Johann Wüscht

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Johann Wüscht (born August 12, 1897 in Militics , German  Militisch , Kingdom of Hungary , Austria-Hungary , † 1976 in Koblenz , Germany ) was an association functionary , editor and author of folk-national writings in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia . In Germany he wrote other papers on Yugoslav German topics.

Life

Wüscht attended the primary school in Kalocsa (German Kollotschau ) and the commercial school in Novi Sad (German Neusatz ). During the First World War he was taken prisoner by Russia (1915-16), where he became acquainted with socialist ideas in various prison camps . After his return he initially worked as an office worker, but soon showed an interest in the social, agricultural, economic and demographic aspects of the “ethnic German community” in the newly founded Kingdom of Yugoslavia. He became head of the local branch of the Swabian-German Cultural Association in Srpski Miletić and worked "with great dedication" on the organization of the village cooperatives. He often criticized the “peasant people” image of the “ ethnic Germans ” on the basis of which the Kulturbund based its cultural activities.

Wüscht was a co-founder of the "Central Welfare Cooperative" (ZEWOGE) set up in 1930 with the support of the Kulturbund in Novi Sad, of which he was managing director until 1938. ZEWOGE gained its independence from the Cooperative Association of the German Minority in Novi Sad and was supported by the Serbian Association of Health Cooperatives in Belgrade, into which the organization was integrated (following a law passed in December 1930), but was largely able to maintain its self-administration. That was surprising, because Wüscht, head of ZEWOGE, had already propagated in the late 1920s that the Germans of Vojvodina would find themselves in a demographic battle with the Serbs. In addition, Wüscht had formulated goals such as social hygiene for “ keeping the people alive ” and eugenics for “keeping the blood healthy and clean” for ZEWOGE. The cooperative enabled "regulated health care" and a targeted use of doctors, dedicated itself to "preventive health care", such as the care of babies and toddlers; the "education and enlightenment" of the German-speaking population, as well as their "maintenance of racial hygiene to protect the genetic make-up".

From 1932 to 1935 Wüscht was the editor of the cooperative organ “Welfare and Health”, also known as the “Woge-Blatt”. In this and in other publications he published several works and statistics, especially on the falling development of birth rates among the "ethnic Germans" of Yugoslavia. The magazine made a significant contribution to the enlightenment and popularization of the racial hygiene stereotypes and made open reference to current health policy developments in the German Reich , for example euphorically welcoming the sterilization legislation there . Wüscht maintained private contact with the population scientist and eugenics advocate Friedrich Burgdörfer , who was given the opportunity to influence the biopolitical discourse within the “ethnic Germans” through the publication of articles . The historian Johann Böhm placed Wüscht among the innovators who were influenced by the National Socialists in Yugoslavia .

At the end of the 1930s, Johann Wüscht established regular correspondence with the Yugoslav Prime Minister Dragiša Cvetković , at whose request he acted as a liaison between the Yugoslav authorities and the diplomatic circles of the German Empire. In 1940 he received the "Medal of the Order of Sveti Sava" for his services. Wüscht was a close colleague of Josef Jankos after he took over the presidency of the Kulturbund and was appointed " ethnic group leader of Serbia and the Banat ". One month before the start of the Balkan campaign in 1941 , Wüscht, Janko and others from the ranks of the “ethnic group leadership” were held under house arrest and police surveillance. Wüscht's acquaintances and contacts with the Yugoslav government resulted in the hostages being released.

The Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle (VoMi) described Wüscht in 1941 in his role as head of the main office for statistics within the Kulturbund as a "loner". Even under the changed political conditions in Serbia occupied by the German Empire, Wüscht continued his work as an author on "ethnic German" topics. Even after “ZEWOGE” was renamed “Welfare Office” in 1941, he retained the management of the institution as NS official . In his situation reports from 1941, Wüscht took an active part in denouncing Jewish fellow citizens. In 1942 he was appointed head of the “Research Center for Economics” and transferred to Budapest .

In autumn 1944 he fled to Austria , where for several years he campaigned for the recognition of "ethnic German" refugees in aid centers that were operated on the basis of ZEWOGE. From 1949 he worked for a hemp trading company in Strasbourg, France . In 1956 he settled in Koblenz. Here he worked from 1957 to 1964 in the German Federal Archives , where he collected documentation on the German minorities in Southeast Europe , including statements from former officials of the minority as well as over 1,000 reports from experiences and communities. During this time he wrote several papers on Yugoslav German topics.

Publications

  • The German ethnic group in Yugoslavia. In: Handbuch der Europäische Volksgruppen, pp. 389–407.
  • The Magyar occupation of the Batschka 1941-1944. Documentary statement on the Yugoslav representation. Self-published, Kehl am Rhein.
  • The events in Syrmia 1941 - 1944. Documentary statement on the Yugoslav representation in "Zločini okupatora i njihovih pomagača u Vojvodini 1941 - 1944" (German crimes of the occupiers and their helpers in Vojvodina 1941 - 1944 ) self-published, Kehl am Rhein 1975, 84 pages .
  • Slovenes and Germans. Self-published, Kehl am Rhein 1975.
  • A word on Yugoslav demands. Self-published, Kehl am Rhein 1974.
  • Causes and backgrounds of the fate of the Germans in Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia population losses in World War II. Self-published, Kehl am Rhein 1966.
  • Yugoslavia and the Third Reich: A Documented History of German-Yugoslav Relations from 1933-1945. Seewald, Stuttgart 1969.
  • Contribution to the history of the Germans in Yugoslavia 1934-1944. Self-published, Kehl am Rhein 1966. Central printing house Ackermann & Honold, Stuttgart. 208 pages.
  • Contribution to the history of the Germans in Yugoslavia for the period from 1934 to 1944 representation in the form of files [background and context according to official sources]. Self-published, Kehl am Rhein 1966.
  • Vojvodina and its Germanness. Political history, population conditions, economic situation. Publication Office, Vienna 1940.
  • The ethnic conditions in the South Slavic Voivodina. Südostdeutsches Institut, Graz 1940. 116 pages.
  • Census results of the Danube region (Vojwodina) in southern Slavia 1931. Publication point, Vienna 1940.
  • About the past and present of the municipality of Srpski-Miletitsch. A home book as a festive gift for the 150th anniversary. Srpski Miletić, Backa 1936.
  • Contribution to the biological life balance of Germans in Vojvodina. Printing and publishing company, Novisad 1936.
  • The cooperative health care fundamentals and work. Central Rural Welfare Cooperative, Novisad 1936.

rating

The historian Johann Böhm stated: “Wüscht, who was close to the Nazi innovators around Sepp Janko in the 1930s, was after the end of the Second World War as archivist in the Koblenz Federal Archives, responsible for the records and tape recordings of former high-ranking Nazi officials from Yugoslavia, Romania and Hungary . As a senior Nazi official until the end of 1944, he should have known that as a state employee in a democratic state, one should neither gloss over nor deny the actions of Nazi officials from 1933-1945. What is striking about these writings is that Wüscht consciously or unconsciously took up "untruths", which can also be found again and again in his publications. "

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Marius Turda (Ed.): The History of East-Central European Eugenics, 1900-1945: Sources and Commentaries. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015. ISBN 1-47253-136-1 , pp. 529f
  2. ^ Marius Turda (Ed.): The History of East-Central European Eugenics, 1900-1945: Sources and Commentaries. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015, ISBN 1472531361 , p. 528.
  3. ↑ Filip Krčmar: Folk German Eugenics in Vojvodina. Overview. In: Marius Turda (Ed.): The History of East-Central European Eugenics, 1900-1945: Sources and Commentaries. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015, ISBN 1472531361 , pp. 518-526, here p. 520.
  4. ↑ Bernd Robionek: Contested cooperation: the ethnic-German welfare cooperatives in the Vojvodina (1930s) . In: European Review of History: Revue européenne d'histoire . September 13, 2018, ISSN  1350-7486 , p. 1–17 , doi : 10.1080 / 13507486.2018.1471045 ( tandfonline.com [PDF; accessed September 29, 2018]).
  5. ^ A b Maria Fiebrandt: Selection for the Settler Society: The inclusion of ethnic Germans in the Nazi genetic health policy in the context of resettlements 1939-1945. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2014. ISBN 3-64736-967-5 , p. 68
  6. ^ Johann Böhm : The German ethnic group in Yugoslavia 1918-1941: Domestic and foreign policy as symptoms of the relationship between the German minority and the Yugoslav government. Peter Lang, 2009. ISBN 3-63159-557-3 , p. 255
  7. ↑ Mirna Zakić: Ethnic Germans and National Socialism in Yugoslavia in World War II. Cambridge University Press, 2017, ISBN 1-31677-306-X , p. 53.
  8. ^ Johann Böhm : The German ethnic group in Yugoslavia 1918-1941: Domestic and foreign policy as symptoms of the relationship between the German minority and the Yugoslav government. Peter Lang, 2009. ISBN 3-63159-557-3 , p. 24
  9. ^ A b Johann Böhm: The German ethnic groups in the independent state of Croatia and in the Serbian Banat: their relationship to the Third Reich 1941-1944. Peter Lang, 2012. ISBN 3-63163-323-8 , p. 13 f.
  10. ↑ Thomas Casagrande : The Volksdeutsche SS-Division "Prinz Eugen": the Banat Swabians and the National Socialists war crimes. Campus Verlag, 2003. ISBN 3-59337-234-7 , p. 164
  11. ↑ Josef Beer: The suffering of the Germans in communist Yugoslavia: Local reports on the crimes against the Germans by the Tito regime in the period from 1944-1948, Volume 1. Donauschwäbische Kulturstiftung, 1992. ISBN 3-92627-613-4 , p. 875
personal data
SURNAME Wüscht, Johann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German association functionary, author and editor in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and in Germany
DATE OF BIRTH August 12, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Militics , Batschka , Kingdom of Hungary , Austria-Hungary
DATE OF DEATH 1976
Place of death Koblenz , Germany