Otto Heinek

Otto Heinek 2006

Otto Heinek, in Hungarian spelling Heinek Ottó (* February 6, 1960 in Mohács ; † August 20, 2018 in Budapest ), was a Hungarian-German journalist , a figure in Hungarian public life and most recently chairman of the regional self-government of the Hungarian Germans (LdU).

Life

Otto Heinek was born in Mohatsch in 1960. He attended the elementary school in Borjád in Baranya County and the Klara Leöwey high school in Pécs (Fünfkirchen). He then studied Hungarian and German at the Philological Faculty of the Janus Pannonius University in Pécs , where he graduated in 1983 with a teaching degree.

Until 1990 he was then part of the editorial team of the Hungarian-German weekly newspaper Neue Zeitung . During this time he also completed his training at the journalism school of the Hungarian National Union of Journalists MÚOSZ. In 1990 he joined the newly created State Office for National and Ethnic Minorities in Budapest as a government councilor, shortly afterwards became its head of office and was its deputy president between 1995 and 1999.

In 1999 Otto Heinek was elected full-time chairman of the regional self-government of the Hungarian Germans (LdU) . He held this office - repeatedly confirmed by re-election - without interruption until his death. As a legitimate representative of the interests of the German minority in Hungary, he has since been present in the Hungarian media, as well as a prominent mediator between Hungary and the German-speaking countries. In the parliamentary elections in Hungary in 2014 , as the top candidate of the LdU state list, he received the legally required mandate of parliamentary speaker of the Hungarian Germans, but handed it over to Emmerich Ritter before the constituent session . In contrast to the 2018 parliamentary election, the LdU list did not reach the quorum for a full parliamentary mandate.

For more than three decades, Heinek was involved in the Federal Union of European People's Groups (FUEN / FUEN), especially in its working group of German minorities .

Otto Heinek died in summer 2018 after a long and serious illness. He was married to the financial advisor Maria Vereckei and has a son. The previous deputy chairwoman Olivia Schubert was elected as the successor to the chairmanship of the self-government of the Hungarian Germans on September 15, 2018 .

Fonts (selection)

• The future of the Hungarian Germans in the light of the self-government elections in 1994 with a view to the 1998 elections. Lecture at the 1997 convention in Speyer. In: Suevia Pannonica Vol. 26 (1998). ISSN  0176-0432 , pp. 69-72.
• Ed. German lessons for the Hungarian Germans around the turn of the millennium. Language and identity formation. Scientific conference on 7th – 8th January 2000. Budapest: State self-government d. Hungarian Germans 2001. ISBN 963-00-7861-9
• Edited with Ibolya Sax: Handbuch der Ungarndeutschen . Budapest: Magyarországi Nemzeti és Etnikai Kisebbségekért 2004.
• Edited with Frank Spengler: On the situation of Germans in Central Europe. Proceedings of the symposium of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung and the self-government of the Hungarian Germans on October 30, 2014 in Pécs / Fünfkirchen, Hungary. Budapest: Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Hungary office 2015. ( online edition )

literature

• Heinek Ottó. In MTI Ki kicsoda 2009. Főszerk. Hermann Péter. Budapest: Magyar Távirati Iroda Zrt. 2008, p. 448. (Hungarian)
• Obituary with curriculum vitae in Neue Zeitung No. 35 (2018) , p. 3.

Web links

• Video interview with Otto Heinek about the LdU general assembly meeting on September 26, 2015 , accessed on September 6, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ^ Obituary notice of the Hungarian German Culture and Information Center , accessed on September 6, 2018.
2. ^ Obituary by FUEN / FUEN for Otto Heinek , accessed on September 7, 2018.
3. ^ Message from the Hungarian-German Culture and Information Center of September 17, 2018 , accessed on October 16, 2018