Jan Šołta

Jan Šołta (born May 30, 1921 in Parchwitz , Lower Silesia Province , † August 31, 2004 in Dresden ) was a Sorbian historian and economist . He was a long-time member of the Domowina and the Institute for Sorbian Folk Research .

Life

Jan Šołta came from a farming family. He spent his childhood with relatives in Höflein in Upper Lusatia . From 1935 he attended a Polish private grammar school in Beuthen , Upper Silesia , and from 1937 a grammar school in Bautzen . In 1940 Jan Šołta became a soldier.

In 1945 he briefly studied medicine in Prague , in 1946 he became an employee of the re-founded Domowina, the umbrella organization of the Sorbs, and a member of the Socialist Unit of Germany (SED). In 1947 Šołta began to study law in Wroclaw , then studied economics in Poznan and history in Leipzig .

In 1950 Jan Šołta became 1st District Secretary of Domowina. In 1954 he became deputy director of the Institute for Sorbian Folk Research. After receiving his doctorate in economics in 1956, Šołta took over his position at Domowina again. In 1958 he was again deputy director of the Institute for Sorbian Folk Research, later at times also party secretary of the SED and from 1960 head of the institute's history department. In 1967 he completed his habilitation. In 1976 Jan Šołta gave up the position of deputy director, but remained head of the history department. In 1986 he stopped working there and retired in 1989 after three years of journalism.

Jan Šołta was a member of the GDR Historians' Society and other commissions. He was co-editor of the Sorbian scientific journal Lětopis and author and co-editor of some works on Sorbian history, a. a. the four-volume history of the Sorbs and the biographical lexicon Nowy biografiski słownik .

Web links

• Jan Šolta in "Who was who in the GDR?"