Josef Strauss (teacher)

Josef Strauss , also called Sepp Strauss (born December 3, 1925 in Maria Elend im Rosental ; † March 31, 2013 in Hartberg ), was the district school inspector and founder of the Hartberg Singing and Playgroup (SSGH) and the Hartberg International Partnership Ring (IPH) .

Life

Josef Strauss attended the three-class bilingual elementary school in Maria Elend im Rosental up to the 6th grade, until after an examination he was able to switch to the 3rd grade of the secondary school in St. Veit an der Glan , because his mother, Albine Strauss (formerly Slanouc ), got married there. After graduating from secondary school in 1941, Josef Strauss was accepted into the first year of the teacher training institute in Klagenfurt . In the second year this class was moved to Krainburg . Director Franz Koschier was the head of the institution. With him Josef Strauss learned the first folk dances , which were performed on various occasions.

From January 1943, Strauss served in the Reich Labor Service in Salzburg and France , where he then went as a soldier . In the course of the invasion of the Allied troops, he was taken prisoner by the Americans and subsequently to England and the USA . Josef Strauss was released on July 14, 1947.

Back in Austria , he attended the teacher training institute in Graz because the training center in Klagenfurt was overcrowded. In 1947 he graduated with honors, got a job in Graz and got to know the cultural life of the city and also young people who love to dance.

Strauss received his basic training in folk dance with Erwin Zasche and with the minstrel father Maier. Gundl Lawatsch-Holaubek, Fritz Frank and especially the federal public education officer Franz Maria Kapfhammer were good teachers who brought him in contact with many future-oriented people. Kapfhammer tried to interweave music, song and dance in a wide variety of conferences and educational events. Josef Strauss was asked for help. The first major dance event was the first Styrian folk dance festival in the Meerscheinschlössl in autumn 1948 .

His future wife, Margarethe Heiling, met Josef Strauss while dancing. She came from Eastern Styria. Since they wanted to get married soon and at the request of other people, Strauss was transferred to the secondary school in Hartberg in autumn 1949 . Many concerns in the field of popular education were waiting to be deployed in a region in which the Second World War had left terrible marks. Young people in particular were looking for new perspectives. The union of Styrian rural youth was emerging. Every local group that was founded also wanted to hold a dance class. Also traditional costumes, new buildings, the organization of customs and festivals, wind music, theater groups, etc. needed helpers and advisers. This represented a great challenge for Josef Strauss, who, in addition to his work as a teacher, later director and district school inspector, volunteered in all areas.

As early as 1952, through the rural youth in Schildbach (Hartberg area), the first contacts to similar groups in Westphalia were established , which led to a trip abroad by the “Volkstumsgruppe” of the district youth officer Hartberg to the youth castle Vlotho . In 1959 this working group was for the first time at an international seminar and dance group meeting at Ludwigstein Castle in Hesse . The friendships made there with participants from Sweden , Finland , France , England etc. a. were the basis for the subsequent trips abroad of the community now called "Singing and Playgroup Hartberg", which invited to the first "Folk Dance Encounters" in Hartberg in 1962 and continued this through the following decades. The question arose very early on: What is and what do we want with international folk dance? In addition to maintaining local cultural traditions, the main focus was on crossing borders through encounters and building bridges to other people and peoples.

The motto " We want to build bridges from person to person - from people to people " emerged:

• To give each other help and friendship in a world society that is becoming impersonal,
• To try the simple life of the ancestors and to keep the traditional from being forgotten,
• To cultivate folk art as a language to like-minded people in the country and among other peoples
• Not to fall into generalizations and radicalisms, but to go the path of understanding in a tolerant manner.

The path started turned out to be difficult. In the decades that followed, the singing and play group toured almost every country in Europe, advertising Styria and Austria in performances and exhibitions, radio and television appearances as well as in reports in the media and with the distribution of sound carriers. The group tried not to fall into folklore and did not stubbornly adhere to given norms. With this work she contributed to the development of the idea of ​​a diverse European community, even if this was not always understood or laughed at at home. But recognition and praise were also given. Again and again, humanitarian aid was given to people and communities in need by the “Association for the Promotion of International Encounters”, especially in the new eastern countries.

The international folk events were very popular and, accordingly, also imitated. Over 300 foreign groups (over 10,000 people) from Europe , North America and Asia came to Hartberg. In order not to lose contact with the many groups, the "International Partnership Ring Hartberg" was founded. In 1980 the “Association for the Promotion of International Encounters” was set up to cope with the organization of the "encounters", which have been held twice a year since the 1980s and which were held each time in different East Styrian locations. The magazine "Mitteilungen" (46 issues) appeared twice a year and reported on the work and plans of the association, dealt with the most diverse areas of rural folk art , including in a scientific form, and was an important link to and between the people who attended interested in the events.

Margarethe succumbed to cancer and left four daughters together. In 1961 Josef Strauss married Ilse Hupfer (teacher) from Graz. She was subsequently involved in numerous publications and still leads the choir of the Hartberg singing and play group.

Projects and contributions

• Founder and chairman (until recently honorary chairman) of the Hartberg singing and play group
• Founder of the Hartberg International Partnership Ring
• Founder of the Association for the Promotion of International Encounters
• Organizer of the International Folk Dance Meetings
• Author of the association magazine "Mitteilungen"
• Member of the board of the Styrian cultural working group
• 1953 to 1975 from the Office of Styria. State government appointed district youth officer
• Responsible for teacher training in the Hartberg district
• Member of the federal management of the Austrian Youth Book Club
• Lecturer of the youth literature commission of the Federal Ministry for Education and the Arts
• Member of the International Folk Art Organization (IOV)
• Member of the ARGE Volkstanz Steiermark
• Member of the Styrian Folk Song Association
• from 1960 (founding) member and from 2010 honorary member of the Federal Association of Austrian Folk Dance (BAG)
• from 1964 appointed rural school advisor by the state school board for Styria
• Managing Director of the East Styrian Tourism Association
• Historical association Hartberg
• 1968–1980 director of the then Hartberg boys' secondary school, now Rieger secondary school
• 1980 to 1990 district school inspector
• Initiator of the European talks Hartberg

Awards and certificates

• 1955: BMf.UK BM Drimmel: Thanks u. Recognition for the promotion of extracurricular youth education
• 1958: Landesrat Hanns Koren : Thanks for organizing the Hartberger Youth Week
• 1961: Styria State Chamber for Agriculture and Forestry: Chamber medal in bronze for looking after rural youth
• 1966: Silver Merit of the Republic of Austria for cultural youth work
• 1971: Ostst. Tourist Association: plaque of honor for services to the East. tourism
• 1974: City of Hartberg: badge of honor for many years of cultural activity
• 1975: Amherst Glee Club, USA with Gratitude for Help - concert
• 1982: State Chamber for Agriculture and Forestry: Chamber medal in silver
• 1987: Federal Minister for Education: Appointment to the Government Council
• 1989: Federal Minister for Education: Thanks and appreciation
• 1989: Provincial School Board of Styria: Thanks and appreciation
• 1991: ARGE Österreichischer Volkstanz: Thanks for many years of service as a supporter of folk culture
• 1993: Braunschweiger VTG and Trachtengilde: Certificate of thanks for setting up the international folk dance encounters
• Large gold medal of honor of the state of Styria for the services as a district school inspector
• Humanitas Medal: Thanks for social commitment - humanity (to the Association for the Promotion of International Folk Art Encounters)
• 2006: Styria State government: Thanks for social commitment - humanity
• 2007: Styrian Seniors' Association: Silver badge of honor
• 2007: BAG : Awarded the Raimund Zoder Medal
• 2010: ARGE Volkstanz: Award of honorary membership
• 2010: Orphanage in Cupcui , Moldova : Thank you for many years of help

Publications

• Josef Strauss, August Winkelbauer: Festschrift: 100 years of state citizenship school, Hartberg secondary schools. Self-published by Druckerei Schönwetter, Hartberg, 1970.
• Josef Strauss: Messages . Association for the promotion of international encounters of the Hartberg singing and play group. of the Association for the Promotion of International Folk Art Encounters in Hartberg, 1986–2000 (series)
• Josef Strauss: The longing frozen into hills. A photographic foray through the East Styrian homeland. Self-published by the Association for the Promotion of International Folk Art Encounters in Hartberg, 1994.
• Josef Strauss: "International Folk Art Encounters 95 in Hartberg." In: The Happy Circle, No. 45, 1995.
• Josef Strauss, Christian Handl (photo): Hartberg, a city through the ages . Heimat-Verlag, Schwarzach 2003, ISBN 3-9501643-8-3 .
• Josef Strauss, Ilse Strauss: Dialect in northern Eastern Styria. A collection by Sepp and Ilse Strausz. Self-published by the Association for the Promotion of International Folk Art Encounters in Hartberg, in the 2006 Hanns-Koren Memorial Year.
• Josef Strauss, Helmut Jeglitsch: "Memories of an old folk dancer." In: Der Fröhliche Kreis, magazine of the Federal Association of Austrian Folk Dance, No. 3, 2013.

Web links

• http://ssgh.at Sing- und Spielgruppe Hartberg
• http://www.kleinezeitung.at/steiermark/hartbergfuerstenfeld/3281565/ Einsatz-fuer-schule-voelker-europas.story Obituary, Kleine Zeitung, April 2, 2013
• http://www.bakip-hartberg.at/2009_10/2010/05_mai/europa_gespraeche/europa_gespraeche.htm , Europe remains in discussion, Hartberger Europagespräche 2010.
• http://www.bakip-hartberg.at/internat_volks_kunst_01.htm , 50 years of "International Folk Art Encounters" and 40 years of European elections.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Helmut Jeglitsch: Obituary Sepp Strauss. In: Happy Circle. 3/2013, p. 17.
2. ^ NMS Chronicle Historical Directors. Retrieved September 7, 2015 . 
3. ↑ More equal opportunities in Europe. (No longer available online.) 2009, formerly in the original ; accessed on September 7, 2015 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
4. ^ Helmut Jeglitsch: Raimund Zoder Medal for Sepp Strauss. In: The happy circle. Federal Association of Austrian Folk Dance, 2007, accessed on September 7, 2015 . 
5. ↑ Josef Strauss, Helmut Jeglitsch: Memories of an old folk dancer. In: The happy circle. Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft Österreichischer Volkstanz., 2013, accessed on September 7, 2015 .