Kaspar Muth

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Kaspar Muth (born January 15, 1876 in Lovrin , Kingdom of Hungary , Austria-Hungary , † February 9, 1966 in Timișoara , German  Timişoara , Socialist Republic of Romania ) was a Banat-Swabian politician and chairman of the Swabian Autonomous Party and the Association of Germans in Romania .

Life

Kaspar Muth was a descendant of colonists who came to the Banat from Kirchhausen near Heilbronn in the course of the Swabian Courses in the 18th century and settled there.

Muth attended the Piarist High School in Nagybecskerek ( German  Großbetschkerek ) from 1887 to 1895 . From 1895 to 1896 he traveled with Emmerich Reitter to Austria , Germany and France for studies. He graduated from 1896 to 1901 at the University of Budapest the study of Law and Political Science and a doctorate in 1901 for Dr. jur. Muth worked from 1901 in the Hungarian Temesvár (later Romanian Timișoara ) as a lawyer , where he politically joined the independence party of the Magyars . He took part in the First World War as a volunteer . After the dissolution of the Habsburg Monarchy , he turned his political attention to the Banat Swabians, in order to “awaken them to new life as an autonomous linguistic and cultural community” in line with Woodrow Wilson's 14-point program .

Kaspar Muth and his followers called a meeting on October 20, 1918 in Timișoara. On behalf of the Banat-Swabian population, an independent Hungarian state and the territorial integrity of the borders of medieval Hungary were supported in a resolution. For the other nationalities, cultural rights were demanded. The city council unanimously passed a similar declaration at its meeting on October 28, 1918; this declaration lacked a democratic basis because Romanians were not represented in the city council at the time.

Muth wrote the Swabian Manifesto on December 8, 1918 in Timișoara, which was followed by the establishment of the Swabian Autonomous Party in January 1919. This party was seen as a moderate supporter of an independent Banat republic as part of Hungary or under the Hungarian-French protectorate .

On March 13, 1923, Kaspar Muth founded the German-Swabian People's Community . He was unanimously elected (also with the votes of his former opponents) as their chairman and held this office until 1935 without interruption.

Leading politicians of the older German People's Party (including Karl Leopold von Möller , Hans Eschker, Josef Gabriel ) joined Muth, and the Catholic Church with Bishop Augustin Pacha also endeavored to “renew the Swabian people's life”.

With his political organization, Muth campaigned, among other things, for the German press and publishing ( Schwäbische Volkspresse later renamed Banater Deutsche Zeitung , Schwäbische Verlags-Aktien-Gesellschaft), set up denominational schools and educational institutions such as the Banatia or the agricultural school in Wojteg and promoted the economic development of the national community through its own cooperatives and financial institutions.

Kaspar Muth was nicknamed Uncrown King of the Banat for “his successful struggle for the Swabian position and freedom in the Romanian state association” and for “determining the history of those years” .

In 1920 and 1921 he was a member of the Romanian Parliament and from 1929 to 1932 a member of the Romanian Senate. The Association of Germans in Romania elected Muth in 1931 to succeed Rudolf Brandsch as chairman. In 1935, Muth was replaced by Fritz Fabritius in this function.

Fonts

  • Kaspar Muth: Becoming a German people in the Banat. Speeches and essays . Josef Rieß, Timișoara 1935.

literature

  • Hans Diplich : Kaspar Muth . In: Mathias Bernath, Felix von Schroeder, Gerda Bartl (eds.): Biographical lexicon for the history of Southeast Europe . tape 3 . Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 1979, ISBN 3-486-48991-7 , p. 283 .
  • Nikolaus Hans Hockl: The German Banat. Its historical-political development and task . Josef Rieß, Timisoara 1940, p. 45-55 .
  • Anton Peter Petri : Biographical Lexicon of the Banat Germans . Th. Breit Druck + Verlag, Marquartstein 1992, ISBN 3-922046-76-2 .
  • Anton Scherer:  Courage, Kaspar. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 18, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-428-00199-0 , pp. 646-648 ( digitized version ).
  • Anton Valentin : The Banat Swabians. Brief history of a south-east German ethnic group . Munich 1959, p. 78-90 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Richard Weber: The turbulence of the years 1918-1919 in Temeschburg. (online at: banat.de )
personal data
SURNAME Courage, Kaspar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Romanian Banat Swabian politician
DATE OF BIRTH January 15, 1876
PLACE OF BIRTH Lovrin , Kingdom of Hungary , Austria-Hungary
DATE OF DEATH February 9, 1966
Place of death Timișoara , Socialist Republic of Romania