Jan Meškank

Jan Meškank

Jan Meškank ( German  Jan or Johann Meschgang ; * July 23, 1905 in Brohna ; † October 4, 1972 in Cannewitz ) was a Sorbian teacher , writer and folklorist .

Life

Meškank was born in 1905 and grew up on a farm in Brohna. He attended the local school until 1919 and then switched to the Catholic Pedagogical School in Bautzen , which he finished in 1921.

From 1928 Meškank worked as a teacher at the village schools in Luppa and Radibor . In 1932 and 1933 he worked at the village school in Ostro . After the National Socialists seized power in 1933, Meškank, like many Sorbian teachers at that time, was transferred to German-speaking areas. He came to Bretnig-Hauswalde , but was allowed to return to the Sorbian settlement area in 1934. He taught first in Sdier until 1937 and then from 1937 to 1944 at the village school in Klix .

Between 1935 and 1944 Meškank was director of the Sorbian Museum in Bautzen. In the summer of 1944 he was arrested by the GeStaPo in Dresden . During the air raids on Dresden he managed to escape from prison together with the later Bautzen district administrator Jan Cyž .

After the end of the Second World War , Meškank continued with his teaching activities. On May 10, 1945, together with Jan Cyž and other initiators, he took part in the meeting to re-establish Domowina in Crostwitz . Until November 30, 1946 he was deputy chairman of Domowina and until 1951 school director in Panschwitz and Župan (head) of the Domowina district association Kamenz. He had to give up both functions under pressure from the new communist Domowina leadership around Kurt Krjeńc after the referendum against remilitarization at the beginning of June 1951 in the Sorbian-Catholic area had achieved remarkably poor results. Then Meškank was an alleged "Sorbian separatist" until his death under the surveillance of the state security.

In the 1950s, Meškank was an external employee of the Institute for Sorbian Folk Research .

1970 January Meškank retired and lived until his death in today Panschwitz-Kuckau belonging municipality Cannewitz . In 1972 he was awarded the Jakub Bart Ćišinski Prize . Meškank died on October 4, 1972 in Cannewitz.

Works

• Serbske narodne drasty. 2. Drasta Katolskich Serbow. Budyšin 1957
• Serbske ludowe bajki. Berlin 1955
• Wotrow a wokolina. Přinošk k wjesnej chronice. Budyšin 1958
• The place names of Upper Lusatia. Bautzen 1973

literature

• Měrko Šołta: Meškank, Jan. W: Jan Šołta, Pětr Kunze, Franc Šěn (wud.): Nowy biografiski słownik k stawiznam a kulturje Serbow. Ludowe nakładnistwo Domowina, Budyšin 1984, p. 367f.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Timo Meškank: Bjez wčerawšeho dnja njeje jutřišeho. Lipsk 2017, p. 25.
2. ↑ Curriculum vitae on the website of the Sorbian High School in Bautzen ( memorial from September 26, 2017 in the Internet Archive )