawiznam a kulturje Serbow [New biographical dictionary on the history and culture of the Sorbs] . Domowina, Budyšin [Bautzen] 1984, p. 106.

Web links

• Michael Nuck: Dejka (Deuka, Döke, Doecke), Jan Bohuchwał (Johann Gottlob) . In: Institute for Saxon History and Folklore (Ed.): Saxon Biography . 2007.
• Literature on Jan Bohuchwał Dejka in the Sorbian Bibliography.