Josef Titta
Josef Wenzel Titta (born January 24, 1863 in Prosmik near Leitmeritz , † August 10, 1923 in Most ) was the founder and chairman of the German People's Council for Bohemia and a national champion for the rights of Germans in Bohemia and Moravia .
Life
Titta was the son of a dredger. He studied medicine in Prague and received his doctorate on January 21, 1889. As a student, he became a member of the Teutonia Prague fraternity in 1881 ; later member of the fraternities of Cimbria Dresden (1911), Arminia Graz (1919) and Albia Vienna (1919). After completing his medical studies, he became a general practitioner in Trebnitz from 1889 (district doctor of the Lobositz district ), doctor of the Leitzmeritz district health insurance company and medical councilor.
He led the nationality war on the German-Czech language border early on. In 1889 he founded the "German Protection Association Germania" for Trebnitz and the surrounding area. Titta was an active promoter of the German club and cultural life in this border area, u. a. Founder of the school maintenance association and the boys and girls advanced training school. The founding of the Federation of Germans in Bohemia , as well as the establishment (1903) of the German People's Council for Bohemia , of which he was chairman from 1905 to 1918. The German People's Council for Bohemia served to supplement the work of the political parties and thus to solve the Bohemian problem of autonomy. The People's Council was regarded as the most important German protective community in old Austria. He created the German section of the state commission for child protection and youth welfare and was editor (1905-1918), the German university votes later (1909-1923) of the German university newspaper .
In 1918 he became a member of the German Bohemian National Assembly. Due to his commitment to German rights in Bohemia, he had to flee to Dresden after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy after the First World War and the establishment of Czechoslovakia . In the spring of 1919 he spoke several times to the American peace preparation commission in Vienna under Calvin Coolidge to support the Trebnitz language border communities. After the Prague authorities had given assurance that he would be safe, he returned to Lobositz in May 1919. A short time later, Czech nationalists carried out a hand grenade attack on him in his Trebnitz country house. He survived unscathed, but was arrested and imprisoned in Prague. After a few weeks he was released by the Prague authorities. He had to forego any further political activity and spent the last years of his life again as a country doctor in Trebnitz. His wish for the autonomy of German Bohemia and the entire Sudetenland was not fulfilled. With the Treaty of Saint-Germain , the predominantly German-populated areas were assigned to the new state of Czechoslovakia.
On August 10, 1923, he died of chronic nephritis in the Brüx hospital. The urn with his ashes was buried in front of the high altar in the German Evangelical Church in Trebnitz. This church, and thus his grave, was later given to the Czechoslovak Hussite Church by the government of the Czech Republic . In 1959 the church was converted into a mineral museum. Titta's grave was destroyed.
Honors
- Titta received the honorary citizenship of the cities of Leitmeritz , Aussig , Theresienstadt , Bruch , Liboch , Dlaschkowitz and Nettluk .
- A street in the Munich districts of Milbertshofen and Am Hart was named after him.
Fonts
- The national struggle on the Trebnitz language border in 1902–1912. Annual report of the German association "Germania" .
- On the national question . 2 volumes, Trebnitz 1908.
literature
- Erich Schmied: Josef Wenzel Titta and the German People's Council for Bohemia. In: Bohemia 26, 1985, ISSN 0523-8587 , pp. 309-330.
- Horst Grimm, Leo Besser-Walzel: The corporations. Handbook on history, dates, facts, people . Umschau-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1986, ISBN 3-524-69059-9 , p. 378
- Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume I: Politicians. Volume 6: T-Z. Winter, Heidelberg 2005, ISBN 3-8253-5063-0 , pp. 42-43.
Web links
- Literature by and about Josef Titta in the catalog of the German National Library
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Titta, Josef |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Titta, Josef Wenzel (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Founder and chairman of the German People's Council for Bohemia and campaigner for the autonomy of the Germans in Bohemia and Moravia |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 24, 1863 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Prosmics at Leitmeritz |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 10, 1923 |
| Place of death | Brus |