Johann Wolf (literary scholar)

Johann Wolf (born June 12, 1905 in Bozen , South Tyrol , Austria-Hungary ; † September 24, 1982 in Timișoara , Socialist Republic of Romania ) was a Romanian literary scholar and professor at the German Department of the Philological Faculty at the University of the West Timișoara .

Life

Wolf's parents were the military musician Johann Wolf (1874-1921) and Maria Koran (1879-1907) , who came from Variaș in the Banat . After being posted to Bolzano, the family lived in Vienna , Bratislava , and from 1919 in Variaș. In 1919/1920 Wolf attended the German State Real High School in Timișoara and from 1920 to 1924 the Catholic German Teacher Training Institute . The scholarship holder carried out secretarial tasks for the theology professor and director of the Josef Nischbach school . After training as a teacher, he was appointed director of studies and educator at the teacher training institute in 1924. He interrupted his scholarship at the Deutsche Burse zu Marburg with Johann Wilhelm Mannhardt from the “Institute for Border and Abroad Germanism” because of his military service in the Romanian Army . In 1926 he was appointed the first practice school teacher of the Banatia in Timișoara. Wolf led the teacher training in the "German Catholic Teachers Association" founded in 1930. He wrote articles for the "Banater Schulbote", which existed from 1923 to 1940, and was its editor from 1931 to 1932. He was co- editor of a number of school books for the Banat elementary schools. He was also active in the young teachers' association for the organization of the teaching staff and their care in old age. As an actor, Wolf appeared in Schiller's Wilhelm Tell in 1924 , in Die Räuber in 1930 , and in 1932 as Mephisto in Goethe's Faust . At that time he married the elementary school teacher Elvira Hicke (1906–1999).

From 1928 to 1930, Wolf prepared privately in Vienna for his Matura examination, which he passed in 1930. In the same year he began his studies there in education, philosophy, psychology and mathematics and received his doctorate in philosophy in 1936. As an autodidact, Wolf learned several languages. From 1937 to 1941 he gave pedagogy lessons to the preparatory classes of the training school and from 1941 to 1944 philosophy lessons at the Banatia, which was called the “Prinz Eugen School” at the time of National Socialism . Wolf kept his distance from the National Socialist movement.

In January 1945 Wolf was deported to the Soviet Union for forced labor , first to Krywyj Rih , where his finger was crushed in a sawmill; after that he worked in a quarry. His knowledge of Russian helped him to obtain a translation diploma for Russian and Romanian . After his return to the Banat, Wolf taught at various schools; in the summer he worked on the threshing machine in Darova .

In 1948 Wolf worked as a teacher at the German State School and taught mathematics, psychology, pedagogy and logic at the "German Pedagogical Training Institute". From 1956 he also taught at the "Central Training Institute for Teachers" and from 1957 at the "Pedagogical Institute" in Timișoara. At the German Department of the Philological Faculty of the University of the West Timișoara , Wolf initially worked as an assistant with a teaching assignment, then from 1958 to 1969 as a university lecturer. On July 3, 1968 Wolf took part in the "Consultation at the Central Committee (ZK) of the Romanian Communist Party (RKP) with scientists and cultural workers from the ranks of German nationality". As a result, the Council of Working People of German Nationality came into being .

The wolfs' application to leave Germany in 1978 was not granted. Wolf died of heart failure on September 24, 1982. He could no longer complete the novel about his life and a linguistic examination of the work of Adam Müller-Guttenbrunn .

Publications

• The school system of the Timisoara Banat in the 18th century , dissertation, Vienna 1935
• Adam Müller-Guttenbrunn, the educator for home , in: Banater Schulbote 1931/8
• Friedrich Schiller , in: Kultureller Wegweiser 1955/1
• The revolutionary years in the Banat , Neuer Weg 2221-2244, 1956
• Literature and literature lessons , in: Neue Literatur , 1963/5; 6; 1964/2, 5
• Short forms of popular storytelling , in: Neuer Weg, August 12, 1967
• The word. Attempt to interpret Paul Celan's poem “Sprachsplitter” , in: Neuer Weg, April 20, 1968
• Interpretation: Ingeborg Bachmann's poem “Die stundete Zeit” , in: Hermannstädter Zeitung , December 13, 1968
• Crisis of criticism? On questions of our literary criticism. In: New Literature 1968/7
• Poetry and music. Poems by Schiller and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony , in: Neuer Weg, August 12, 1970
• How did German colonists get into the Banat in the 18th century? In: Research on Folklore and Regional Studies, 16, 1973/2
• Dialect in Goethean texts. Some references to similarities with the Banat Rhine-Franconian dialects . In: Research on Folklore and Regional Studies, April 5 and April 19, 1975
• German studies in Romania until 1944 , in: Research on folklore and regional studies 19/1976/1
• Methodology of German language teaching , 1968
• Introduction to German Philology with Yvonne Lucuta, lecture 1973
• Use of language - understanding of language. Forms of expression and structure in our German today , 1973
• Little Banat dialect , 1974
• About Goethe's Faust , foreword to: Johann Wolfgang Goethe: Faust , Part I and II, 1974

Web links

• An overview of the German Studies Chair in Timișoara ( Memento from February 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
• Biography at dvhh.org

Individual evidence

1. ^ Eduard Schneider: Banater German authors of the present , people's calendar of the Neue Banater Zeitung , 1980
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Hans Gehl : Fifty Years of Temeswar German Studies Chair and University Lecturer of the Pioneering Time , 2006, 120 p., P. 91.
3. ^ Hannelore Baier : The year 1968 and the German minority ( Memento from July 17, 2009 in the Internet Archive )