Pawoł Nowotny

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Pawoł Nowotny (German Paul Nowotny ; born January 6, 1912 in the Seidau near Bautzen , † December 2, 2010 in Bautzen) was a Sorbian teacher, literary historian and folklorist .

Life

Nowotny was born in 1912 in Seidau, which at that time was still an independent and predominantly Sorbian community at the gates of Bautzen, as the son of a Sorbian working-class family. Even as a schoolboy, after the early death of his father in 1929, he occasionally wrote small articles for the Serbske Nowiny newspaper to supplement the family allowance. In 1931 he began studying to be a teacher at the University of Education in Dresden. His lecturers and mentors included a. the folklorist Adolf Spamer and the Sorbian composer Bjarnat Krawc . After the National Socialists came to power in 1933 he was a. a. due to its friendly contacts to Poland as part of the Association of Sorbian students of the university made and received a study ban, which is why he supported by Jan. scale emigrated to Poland and graduated in Poznań continued. There he obtained his master's degree in 1937 and then worked as a German teacher at the Polish grammar school in Danzig until 1939 . After the outbreak of World War II , Nowotny was arrested and spent almost two years in prison before he was released in 1941 and sent to war as a soldier at the end of the year. After the end of the war he spent the time in French captivity until 1947 and then returned to Bautzen.

There he joined the SED and began to get involved in the newly arisen Sorbian social life. From 1948 to 1982 Nowotny was a member of the national board of Domowina ; 1949 to 1951 also chairman (župan) of the Bautzen district association Jan Arnošt Smoler and between 1948 and 1951 as successor to Pawoł Nedo school board member of the Bautzen-Nord district. Since a broader scientific basis was required for the expansion of the Sorbian education system, the Institute for Sorbian Folk Research (Institut za serbski ludospyt) was founded in Bautzen on May 1, 1951 , and Nowotny was appointed its first director.

Because of his divergent political positions, After 1951, Nowotny repeatedly came into conflict with the leadership of the Domowina under Kurt Krjeńc, which was now firmly integrated into the socialist power structure . At the 2nd Federal Congress of Domowina in April 1952, he unexpectedly and undesirably proposed the Catholic priest Jurij Handrik for the office of deputy chairman of the organization. The delegates followed his suggestion in the vote. Despite his function as director of the institute and his membership in the SED, Nowotny - u. a. next to Jan Cyž and the former Domowina chairman Pawoł Nedo - in the mid-1950s to those publicly defamed Sorbian personalities who, as part of the fight against “Sorbian pessimistic nationalism” on the part of the Domowina leadership, had a “petty bourgeois sentiment” and an alliance with the "German and Czechoslovak bourgeoisie" was accused. He kept his position until he retired in 1976. In 1977 he was awarded the Patriotic Order of Merit.

Pawoł Nowotny published more than 200 scientific publications. He died shortly before his 99th birthday in December 2010 and was buried in the Protschenberg cemetery in Bautzen .

Fonts

  • On the history of Sorbian folk research. In: Beate Binder (Ed.): Ethnographic snapshots , LIT-Verlag, Münster 2002, pp. 49–57.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from October 5, 2008 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.domowina.sorben.com
  2. ↑ Elle, Ludwig: The Domowina in the GDR , Ludowe nakładnistwo Domowina, Budyšin 2010, p. 44 f.
  3. ↑ Neues Deutschland , March 1, 1977, p. 5
personal data
SURNAME Nowotny, Pawoł
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Nowotny, Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Sorbian folklorist and literary historian
DATE OF BIRTH January 6, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Seidau near Bautzen
DATE OF DEATH December 2, 2010
Place of death Bautzen