Egon Hajek

Egon Hajek (born November 6, 1888 in Kronstadt , Transylvania , † May 15, 1963 in Vienna ) was a Transylvanian composer , book author , Lutheran pastor in Vienna and professor of church music , who , according to his Gau act , was close to National Socialism.

Live and act

Studies, parish office and first teaching position

Egon Hajek studied at the Humboldt University , Berlin, the University of Kiel and the Loránd Eötvös University in Budapest . In 1913 he received his doctorate in philosophy. In 1925 he was ordained pastor in Sibiu , Transylvania. 1929 came to Austria and took over the new rectory in Vienna-Neubau ; In 1932 he became a pastor in Vienna-Währing and -Hernals and remained so until 1956. The parish of Vienna-Währing had 20,000 church members at that time and gathered in the Luther Church in Vienna , a neo-Gothic brick building with more than 700 seats. Hajek introduced Thursday evening services (twice a month), which were attended by 400 people. In 1935 it was decided to found a "Luther Choir".

During the Nazi era, Hajek was professor of hymnology at the Reich University of Music in Vienna (from 1938, and also in the post-war period, until 1959). In 1944 Hajek took over the leadership of the church music department in the upper church council .

In the time of National Socialism

With his German-national attitude, Hajek had sympathy for National Socialism . His Gau-Akt in Vienna is unusually extensive (48 sheets) and lasts until 1944. The question of whether Hajek was in military service is answered in the negative.

In 1938 Hajek became a party candidate. In the political assessment of the Gaupersonalamt it said: “During the prohibition period, he helped camouflage the SA in districts 16 to 19 in the Protestant Federation. With his help, the people's home Martin Luther in Ottakring was opened, which was completely in the hands of the SA. ”His application for membership was rejected at the end of 1938“ because this member of the Protestant clergy ”- the NSDAP saw party membership and pastor profession as incompatible on. Hajek supported the SS and the NSV: On April 1, 1938, he issued a "declaration of admission" to become a "supporting member of the NSDAP's protection squad ", and he also became a member of the National Socialist People's Welfare (NSV).

In 1942, Hajek was denounced as a Nazi opponent by a fellow countryman who had distanced himself from the church, but he was unable to provide clear evidence. Various assessments of Hajek have been obtained without consequences. Politically, he was judged to be “nationally oriented” even in 1944, in some cases as “National Socialist”.

In his autobiography, Hajek also looked back at the Nazi era:

"During the entire period of persecution, I have not lost my position at the State Academy, even temporarily, nor have I been molested as a Nazi, who I could not have been."

However, he did not mention that he had tried to become a party member.

In the post-war period

After the end of the war, Hajek was one of three pastors who worked at the Evangelical Theological Faculty of the University of Vienna : Hajek as a lecturer for church music. In 1946 he completed his habilitation there.

Hajek was also a writer and composer, wrote numerous novels, short stories, poems and spiritual games.

Hajek died in 1963 and was buried at the Evangelical Cemetery Simmering (grave of Pastor 3) (in the Vienna Central Cemetery ).

Egon Hajek's grave at the Vienna Central Cemetery

Works

• The music. Your creators and heralds in Transylvania then and now. Musical images of life. Kronstadt 1927. ( digitized version )
• You shall be my witness. Life paths of a German confessor. 1938.
• King Lautenschläger. Life and adventure of a traveling singer from Transylvania. 1940.
• Master Johannes. From the career of the Germans in Transylvania. 1941.
• The prisoner of his heart. A novel about Lenau. 1954.
• Hike under the stars. Experienced, heard and explored (autobiography). Stuttgart 1958.

literature

• Felix Czeike : Historisches Lexikon Wien , Vol. 3. Wien 1994, p. 31.
• Franz Graf-Stuhlhofer : Viennese Evangelical Professors of Theology in the mirror of the Gau-Akten. Documentation on Beth, Egli, Entz, Hajek, Hoffmann, Koch, Kühnert, Opitz, Schneider and Wilke. In: Yearbook for the history of Protestantism in Austria. 116 (2000/01) pp. 191-225 (on Hajek pp. 197-205, footnote on pp. 220-222).
• Thomas Reuter: Protestant church music in Austria. Studies on their organizational forms and personalities in the 20th century (with special consideration of the work of Egon Hajek). Typewritten dissertation. University of Vienna 1995, pp. 23–145.

Web links

• Literature by and about Egon Hajek in the catalog of the German National Library
• Thomas Reuter: Egon Hajek - for his 125th birthday and the 50th anniversary of his death. In: The Luther Church, parish gazette of the evangelical community AB Wien - Währing & Hernals. Episode 257, June 2013 (PDF; 4.6 MB), pp. 14–15.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Luther choir
2. ^ Graf-Stuhlhofer: Viennese Evangelical Professors . 2000/01, pp. 197, 201.
3. ↑ cf. Markuskirche (Ottakring) #History
4. ↑ For the application and rejection see Graf-Stuhlhofer: Wiener Evangelische Professoren. 2000/01, pp. 198f.
5. ^ Graf-Stuhlhofer: Viennese Evangelical Professors. 2000/01, pp. 198, 201.
6. ^ Graf-Stuhlhofer: Viennese Evangelical Professors. 2000/01, pp. 199f.
7. ^ Graf-Stuhlhofer: Viennese Evangelical Professors. 2000/01, pp. 200-205.
8. ^ Hajek: Wandering under the stars. 1958, p. 259.
9. ↑ In January 1946, Bishop Gerhard May mentioned in a so-called fraternal circular that Hajek received "a teaching assignment for liturgy and hymnology " from the theological faculty . Quoted from Gustav Reingrabner , Karl Schwarz (Hrsg.): Source texts on Austrian Protestant church history between 1918 and 1945. Vienna 1989 (= JbGPrÖ 104/105, 1988/89), p. 689.
10. ↑ Evangelischer Friedhof Simmering ( Memento of the original from March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.