Juhan Kartau

Juhan Kartau (undated recording)

Juhan Kartau (born August 12 ^{. Jul} / 24. August  1883 ^greg. Farm Leokese, community Uderna , Governorate of Livonia ; † 24. January 1964 in Jundiaí , Brazil ) was an Estonian politicians, entrepreneurs and choirmaster.

Early years

Juhan (also Johannes ) Kartau was born as the son of farmers Jüri (1850–1903) and Ann Kartau (1851–1933) in what is now southern Estonia. He attended the ministerial school in Uderna (today Rõngu rural community in Tartu County ). In 1904 he completed the teachers' college in Tartu (then Yuryev ). He passed his Abitur as an external student in the Russian capital Saint Petersburg .

In 1914 Juhan Kartau enrolled at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics at the University of Saint Petersburg . His studies remained unfinished due to the war. Repressed by the Russian police, he lived for some time during the First World War in Vologda , in the Crimea and in the Caucasus . Kartau worked as a teacher in Estonia and Saint Petersburg before moving to Estonia in 1917.

Politicians and entrepreneurs

Kartau politically joined the Estonian Social Democratic Labor Party ( Eesti Sotsiaaldemokraatlik Tööliste Party ). After the proclamation of the independence of the Republic of Estonia, he was elected to the Constituent Assembly ( Asutav Kogu ) in 1919 . In the government of the Social Democratic Prime Minister Otto Strandman, Kartau held the post of education minister from May to November 1919.

From 1920 to 1928 Kartau, who spoke almost native Russian in addition to Estonian, was chairman of the Estonian Control-Opting Commission ( Eesti Kontroll-Opteerimiskomisjon ) in Moscow , which dealt with citizenship issues of the approximately 200,000 ethnic Estonians who lived in the Soviet Union and according to Article 4 of the Tartu Peace Treaty could opt for Estonian citizenship. At the same time, he dealt with the demarcation of the boundaries between the two newly founded republics of Estonia and Latvia , for which an intergovernmental commission had been set up in 1920.

In addition to his political activities, Kartau was also active as an entrepreneur. In Tallinn , he founded a pasta factory and was a co-owner of a match company.

Emigration to Brazil

In 1927 Kartau sold his shares in Estonia and, like quite a few Estonians in the 1920s, emigrated to Brazil, where he acquired agricultural land. A year later he was followed by his Estonian wife Alide (born Tarikas, 1894–1978) and their eight-year-old daughter Lidia (1920–2010).

However, Kartau soon had to give up his activity as a farmer in the strange climate. He then worked for more than three decades as the economic director of the Brazilian Railway Association, was involved in educational issues and was active as a choir director. In 1939 he founded a choir in Brazil, which he headed for 25 years. Kartau was also the editor of the Estonian-language magazine Meie Kodu (“Our Home”), published in São Paulo from 1934 to 1936 , aimed at Estonians who had emigrated to Latin America.

Juhan Kartau died in Jundiaí in 1964 . Today the Rua Maestro Juhan Kartau is named after him because of his services as a choir director .

Web links

• Entry in the ISIK personal database

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://ekspress.delfi.ee/news/paevauudised/brasiilia-tuhandete-eestlaste-uus-kodumaa?id=64114203
2. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.