Reginald Vospernik

Reginald Vospernik (born May 9, 1937 in Föderlach ) is a Carinthian Slovenian pedagogue and was director of the Federal High School and Federal Real High School for Slovenes ( Zvezna gimnazija in Zvezna realna gimnazija za Slovence ) in Klagenfurt .

Life

Reginald Vospernik comes from a Slovenian family in Wernberg . His uncle Matija Vospernik was mayor of the municipality towards the end of the Habsburg monarchy , who had been elected on a Slovenian list. Janez Vospernik was a founding member of the Slovenian Cooperative Association in Klagenfurt. Due to their commitment, the family was exposed to repression even before the Carinthian referendum in 1920 , which culminated on April 14, 1942, when the family, and with them the then five-year-old Reginald Vospernik, were declared an enemy of the state in collective custody and deported to the Reich for forced labor.

Reginald Vospernik later attended grammar school on Tanzenberg , where traditionally numerous Slovenes received their grammar school education (such as Florjan Lipuš as well as Peter Handke ). In Tanzenberg he was active in the Katoliška slovenska dijaška družina , the Catholic Slovene school family, which published the school newspaper Kres (the midsummer fire ).

Vospernik studied Slavic and German language and literature in Vienna and received his doctorate in 1961. In the same year he was appointed teacher at the Federal High School for Slovenes in Klagenfurt. Between 1978 and 2000 he was its director. In Klagenfurt he also taught at the Pedagogical Academy and at the university. Between 1978 and 1998 he headed the Slovene Community and was a commissioner at the University for elementary, secondary, polytechnical and special schools.

Vospernik has three children, including the journalist Cornelia Vospernik .

Political functions

Reginald Vospernik was an active member of the Council of Carinthian Slovenes (NSKS), its secretary 1962–1968, its chairman 1968–1972 and its deputy chairman 1972–1976.

As a representative of the council, he was active within the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN) and its chairman between 1982 and 1986.

Scientific and popular science activity

Reginald Vospernik was also continuously active scientifically and published articles in Slovenian and German-language media on questions of the Slovenian ethnic group in Austria, as well as on their literary and cultural work.

From 1984 to 1994 he was editor of the Slovenian literary magazine Celovški zvon (Klagenfurt Bell). He was co-author of an anthology of Carinthian Slovene Literature ( Das Slovenische Wort in Kärnten - Slovenska beseda na Koroškem (Dunaj 1985)), editor of the annual reports of the Federal High School for Slovenes in Klagenfurt and of the anthology for the 40th anniversary of this institution in 1997.

Works (selection)

• The Slovenian word in Carinthia. Literature and poetry from the beginning to the present / Slovenska beseda na Koroškem. Austrian Bundesverlag, Vienna 1985 ISBN 3-215-04304-1 .
• Reginald Vospernik: Kronika Vospernikovih - Chronicle of the Vospernik Family , self-published, Podravlje 2006;
• Reginald Vospernik: Driven from home twice - The Carinthian Slovenes between 1919 and 1945 - A family saga , Klagenfurt / Celovec, 2011.

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• Enciklopedija Slovenije, 14, street 361.

Web links

• Vospernik, Reginald. Entry in Slovenski biografski leksikon (Slovenian)