Paul Ssymank

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Paul Ssymank

Paul William Ssymank (born September 19, 1874 in Dresden ; † September 19, 1942 ibid) was a German high school teacher and student historian.

Life

Ssymank attended the Annen-Realgymnasium in Dresden and studied at the University of Leipzig . From 1896 he was the leading head of the Finkenschaft , the later free student movement . Even during his student days he was aware that the libraries in Germany did not collect literature on student history seriously and systematically enough. After graduation he worked as a teacher at various secondary schools in Pirna , Dresden , Rostock , Poznan and from 1920 in Goettingen operates.

Founding resolution of the university archive of the German Student Union, co-signed by Paul Ssymank

During his time as a teacher he worked as the editor of Finkenblätter and inevitably dealt with student history. To systematically record literature, he founded a university history library in Poznan as early as 1910. From 1920 in Göttingen he founded the university archive of the German student body , which he headed until 1922. At the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen he was the first student historian to receive a teaching position for university studies and student history in October 1920 . He carried out this teaching assignment until September 30, 1939. Due to the growing tasks and the accumulating material, he founded the Institute for University Studies in 1925 . In 1929 the “Scientific Apparatus for Student History at the University of Göttingen” was attached to this institute.

When the National Socialists wanted to exploit his work politically, Ssymank sold his Institute for University Studies to the city of Würzburg in 1936 . There it was supposed to serve as the basis of an "Institute for Student History". In November 1933 he signed the confession of the German professors about Adolf Hitler , but because of his membership in a Masonic lodge he was sent into early retirement. He remained active in the field of student history, but refused to support the Reichsstudentenführung in their political endeavors. In 1939 he moved to his native city Dresden, where he died three years later. The Institute for University Studies at the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg is one of the most important contact points for student historians in Germany today. The Association for German Student History awards the Paul Ssymank Prize at irregular intervals .

He was a member of the Association of German Students in Göttingen as well as an honorary member and honorary old man of the Gotia Göttingen singers .

Surname

The rare name Ssymank has Wendish origins. In his unfinished and unpublished autobiography, Ssymank explained the origin of the name as follows:

"Our name itself means, as the Wendish philologist Prof. Dr. Ernst Mucke wrote in 1913, 'Son of Siman' or 'Little Siman' (Wendish for Simon), is a biblical name that was very common in the poorer strata of the common people and the spelling of which - often with the same person - fluctuated greatly because it was only written down by ear. So there are no less than ten different spellings among the bearers of the name who belong to my family by blood: Symank, Simmank, Simmanck, Symmanck, Simmangk, Symang, Ssymang, Ssymank, Szymmank, Symank. The Wendish spelling that has been common in our line since my father is: 'Ssymank', while my Wendish-speaking uncle Andreas Simmank has strangely accepted the German. "

- Paul Ssymank

Works

editor

literature

  • Robert Paschke : In memoriam. On the 100th birthday of Professor Dr. Paul Ssymank. In: then and now. Yearbook of the Association for Corporate Student History Research. Volume 19, 1974, pp. 224-225.
  • Marek Podlasiak: Paul Ssymank - chronicler of German student history . In: Jahrbuch für Universitätsgeschichte 5 (2002), pp. 171–183. ( Digital version ; PDF; 144 kB)
  • Ssymank, Paul , in: Friedhelm Golücke : Author's lexicon for student and university history. SH-Verlag, Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-89498-130-X . Pp. 313-318.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ SUB
  2. ↑ Louis Lange (Ed.): Kyffhäuser Association of German Student Associations. Address book 1931. Berlin 1931, p. 216.
  3. ↑ Paul Ssymank: From the Life of an Old Man. Pictures from a lost time , o. O. 1940/41 (unpublished, owned by the Ssymank family in Göttingen), p. 2
personal data
SURNAME Ssymank, Paul
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ssymank, Paul William (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German high school teacher and student historian
DATE OF BIRTH September 19, 1874
PLACE OF BIRTH Dresden
DATE OF DEATH September 19, 1942
Place of death Dresden