Kurt Wensch

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kurt Wensch (born July 22, 1902 in Berlin ; † January 7, 1997 in Dresden ) was a German genealogist and businessman who made great contributions to German genealogy .

Life

Born in Berlin, he came to Dresden with his parents in 1914, where he completed his schooling and high school diploma and was to remain resident for the rest of his life. From the summer semester of 1921 onwards, Wensch studied economics at the Technical University and was the first new member (Fuchs) of the Catholic student union Saxo-Lusatia in the KV , which was founded in February 1921 . Since he was one of the few members of this connection with his home town of Dresden, he was the guarantor for the continuity of this connection until the 1930s.

His interest in family research arose early on, which led him to the genealogical association " Roland ", which existed in Dresden at the time . This was the beginning of a long genealogical career. Already at the end of 1929 Wensch joined the ancestral list exchange (ALA) initiated by Karl Förster in 1921 . After its conversion into the German ancestral community (DA), he officially became an employee of the DA on April 1, 1934 and later its secretary.

Wensch was a registered professional clan researcher in the Third Reich and in this capacity worked on Aryan evidence . As the secretary of the German ancestral community, as long as it was subordinate to the Reich Office for Family Research in Berlin, he was also formally an employee of this Reich Office. During this time, his place of work remained in Dresden.

On April 1, 1941, Wensch became a soldier, was taken prisoner of war in 1945 but was released in May. In this way he was able to take care of the ancestral records of the German people of the DA, which had been outsourced to Schloss Wilsdruff , and save them from destruction by arranging for the transfer to the Saxon State Archives in Dresden. Here, with his help, it became the largest genealogical file in Central Europe, which encompassed the entire German-speaking area. When the Central Office for Genealogy was founded in 1967 , the Dresden documents came to Leipzig , and with them Kurt Wensch as an extraordinarily experienced employee. He worked here until 1974.

After 1945 , Kurt Wensch in Dresden managed to ensure the continuity of the ancestral lists that are now held by the DAGV . He organized the circulation procedure across zones and national borders until it was taken over and continued by the Leipzig Central Office in 1967. After 1945 he was also significantly involved in the rescue and restoration of the book collections of the Dresden associations, the "ancestral database" and the " funeral sermon catalog ".

Until 1996, Wensch was still a freelance genealogist and published articles. He had "a huge supply of ready-to-use knowledge" ( Manfred Kobuch ), and his research work was always based on historical science.

Wensch remained closely connected to his association Saxo-Lusatia, which was relocated to Aachen after the last war, and the KV until his death. He was co-author of the second volume of the Biographical Lexicon of the KV, published in 1992.

Kurt Wensch's grave is in Dresden on the Johannisfriedhof .

Works

  • Kurt Wensch, Reiner Groß and Manfred Kobuch : Archive history and genealogy . In: Reiner Gross and Manfred Kobuch (eds.): Contributions to archival science and historical research . Böhlau, Weimar 1977, pedigree on p. 165
  • Siegfried Koß in Siegfried Koß, Wolfgang Löhr (Hrsg.): Biographisches Lexikon des KV. 5th part (= Revocatio historiae. Volume 6). SH-Verlag, Schernfeld 1998, ISBN 3-89498-055-9 , pp. 128f.
  • From Saxo-Lusatia's younger years. In: Academic monthly sheets , June / July 1994 p. 7.

literature

  • Manfred Kobuch: Kurt Wensch in memory . Obituary. In: New Archive for Saxon History 68 (1997), pp. 359-360
  • The Kurt Wensch era . In: Volkmar Weiss: Prehistory and consequences of the Aryan ancestral pass: On the history of genealogy in the 20th century. Neustadt an der Orla: Arnshaugk, 2013, pp. 110–123, ISBN 978-3-944064-11-6

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The genealogical association "Roland" (Dresden) from 1933 to 1945, Part I: The organizational structure. Genealogy, volume 53 (2004), pages 65-81
  2. ^ The association "Deutsche Anhnengemeinschaft" 1921 to 1967. Part I: 1921 to 1945. Genealogy, 55th year (2006) pages 1–14
  3. ^ The genealogical association "Roland" (Dresden) from 1933 to 1945, Part II: In the shadow of the Nuremberg Laws. Genealogy, volume 53 (2004), pages 143-159
  4. ^ The association "Deutsche Anhnengemeinschaft" 1921 to 1967. Part II: 1945 to 1967. Genealogy, 55th year (2006) pages 170–182
personal data
SURNAME Wensch, Kurt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German genealogist
DATE OF BIRTH July 22, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH January 7, 1997
Place of death Dresden