Jozef Sivák

Jozef Sivák (1939)

Jozef Sivák , pseudonym Trávnický or Anica Jaroslavská (born January 14, 1886 in Bobrovec ; † January 27, 1959 ) was a Slovak and Czechoslovak politician , teacher , author , journalist and member of the Slovak People's Party in the Czechoslovak Parliament . In January 1939 he became a Minister in the Slovak Autonomous Government. After Jozef Tisos was deposed in March 1939, he was briefly appointed Prime Minister of the Autonomous Country of Slovakia by the Czechoslovakian President Emil Hácha .

From 1939 to 1944 he was Minister of Education and Minister for National Enlightenment in the First Slovak Republic, which was dependent on the German Reich .

Life

Youth, training and career

Jozef Sivák was born as one of five children from deeply religious and nationally conscious parents. His father worked in a belt factory.

After graduating from elementary school and middle school , his parents decided to send the talented boy to study at the teachers' college in Spišská Nová Ves . Due to financial difficulties, however, Sivák was twice forced to drop out of his studies. Ultimately, he graduated from the church office in Spišská Kapitula , where he was accepted as a private student. Sivák completed his training in summer courses in Brezno , Cluj-Napoca and Timisoara .

As a qualified teacher, Sivák worked for ten years in Liptovská Teplá and later in Likavka . Due to its proximity to Ružomberok , Sivák often met with the Catholic priest and Slovak leader Andrej Hlinka , who shared his views on the situation of the Slovaks in the Kingdom of Hungary . Sivák published articles and poems in many Slovak newspapers and magazines, sometimes under the pseudonym Trávnický or Anica Jaroslavská . After the establishment of Czechoslovakia , he became a school inspector in Prievidza at the beginning of 1919 . His first merit in the city consisted of holding Slovak courses for teachers and civil servants. In the same year he founded the magazine Náš kraj ( Our Country ) together with the district captain Ján Novák .

Politics and work until 1938

In his youth, Sivák joined Andrej Hlinka's Slovak People's Party and also wrote articles for the party newspaper Slovák ( The Slovak ). In the second half of the 1920s, Sivák also acted as editor-in-chief of Slovák . From December 19, 1918 he was General Secretary of the Slovak People's Party. On March 11, 1919, he was nominated as one of 14 deputies to complete the Revolutionary National Assembly in Prague . All Slovak MPs were gathered in the Slovak Club . However, only four representatives of the Slovak Autonomists were admitted to this Slovak club by the Czechoslovak central government . These were Andrej Hlinka, František Jehlička , Karol Kmeťko and Jozef Sivák.

As a teacher, in his function as a member of parliament, he was primarily interested in the problems of the education system known to him and helped to solve them. In this way he saved the oldest piaristic grammar school in Slovakia in Prievidza from being closed. After the adoption of the Czechoslovak Constitution of 1920, Sivák gave up his mandate as a member of parliament and devoted himself entirely to his educational work in Prievidza.

During his work in Prievidza, Sivák was a co-founder of Odbor Slovenskej Matice ( Department of Matica slovenská ), the Museum Association of the Upper Nitra ( Muzeálny spolok hornej Nitry ), the Association of Friends of Prievidza ( Združenie priateľov Prievidze ) by and at his suggestion Slovak intellectuals founded the Association of North Nitra Academics ( Spolok severonitrianskych akademikov ).

On the initiative of Matica slovenská , Sivák unveiled memorial plaques for important personalities of the Slovak national movement (e.g. for Andrej Truchlý-Sytniansky in 1924 ). It was also Sivák who secured state support for the city of Prievidza for the construction of the District Health Center (1928), and Sivák also initiated the construction of a new grammar school in Prievidza (1930). That is why he was given honorary citizenship by the Prievidza municipal council for his achievements in the city's cultural and economic sphere.

Sivák tried to defend the interests of all citizens, regardless of their political or religious affiliation. His views and his work did not go unnoticed by the representatives of central political and social institutions. In 1928 he was awarded by Pope Pius XI for his contribution to the development and promotion of ecclesiastical schools in Slovakia . awarded the New Year's Order.

In 1924 Sivák returned to parliament and dealt again with the problems in education and in the cultural field. From 1937 he was Vice President of the Czechoslovak Parliament in Prague. He became known as a moderate politician and a threatless fighter for the cultural rights of the Slovaks and for the political right of the Slovak people to autonomy. From November 22, 1938, he and Karol Sidor represented the interests of the Slovak People's Party as a member of the standing committee in the House of Representatives. He served in the Parliament in Prague until 1939.

Minister of the Autonomous Slovakia and the First Slovak Republic

Jozef Sivák as Slovak Minister of Education (1941)

In January 1939 Sivák replaced the radical Matúš Černák as Minister of Education and Minister for National Enlightenment in the autonomous country of Slovakia , which was created as a result of the Munich Agreement . After the dismissal of the Tiso government, the Czechoslovak President Emil Hácha appointed him Prime Minister of the autonomous Slovakia on March 9, 1939 and also made him head of all Slovak ministries. But when Sivák, who was in the Vatican , heard of the appointment, he refused to accept it, so Hácha Karol named Sidor as Prime Minister of Slovakia.

When the Slovak parliament proclaimed independence on March 14, 1939, Pope Pius XII received. Jozef Sivák for an audience, which he concluded with a special apostolic blessing for Slovakia, her government and her people . In the newly formed First Slovak Republic, Sivák was again Minister of Education and Minister for National Enlightenment.

During his ministerial work more than 4,000 Slovak books were published and for the first time Slovak film production was started. In addition, he had a personal share in the establishment of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and Arts, and from 1940 onwards he presented state awards to Slovak scientists and artists. His cultural focus was on national traditions and the Christian value system. Domestically, Sivák belonged, like the majority of the Slovak ministers, to the Catholic-conservative (moderate) party wing of President Jozef Tiso, which faced the radical-fascist party wing of Prime Minister Vojtech Tuka .

As a minister, Sivák advocated the retention of several Czech professors at the University of Bratislava and prevented National Socialist ideology from flowing into the Slovak school plans. He also supported an all-Slav cooperation and protested against Prime Minister Tuka's declaration of war on the Soviet Union . While the Jewish Code was being prepared , Sivák announced that he would resign from the government if the law were to be implemented.

At the request of rabbis, he stayed in the government anyway, as he kept the Jewish representatives informed about the preparation of anti-Semitic actions. Sivák was also one of those Slovak politicians who tried to help people who were racially persecuted. In his capacity as Minister of Education, he saved many Jewish teachers, officials and employees of Jewish faith facilities on the deportation and granted work credentials and teachers who did not have certificates exception of the President or any other minister.

Because of his tolerant policies that inhibited National Socialism, Prime Minister Tuka asked President Tiso in October 1940 to dismiss Sivák and replace him with the pro-Nazi head of the propaganda office, Karol Murgaš . But thanks to the support of the president, Sivák remained a government minister. Sivák held the ministerial post until September 4, 1944, when he resigned after the resignation of the Tuka government as a sign of his rejection of the suppression of the Slovak national uprising. This meant Sivák's political end.

Trial and death

Sivák was arrested on May 4, 1945 and sentenced to two years in prison by the Czechoslovak People's Court. In addition, all of his property was confiscated. After he was released in 1947, he and his family had to move to the southern Slovak village of Tachty , and later to Trubín in the Czech Republic. Sivák died in 1959 and was buried in Bratislava .

Meaning and honors

Jozef Sivák planned to publish his very far-reaching memoirs in several volumes, but only managed the first part by 1924. Nevertheless, Sivák's memories of his childhood in Liptovský Mikuláš at the end of the 19th century and of his youth in Ružomberok at the time First World War a legible and colored insight into the landscape of Liptov at the turn of the century and several less well-known insights into the events connected with the domestic conditions and the realities around the creation of the First Czechoslovak Republic.

During his life, Sivák participated in the works of many school offices and high schools. He unveiled memorial plaques for many Slovak personalities and published many textbooks in the Slovak language (e.g. Abecedár, čítanky pre všetky ročníky ľudových škôl, prírodopis, mravovedu). The importance of his textbooks was immense. Some of his books have been translated into German and Hungarian . In addition, he founded many scientific, historical and Catholic associations.

The new communist regime did not admit it, but in many areas of education and culture it worked on the foundations that Sivák had laid during his work. On the occasion of his 120th birthday, the pensioners' club Bôbar in Prievidza organized a commemoration and exhibition about the life and work of Jozef Sivák in cooperation with Matica slovenská in 2006. The organizer of the event Anna Sabová said on this occasion:

“Even if Jozef Sivák was not a born Prievidzan, he raised this city and its surroundings extremely, for which he used his post as a member of parliament. We organized the exhibition on the occasion of his 120th birthday, but also because our club is holding its meetings in the house that Jozef Sivák had built in Prievidza, where he worked as a school inspector. "

Fonts

• Krátka náuka o hospodárstve pre ľudové školy (Prešov, 1920)
• Meroveda (Prešov, 1920)
• Abecedár pre ľudové školy (Ružomberok, 1920)
• Púčky (Ružomberok, 1921)
• Nový Abecedár (Ružomberok, 1922)
• Hry našich detí (Liptovský Mikuláš, 1922)
• Lastovičky (Ružomberok, 1923)
• Otčina.Čítanka pre IV.ročník ľudových škôl (Prešov, 1925)
• Prameň.Čítanka pre piaty a šiesty ročník slovenských ľudových škôl (Prešov, 1926)
• Kríza katolíckej inteligencie (Bratislava, 1927)
• Otava (Prešov, 1927)
• Nové slovenské školstvo (Bratislava, 1940)
• Nové slovenské školstvo III. (Bratislava, 1942)
• Národná osveta a ľudovýchova (Bratislava, 1943)
• Z mojich pamätí (Martin, Matica slovenská 2003)

Web links

• Jozef Sivák, www.osobnosti.sk, accessed on June 12, 2011 (online) (Slovak)
• Jozef Sivák, www.kultura-fb.sk, accessed on June 17, 2011 (online) (Slovak)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Gerhard Ames, Jörg Konrad Hoensch: Documents on the autonomy policy of the Slovak People's Party Hlinkas , Volume 44 of publications by the Collegium Carolinum, Collegium Carolinum Munich, p. 124.
2. ^ Collegium Carolinum (Munich, Germany), Stephan Dolezel, Karl Bosl: The democratic-parliamentary structure of the First Czechoslovakian , p. 116.
3. ↑ Jörg Zedler (Ed.): The Holy See in International Relations 1870-1939 , p. 360.
4. ↑ Jörg Konrad Hoensch: Studia Slovaca: Studies on the history of the Slovaks and Slovakia in Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag , 2000 p. 209.
5. ↑ Karol Sidor, by Róbert Schmidt, accessed on June 15, 2011 (Slovak).