Hans Weresch

Hans Weresch (born November 26, 1902 in Bencsek ( German  Deutschbentschek ), Kingdom of Hungary , Austria-Hungary ; † July 16, 1986 in Freiburg im Breisgau ) was a Romanian-German teacher , researcher and cultural politician .

Life

After studying in Cluj-Napoca (German: Klausenburg ) , Timișoara (German: Timişoara ) and Marburg an der Lahn , Hans Weresch began working as a primary school teacher, then as a director of studies in the Banat student dormitory , as a German teacher and director of studies at the German Roman Catholic Boys' College in Banatia in Timișoara. Weresch and the director of the institution, Josef Nischbach , were actively involved in the construction and expansion of the Banatia . In 1928 he married Delila Marköszy from Timișoara.

In the summer semester of 1929 Hans Weresch interrupted his teaching activities to attend the pedagogical seminar at the University of Leipzig . In the autumn of 1929 he certified his studies at the first university in the country founded by Alexandru Ioan Cuza in Iași (German Jassy or Jaßenmarkt ) in 1860 , and in 1930 took the teaching qualification test for Romania (in Romanian, German and psychology). In his worldview, Weresch stood by the Catholic faith and the German community in the Banat. He was attacked by representatives of the National Socialist movement of innovators that was beginning at that time . However , Weresch benefited from the Aryanizations , i.e. the expropriation of Jewish property, to the extent that, together with the businessman Josef Henz, he became the owner of the Timisoara restaurant "Lloyd", which was now called Café und Gaststätte Wien . received. In 1934 he was appointed by the Banat diocese to the school council of the Catholic middle and high schools in the Romanian Banat and in the spring of 1943 by the Ministry of Education of Romania as general school inspector of the German schools in Romania .

One day after the royal coup in Romania and Romania's change of side from the Axis powers to the Allies , Hans Weresch was arrested on August 24, 1944 because of his conservative worldview and interned in the Târgu Jiu concentration camp. Even after his release he was persecuted and had to work in a textile company from July 1947 to August 1948 in order to earn a living. In addition, he helped the church's return home organization by collecting food in the villages. Returnees , sick from their deportation to Russia , were fed by charitable organizations in a camp in Oradea .

Even after the school reform of 1948, Weresch was initially only able to become a substitute teacher in Bencecu de Sus . From September 1949 to 1955 he gave German lessons at "Lyceum No. 2 with German language of instruction", the later Nikolaus Lenau Lyceum in Timișoara. Thanks to the efforts of Hans Weresch, the foreign pupils of the Lyceum received a boarding school and a canteen, which he financed through theater performances by his pupils in localities in Banat. Weresch ran the boarding school and the school canteen on a voluntary basis. In September 1955 he moved to the "German Pedagogical School" in Timișoara, where he worked for three years. Here, too, he managed to establish and finance a boarding school and a canteen.

On October 1, 1956, Hans Weresch was one of the founders of the philological faculty at the Timișoara University of Education , today's University of the West Timișoara , where he lectured in German language and literature. In the winter semester of 1960 he gave lectures on the methodology of German teaching, which was later continued by Johann Wolf . Hans Weresch had already taken on the organizational work of a new school start, and this time too he worked on his lecture material. As auxiliary material for his lectures on German literature, he brought out two volumes of text interpretations for students in the university print shop (with Maria Pechtol and Stefan Binder ), himself held the seminar exercises for his lectures and, from 1958, led research into the German dialects of the Banat , from which the working group for dialect research, the plan for a dictionary of the Banat German dialects and numerous diploma theses emerged.

Hans Weresch was arrested on April 20, 1960 by the Romanian secret service Securitate on charges of having supplied the Vatican from 1930 to 1950 and from 1945 to 1956 to the Federal Republic of Germany with espionage material about the situation in Romania and especially in the Banat Swabians . After his imprisonment, Eva Marschang took over the lectures in the department “History of German Literature from the Beginnings to the 19th Century”.

The "Reb-Weresch" intimidation process of January 25, 1961 was intended to counteract the increased tendency to resettlement.

The defendants met at name day parties and criticized the communist government and the expropriation of the Germans . They were charged with "incitatory machinations against the social order". All 14 defendants of the “Lotul Reb / Weresch” were sentenced to 6 to 16 years of forced labor. Hans Weresch was sentenced to 16 years imprisonment with hard labor. In July 1964, Weresch was pardoned along with all political prisoners in Romania. In the last four years in Romania, Weresch lived with his family in great need, was banned from working and was exposed to humiliation until he was able to leave for the Federal Republic of Germany in 1968.

In Freiburg im Breisgau, Hans Weresch then volunteered for the German Caritas Association and the Freiburg Book Service for fourteen years in order to distribute German specialist literature to intellectuals in eastern and south-eastern Europe. Weresch supported the Banat Landsmannschaft in Germany and looked after repatriates during their integration, tried to recruit them and in 1969 founded the Freiburg District Association of the Banat Swabian Landsmannschaft , at whose annual meetings lectures and artistic events took place. He was a member of the federal executive board and the regional association of Baden-Württemberg . In 1984 he self-published the works of Adam Müller-Guttenbrunn with considerable losses and in 1984 founded the quarterly Banatica. Contributions to German culture that could appear until 2003. Numerous are his lectures at different places on cultural-political and educational topics, as well as articles in the periodicals of the Banat Swabians in the Federal Republic of Germany.

criticism

The author Klaus Popa documented in 2006 that Hans Weresch was close to the Banat and Transylvanian ethnic group functionaries and benefited from the “Aryanization of Jewish companies” in 1940/1941. His teaching career was clearly promoted by this relationship.

As an accredited researcher for the National Council for the Study of the Archives of the Securitate (CNSAS), William Totok revealed in October 2011 that Hans Weresch had signed a declaration of unofficial cooperation with the Securitate in January 1958 . Under the code name Mayer Iosif , Weresch delivered sensitive data on representatives of the Roman Catholic Church in the Banat to the Securitate in return for material compensation. After Hans Reb's arrest, Weresch tried to hold the Securitate down with "minor information," as a report by a Securitate officer reveals. As a result, Hans Weresch, like his friend Hans Reb in 1959, was arrested for covering up anti-state activities.

Publications

Selected bibliography

• Adam Müller-Guttenbrunn and his homeland novels. Schwäbische Verlags AG, Timișoara 1927.
• Adam Müller-Guttenbrunn, his life, thinking and work. Vol. I-II, Freiburg i. Br .: self-published in 1975.
• Deutschbentschek, local monograph. Freiburg i. Br .: self-published 1979.

Work on methodology and didactics

• Sense and meaning of the Banat Swabian proverbs and idioms. Timișoara: Schwäbische Verlags AG, undated
• German seals. A collection of valuable reading material. 12 episodes. Timișoara: Schwäbische Verlags AG, 1928–1940.
• German reading book for secondary schools in Romania, 4 vols., I.-IV. Class (with Dr. Josef Schütz ). Timișoara: Schwäbische Verlags AG, undated [1930–1936], reprinted until 1944
• German grammar for secondary schools in Romania (with Dr. Josef Schütz). Timișoara: Schwäbische Verlags AG, undated [1931].
• German language book for middle schools and high schools, 4 vols., I.-IV. Class (with Dr. Johann Wolf). Timișoara: Schwäbische Verlags AG, undated [1936–1944].
• Methodical instructions for mother tongue German lessons. V class (with J. Csengeri). Bucharest: State Publishing House for Didactic and Pedagogical Literature 1958.
• Selection and interpretation of German texts from the earliest times to the 17th century. Vol. 1 and 2, for German studies students and German teachers (with Dr. Stefan Binder and Dr. Maria Pechtol). Timișoara University Printing House, 1958–1959.
• Banatia. Experiences and memories. Festschrift. (7 employees) Freiburg i. Br .: self-published in 1976.

Editions

• Adam Müller-Guttenbrunn: Selected Works. Vol. IX, self-published, Freiburg i. Br. 1976-1980.
• Josef Gabriel the Elder Ä. / Josef Gabriel the Elder J .: Selected works. Freiburg i. Br .: self-published 1985.

Magazines

• The childhood friend. Monthly magazine. (with Josef Nischbach). Timișoara: Schwäbische Verlags AG, 1928–1933.
• Contributions to German culture. Quarterly journal (with Horst Fassel ). Freiburg i. Br., 1984-2003.

literature

• Hans Gehl : Thirty years professor of German studies in Timisoara. In contributions to German culture. Quarterly journal, 3rd year, issue 4/1986, pp. 13-25 (especially 19 f.).
• Horst Fassel: Farewell to Professor Dr. Hans Weresch. In: Contributions to German culture. Quarterly journal, 3rd year, issue 2/1986, pp. 5–13.
• Horst Fassel: Initiatives and initiators: The school man Hans Weresch. In: Banatica. Contributions to German culture. Issue 3/1993, pp. 27-42.
• Nikolaus Huber (ed.): Dr. Hans Weresch. Festschrift for the 80th birthday. Freiburg i. Br .: Self-published by Dr. Hans Weresch 1982.
• William Totok, “With treacherous slyness. Implementation of the official history and cultural policy in national-communist Romania with support from the intelligence service ”(III), in: Half-year publication for Southeast European history, literature and politics, 27th year, issue 1–2, 2015, pp. 53–78.
• William Totok, Elena-Irina Macovei: Între with şi bagatelizare. Despre reconsiderarea critică a trecutului, Ion Gavrilă Ogoranu şi rezistenţa armată anticomunistă din România (Between myth and belittlement. On the critical coming to terms with the past, Ion Gavrilă Ogoranu and the armed, anti-communist resistance in Romania, 2016), Edit: Inspector Polura nazist şi militant anti-maghiar, Hans Weresch]

Web links

• Literature by and about Hans Weresch in the catalog of the German National Library
• Hans Gehl : Biography Hans Weresch. In: e-scoala.ro

Individual evidence

1. ↑ National Socialism among the Banat Swabians in archival documents 1940-1944, Banat NS Mixed 1939 to June 1942.pdf
2. ↑ University professor at the Department of German Studies at the Western University of Timisoara (PDF; 3.1 MB), Hans Gehl
3. ↑ Klaus Popa, The dead-hushed dimension. Portraits of Romanian German Nazi apparatchiks - Hans Weresch, true to the Catholic faith?
4. ↑ europalibera.org , William Totok: Jurnal de corespondent: Securitatea şi partidul (I) (Romanian)