Stefan Horvath (writer)

Stefan Horvath (born November 12, 1949 in Oberwart ) is an Austrian writer.

Life

Stefan Horvath was born in a Roma settlement in Oberwart. The settlement was closed by the municipality for the construction of the city hospital, where Horvath worked until his retirement in 2011.

He attended elementary school in his hometown. As the first in Rome , he was also allowed to attend the secondary school there. After compulsory schooling, he worked from 1964 to 1982 as an unskilled worker for various construction companies in Vienna and the surrounding area, from 1983 to 1989 as a foreman at a construction company and joined the works council . From 1989 to 1994 he was employed as a foreman at another construction company.

On the night of February 4th to 5th, 1995, the Austrian letter bomb bomber Franz Fuchs carried out an attack with a pipe bomb . Peter Sárközi, the son of Horvath, Josef Simon and Ervin and Karl Horvath were killed. They tried to remove a badge attached to the bomb with a racist abuse ("Roma back to India"). This experience took him so much that he suffered from severe sleep disorders and mental problems. Then began his writing activity.

Since 1995 Horvath has also been working as a cleaner at the Oberwart Hospital. He is married and still lives in the former Roma settlement.

Horvath began to write out of pain at the loss of his son.

In his book “I was not in Auschwitz ”, he uses fictional and oral stories and poems to appeal to mankind not to allow what has happened to be forgotten. He does this primarily as a descendant of concentration camp victims and as a member of a terrorist victim. The book was illustrated by children who use the pictures to express what they understand by “KZ” ( concentration camp ).

Twelve years after the attack, he brought out the book "Katzenstreu", in which he describes the events from different angles. He alternates between the roles of perpetrator, observer and victim.

Horvath also works in the eyewitness program of the Austrian Ministry of Education and visits schools all over Austria to tell about his personal story and the history of the Roma in Austria.

In 2016 Stefan Horvath received the Theodor Kramer Prize together with Gerhard Scheit . In 2019 he was awarded the Burgenland Culture Prize.

Publications

• I wasn't in Auschwitz. Stories. edition lex liszt 12, Oberwart 2003, ISBN 3-901757-35-X (media combination).
• Cat litter. Narrative. edition lex liszt 12, Oberwart 2007, ISBN 978-3-901757-51-8 .
• Atsinganos. The Oberwart Roma and their settlements. edition lex liszt 12, Oberwart 2013, ISBN 978-3-99016-004-6 .

Movie

• Peter Wagner (Director): Stefan Horvath - Gypsies from Oberwart. The fairy tale of music op.18. Eros Kadaver Film, world premiere at the Jewish Museum Vienna 2004.

Web links

• Literature by and about Stefan Horvath in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Clemens Berger : Being Franz F. ( Memento of the original from March 5, 2016 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. Interview with Stefan Horvath, date (magazine) , February 1, 2007 
2. ↑ 20 years after Oberwart: The man the bomb got talking about , standard article from February 4, 2015, accessed on February 5, 2015
3. ^ Salzburger Nachrichten - Theodor Kramer Prize to Stefan Horvath and Gerhard Scheit . Article dated June 21, 2016, accessed June 21, 2016.
4. ↑ The state's cultural prizes awarded. Retrieved June 27, 2019 . 
5. ↑ Stefan Horvath - Gypsies from Oberwart. The fairy tale of music op. 18. ( Memento of the original from October 8, 2007 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. peterwagner.at, accessed on April 8, 2014