Josef Matl

Josef Matl (born March 10, 1897 in Machersdorf , formerly Lower Styria (today Mahovci, Slovenia ), † June 12, 1974 in Rottenmann , Upper Styria ) was an Austrian Slavic scholar, Southeast European researcher and cultural historian.

Life

Matl comes from a German-speaking farming family who settled in the Abstaller basin on the German-Slovenian language border. When the border was drawn in 1919, the area south of the Mur, known as Lower Styria , became the territory of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (SHS).

Matl grew up bilingual. In Abstall (today Apače) he attended elementary school from 1903 to 1908, and from 1908 the humanistic prince-bishop high school (“boys' seminar”) in Graz, which he graduated in 1916 with an early Matura. In 1915 he did military service as a volunteer and came to the front in Galicia as a member of Agram's 53rd Infantry Regiment , where he was wounded in 1917. In the same year he began studying German, Slavic and history at the University of Graz . In 1921 he passed the teaching examinations for Serbo-Croatian and Slovenian in Vienna . In the same year he did his doctorate under Vatroslav Jagić (Slavic Studies) and Hans Uebersberger (Eastern European History) at the University of Vienna .

From 1919 to 1939 (with interruptions) Matl taught Serbo-Croatian at the Federal Commercial Academy and the Technical University in Graz. He was also an examiner for Slovenian and a member of the examination committee for teaching at the medium-sized commercial schools in Vienna. From 1921 he devoted himself to further studies in Slavic studies, history, economics and sociology in Graz. In 1924 he published a textbook for Serbo-Croatian.

In 1928 he began his university career as a private lecturer at the University of Graz, where he completed his habilitation in Slavic philology with Heinrich Felix Schmid in the same year . Until he was called up for military service in 1939, courses on South Slavic (Croatian, Serbian and Slovenian) literary studies and cultural-historical topics formed the focus of his teaching activities. In 1935 he was awarded the title of associate professor.

In 1939, Matl was called up for military service as captain of the reserve by the Wehrmacht . Until 1945 he served as a "reconnaissance officer in the offensive enemy reconnaissance army " ("IH") for the southeast sector , initially in the Abwehrstellen (ASt) Graz / Salzburg (1939), Vienna (1940) and Sofia (1941). After taking part in the Balkan campaign , Matl took up service in the ASt Belgrade in June 1941, where he was responsible for the Serbia area, and since 1943/44 also for Albania and Italy. Matl was hostile to Hitler's tough Serbia policy. In his military intelligence work, he supported the comparatively moderate Serbia policy of the “Special Representative Southeast” Hermann Neubacher , who campaigned for a lowering of the draconian atonement rates for hostage shootings. Matl also brokered negotiations between the Wehrmacht and the Serbian Chetnik leaders Draža Mihailović , Milan Nedić and Jezdimir Dangić . In Albania he held preliminary meetings with Xhafer Deva and Fuad Bey Dibra for the formation of an Albanian government. In the course of his secret service activities, Matl created an extensive archive that was to form the basis for a historical work on the insurrection movement in the Balkans. After a sick leave in autumn 1944, Matl came to Wald am Schoberpass at the beginning of 1945, where some employees of the Abwehrstelle Belgrade had already withdrawn. Matl lived with a mountain farmer above the village. After May 8, 1945 the group dispersed, but Matl stayed on the farm. The Red Army occupied Wald on 10/11. May. In the following days the farms outside the village were also searched by Red Army soldiers. Matl's officer's uniform was found. Matl was arrested and ill-treated by the soldiers. During interrogation by the local commandant, Matl was able to speak Russian to him and convince him that he was not a war criminal. He was then released, but later became a British prisoner of war. He was interned in Wolfsberg until his release in 1947 .

After his release from captivity in 1947, Matl resumed teaching, from 1948 as an associate professor and head of the Department of Slavic Philology (later: Institute for Slavic Studies and Southeast Research) at the University of Graz. In 1954 he was appointed full professor.

After the war, Matl was initially banned from entering Yugoslavia . In the early 1950s, the Yugoslav consul in Graz took him across the border in a diplomatic car. In the mid-1960s, Matl was "rehabilitated" in the Yugoslav press, underlining his efforts to reduce sanctions against civilians.

From 1947 to 1969 the focus of his teaching and research was on comparative Slavic linguistics, literature and folklore. He also went on excursions and study trips on a regular basis, criss-crossing the country.

Between 1939 and 1973, Matl reviewed 53 dissertations, 22 of them as the approving first supervisor. His students include Valentin Inzko, Harald Jaksche , Helmut Kettenbach, Anneliese Lägreid, Erich Prunč, Herbert Schelesniker, Herbert Trathnigg, Sigrid Darinka Völkl, France Vrbinc, Paul Zablatnik and others.

1968 Matl retired. In 1969 he lectured at the University of Graz and in 1970/71 at the University of Salzburg .

Work (selection)

Matl described himself as a student of Vatroslav Jagićs , Matthias Murkos and Aleksandr Veselovskijs . In his publication activities he dealt with political, cultural and literary topics as well as German-Slavic cultural relations. He examined not only the so-called high culture , but also the archaic-patriarchal and the so-called popular culture , especially the South Slavic folk epic. Matl's student Sigrid Darinka Völkl therefore describes him as a “forerunner of cultural studies ” .

In his linguistic work, Matl emphasized the importance of the Prague School , which “ placed the synchronistic approach alongside the previously prevalent genetic-historical diachronistic approach .” He devoted himself to researching the “problem area of ​​language-culture” , which according to Matl above all was largely neglected in Slavic studies in favor of phonetics and forms. He relied on folklore , legal history , word and name research and semasiology .

Along with Hermann Wendel , Gerhard Gesemann and Alois Schmaus, Matl was one of the scientists who advocated Yugoslav state unity. He was a "Greater German within Austria" (Stanislaus Hafner), who was proud of his rural descent and described himself as a "farmer on the smooth parquet" . He courageously conducted scientific debates, impressing with his openness and gripping style of presentation. He was in personal contact with many Yugoslav and Russian researchers and cultural workers, such as the Slovenian literary scholar Anton Slodnjak , the sculptor Ivan Meštrović and the Russian singer and writer Bulat Okudschawa .

• The beginning of national writing among the Eastern Styrian Slovenes (the Windische Büheln) , phil. Diss. (Not published), Vienna 1921.
• Practical reading and textbook of the Serbo-Croatian language , Vienna 1924.
• The agrarian reform in Yugoslavia , Berlin-Breslau 1927.
• Slavery between west and east. Attempt at a synthesis , Klagenfurt 1950.
• The East-West Problem in Contemporary Europe , Graz 1958.
• Europe and the Slavs , Wiesbaden 1964.
• South Slavic Studies (anthology), Munich 1965.
• The culture of the southern Slavs , Frankfurt 1966 (reprint 1970, 1973).
• Farmer and Landlord in the History of the Balkan Peoples , Darmstadt-Munich 1968.
• Austria in the opinion of the Southern Slavs (conference contribution), Eisenstadt 1973.

A list of scriptures was published in the memorial for Josef Matl (= Anzeiger für Slavische Philologie IX / 1977, pp. 3–26).

estate

Matls bequeathed a small part of his library to the University of Giessen , another small part is at the Institute for Slavonic Studies in Graz. Matl's academic legacy (consisting of manuscripts for publications, academic correspondence, presentations, and congress and conference documents) is kept at the Institute for Slavonic Studies at the University of Graz.

Matl's estate from the time of his service in the Wehrmacht (1939–1947), a unique historical source, is in the Styrian State Archives and has not been edited. Matl has decreed that this inventory should only be made available to "factually qualified editors".

literature

• Michael Reichmayr: A portrait of the Slavist and Balkanologist Josef Matl (1897–1974) . In: Signal, year 2001/2002. Pavelhaus - Pavlova hiša, Laafeld / Bad Radkersburg 2001.
• Michael Reichmayr: Ardigata! Crucinal! A Slovene swear dictionary based on work by Josef Matl (1897-1974) on German-Slavic language and cultural contact . Scientific publication series of the Pavelhaus, Volume 1, 2003. ISBN 3-9501567-3-9 .
• Zoran Konstantinović : On the diachrony and synchrony of the Germano-Jugoslavica Wendel - Gesemann - Matl - Schmaus . In: Anzeiger für Slavische Philologie 9 (1977), 171-185.

Web links

• Literature by and about Josef Matl in the catalog of the German National Library
• Biography of Josef Matl