Ferdinand Ďurčanský

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Bust of Ferdinand Ďurčanský in Rajec

Ferdinand Ďurčanský (born December 18, 1906 in Rajec , † March 15, 1974 in Munich ) was a Slovak lawyer , journalist and politician of the Hlinka party (Ludaken). From 1938 to 1939 he was Minister of Autonomous Slovakia within the Czecho-Slovak Republic .

From 1939 to 1940 he was Minister of Foreign Affairs and Interior of the Slovak State . In July 1940 he was released from the government under the so-called Salzburg Dictate under pressure from Hitler . After the Second World War , he became one of the two leading exiled Slovak politicians alongside Karol Sidor .

Life

Education and career

Ďurčanský studied at the Institute des Hautes Études Internationales in Paris and the University of Bratislava and received his doctorate from the Hague Academy of International Law . He then held a professorship in Bratislava. From April 15, 1933, together with his brother Ján Ďurčanský, he published the half-month magazine Nástup (New Dawn), which gave its name to the entire group of separatist radicals (the so-called Nástupists ). From 1938 to 1939 he was Minister of Justice, Minister of Health and Minister of Social Affairs of the Slovak state that came into being as a result of Hitler's invasion of "the rest of Czech Republic ".

Politics 1938 to 1945

The nationalist Ďurčanský strived not only for autonomy but also for full independence of the country. After Vojtech Tukas and Franz Karmasin's visit to Germany on February 12, 1939, Ďurčanský also traveled to Berlin with a delegation almost 2 weeks later to meet with Hermann Göring and Joachim von Ribbentrop , among others . In doing so, Ďurčanský pursued the strategy of freeing Slovakia from its financial dependency on Prague, which should be made possible by using German capital bonds.

Goering agreed to provide economic support, but he made the condition of Slovak participation in the split of the Czech-Slovak state as a whole. Ribbentrop also assured that the German government would be ready to guarantee Slovak independence and respect for its borders, if “this step was taken at a favorable moment”. A few days later there were economic negotiations with Wilhelm Keppler .

During the negotiations with Hitler and the German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop together with Jozef Tiso on March 13, 1939, Ďurčanský spoke out in favor of independence. Hitler also insisted on an immediate declaration of independence from Tiso - provided that the Reich was the protecting power - otherwise Slovakia would be left to Hungarian interests.

On March 14, 1939, the Slovak Parliament in Bratislava unanimously proclaimed the Slovak state. Ďurčanský became foreign minister in the Tiso government. On March 18, he and Vojtech Tuka signed the protection treaty dictated by Nazi Germany .

After Jozef Tiso was elected President on October 26, 1939 and Vojtech Tuka, a politician who was completely devoted to Berlin, was appointed Prime Minister, Ďurčanský also took over the Ministry of the Interior. In German circles one now believed to be able to put aside worries about an ideological alienation of Slovakia for the time being. But it was precisely Ďurčanský, who had been one of the Germanophile radicals until then, joined forces in the economy, state bureaucracy and the Hlinka party and was favored by the jealous distrust of the army and police against the curtailment of their powers by the Hlinka guard. conservative forces of President Jozef Tiso.

As Minister of the Interior, Ďurčanský repeatedly took action against members of the Hlinka Guard and their commander-in-chief Alexander Mach . When Hlinka guards and members of the Volunteer Protection Squad began with anti-Jewish actions in February 1940 , Ďurčanský stepped in immediately and issued instructions to remove all anti-Semitic posters and to refrain from all anti-Semitic actions in cafes, restaurants and shops. Furthermore, on the initiative of Ďurčanský, the ÚŠB contacted the chief of staff of the Hlinka Guard, Otomar Kubala, and explained to him that all actions of the Hlinka Guard must be stopped immediately, otherwise action will be taken against individuals who carry out the actions in accordance with the applicable regulations.

As foreign minister he also tried to pursue a policy that was as independent as possible from Nazi Germany. His efforts to intensify contacts with the Western powers and to assert Slovak interests in bilateral relations with the German Reich soon made him a “persona non grata” in Berlin. When Tiso, as an appendage of the German attack on Poland at the end of 1939, recaptured Javorina and the Arwa , which had been ceded to Poland for parts of Teschen a year earlier, the Ďurčanský campaign went too far, so that it offered the British via Lisbon and Roman diplomats in Exchange for England's recognition of the country's independence to convince Hitler to keep Slovakia neutral. The letter became known in Berlin and Joachim von Ribbentrop presented it to President Tiso during the Salzburg dictation . This was then forced to fire Ďurčanský immediately in order to save the new state. The replacement of Ďurčanský, who was the most powerful man in the cabinet at the time, pursued the purpose of providing the exponents of the Hlinka Guard with a starting point for bringing Slovakia into line with the German model.

Flight and Exile

Before the Red Army Ďurčanský fled in 1945 via Austria, Switzerland to Rome, where he organized the political resistance against the re-establishment of Czechoslovakia [submissions to the peace conference in Paris 1946, own radio broadcasts over shortwave for Slovakia / station name: “Barcelona”]. In 1947 Ďurčanský in Czechoslovakia was sentenced to death in absentia for alleged persecution of the Jews , although he was not in office during the period of persecution. The United Nations War Crimes Commission nevertheless accepted the Czechoslovak indictment and the CIA kept a file on him in 1951. Because of the danger of being extradited to Czechoslovakia, he moved to Argentina in 1947. After the extradition risk [Korean War] disappeared, he moved to Munich in 1952. Ďurčanský visited the United States in 1959 and lectured there on various occasions with anti-communist Slovak emigrant groups. The circumstances surrounding his visa were investigated by B'nai B'rith . Ďurčanský has been chairman of the Slovak Action Committee (Slovenský Akčný Výbor) since its establishment in 1946, which was renamed the Slovak Liberation Committee (Slovenský Oslobodzovacý Výbor) in 1951 and was considered a political organ of the Slovaks in exile. In Munich Ďurčanský became an active member of the Anti-Bolshevik Block of Nations and wrote a. a. in Nation and Europe and The Danube Region of the Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe . Ďurčanský was mainly in competition with Karol Sidor within the Slovak emigration .

Rehabilitation attempt after 1990

On June 11, 2011, a bust was erected in his hometown Rajec in his honor , whereupon the organization Human filed a complaint, stating:

"Such desecration of the victims of an inhumane system that this person represents is an expression of a contempt and dishonor for the values ​​to which Slovakia professes."

On August 29, 2011 Aktivurčanský's bust was wrapped in toilet paper by activists of the organization “Charter 2010” in protest during a memorial service in honor of the Slovak National Uprising.

Works

  • The right to exist for small states . Scientific Society for the Slovak Abroad. Bratislava 1944
  • The way to Slovak freedom . Scientific Society for the Slovak Abroad. Bratislava 1944
  • The Slovak question - an international question. Munich, self-published by the Slovak Liberation Committee, 1954.
  • With Tiso with Hitler . Isar Verlag, Munich 1956
  • It was just a Soviet partisan action . Reprint from “Political Studies”, issue 157. Munich. Olzog. 1964.
  • Slovakia and Pan-Slavism. Munich: Lerche, 1965

literature

  • Milan S. Ďurica: Ferdinand Ďurčanský a jeho vzťah k Hitlerovmu Nemecku. [Ferdinand Ďurčanský and his relationship with Hitler's Germany.] Lúč Verlag, Bratislava 2011, ISBN 978-80-7114-859-3
  • Ferdinand Durčanský , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 41/1961 of October 2, 1961, in the Munzinger Archive ( beginning of the article freely available)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jörg Konrad Hoensch: Studia Slovaca: Studies on the history of the Slovaks and Slovakia in Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag , 2000, p. 162, ISBN 3-486-56521-4
  2. ↑ a b Edmund Veesenmayer - By Igor-Philip Matić, p. 69 (online)
  3. ^ Vojtech Mastny , The Czechs under Nazi Rule: The Failure of National Resistance 1939–1942, New York: Columbia University Press, 1971
  4. ↑ My Two Lives: Memories of a Holocaust Survivor By Lotte Weiss, p. 196 (online)
  5. ↑ Edmund Veesenmayer - By Igor-Philip Matić, p. 78 (online)
  6. ↑ Jörg Konrad Hoensch: Studia Slovaca: Studies on the history of the Slovaks and Slovakia in Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag , 2000, p. 231 , ISBN 3-486-56521-4
  7. ↑ Peter Sokolovič: HLINKOVA GARDA 1938–1939 In: Ústav pamäti národa , 2009, p. 244 u. 245, ISBN 978-80-89335-10-7
  8. ^ Jörg Konrad Hoensch: Studia Slovaca: Studies on the history of the Slovaks and Slovakia Oldenbourg, 2000, p. 259 ISBN 3-486-56521-4
  9. ↑ Who was the emigrant leader Matúš Černák ? . DIE ZEIT, July 14, 1955 No. 28
  10. ^ Jörg Konrad Hoensch: Studia Slovaca: Studies on the history of the Slovaks and Slovakia , p. 234
  11. ^ In the War Crimes Archives: Rifts on Prosecutions . By RALPH BLUMENTHAL. New York Times, December 26, 1987
  12. ^ Philip Rees : Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right Since 1890 . Simon & Schuster. New York. 1990
  13. ↑ Liberation from Communism - By Bernd Stöver, p. 290 (online)
  14. ↑ Bust unveiling triggered police investigation  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on Radio Slovakia International on June 15, 2011, accessed June 15, 2011.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.slovakradio.sk  
  15. ↑ Bustu Ďurčanského v Rajci zahalili do toaletného papiera, on www.topky.sk, from August 29, 2010


personal data
SURNAME Ďurčanský, Ferdinand
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Slovak lawyer and minister
DATE OF BIRTH December 18, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Rajec
DATE OF DEATH March 15, 1974
Place of death Munich