Viktor Matejka

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Viktor Matejka (1991)

Viktor Matejka (born December 4, 1901 in Korneuburg , † April 2, 1993 in Vienna ) was an Austrian cultural politician and writer .

Life

Matejka came from a petty-bourgeois Catholic background. He was the son of a Heuriger singer who later became a court usher and a former maid and grew up in Stockerau , Lower Austria .

Popular educator

Matejka studied from 1919 at the University of Vienna , first chemistry, then as a student of Ludo Hartmann's history and geography. In 1925 he received his doctorate in philosophy (Dr. phil.). From 1926 he worked as a lecturer on economic-political topics and as a course instructor at the adult education centers in Vienna, making him a pioneer in political education.

As a left-wing Catholic, he was appointed managing chairman of the Volksheim Ottakring Volkshochschule in 1934 by the authoritarian corporate state regime , but tried in this position to exercise a certain liberality towards the previous, often social-democratic speakers. Matejka was therefore deposed in 1936 by Mayor Richard Schmitz for being anti-subversive. From 1936 to 1938 he worked as an education officer for the Vienna Chamber of Labor, which was brought into line by the dictatorship .

Registration card of Viktor Matejka as a prisoner in the Nazi concentration camp Dachau

After the annexation of Austria Matejka was in April 1938 by the Nazi regime with the so-called celebrities transport into the concentration camp Dachau deported - together with Richard Schmitz, who had deposed him. He was imprisoned in Dachau and Flossenbürg until 1944 . There Matejka created so-called pick books from newspaper clippings , which are now in the DÖW .

Politician

1945 Matejka of the Communist Party of Austria for the party agreement on 17./18. In April 1945, the City Senate Körner I was nominated as the leading city councilor for culture and popular education .

The first municipal council election after the war, held on November 25, 1945, was disappointing for the KPÖ. The SPÖ achieved 58 seats, the KPÖ only six. Before the election, however, the SPÖ, ÖVP and KPÖ had agreed to continue the cooperation between the three democratic parties. Since the SPÖ renounced a seat, Matejka was able to remain in the city ​​senate Körner II , which was in office until 1949 , and is now the only KPÖ city councilor.

As City Councilor for Culture, Matejka sent the remarkable invitation to those displaced by the Nazi regime to return to Austria from exile . Ultimately, however, this activity did not achieve sustainable success. Matejka was the only Austrian politician who issued this invitation. (Many others profited from the fact that the Nazi regime had put capable competitors out of their way and therefore remained silent.) Its cultural policy was cosmopolitan. Mayor Theodor Körner came vibrant and creative Matejka generally good.

In 1949 the KPÖ was no longer accepted into the SPÖ-ÖVP city senate; Mayor Körner thanked Viktor Matejka in his inaugural address at the beginning of December 1949 for his extraordinary contribution to the cultural revitalization of Vienna under extremely unfavorable conditions . As a KPÖ MP, Matejka remained a member of the municipal council until 1954 .

Publicist and art collector

Matejka, who always maintained a highly unorthodox and frank demeanor, published a lot in the (Austrian) Diary , the cultural-political journal of the KPÖ, of which he had become co-editor in 1949, and was a prominent frequent writer of letters to newspapers and magazines. In February 1957 he was replaced as co-editor and responsible editor of the magazine, but remained a member of the editorial board. After his retirement in December 1966, which ended his employment with the KPÖ, he also left the party as a member.

Matejka was an art collector, especially on the subjects of roosters and portraits of Viktor Matejka. In 1982 the exhibition From the collections of artist friend Viktor Matejka was shown at the Vienna Secession .

Matejka was married to Gerda Matejka-Felden , painter and founder of the Artistic Adult Education Center, from June 23, 1932 to May 5, 1948 , and stayed in close contact with her even after the divorce. He was buried in an honorary grave at the Vienna Central Cemetery .

Awards and recognitions

Works

  • Catholic and Communist. Stern-Verlag, Vienna 1945.
  • KPÖ in decline. In: The Republic. State political papers of the Austrian National Institute, Issue 1, March 1970, pp. 21–28.
  • From the collections of artist friend Viktor Matejka. Portraits, roosters, montages and other things, exhibition catalog Wiener Secession 1982.
  • Resistance is everything. Notes from an unorthodox. Löcker, Vienna 1984, ISBN 3-85409-043-9 .
  • Stimulation is everything - The book no. 2. Löcker, Vienna 1991, ISBN 3-85409-075-7 .
  • Book No. 3. ( Peter Huemer ed., Foreword by Johannes Mario Simmel ). Löcker, Vienna 1993, ISBN 3-85409-222-9 .

estate

Part of Matejka's estate (around 650 letters) is in the documentation archive of the Austrian resistance in Vienna. Another part (39 archive boxes, one large format folder) is in the manuscript collection of the Vienna Library in the City Hall .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Knowledge Base Adult Education Viktor Matejka from 1926 lecturer at adult education centers , politically deposed in 1936
  2. ↑ Viktor Matejka. In: dasrotewien.at - Web dictionary of the Viennese social democracy. SPÖ Vienna (Ed.)
  3. ↑ Eric C. Kollman: Theodor Körner. Military and Politics , Publishing House for History and Politics, Vienna 1973, ISBN 3-7028-0054-9 , p. 281
  4. ↑ Eric C. Kollman: Theodor Körner. Military and Politics , Verlag für Geschichte und Politik, Vienna 1973, ISBN 3-7028-0054-9 , p. 320
  5. ↑ Online presence Knowledge Base Adult Education Vienna Search result with various articles
  6. ^ Viktor Matejka grave site , Vienna, Central Cemetery, Group 40, No. 123.
  7. ↑ Contents of Viktor Matejka's estate in the Vienna City Library, 979 pages  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF file; 1.3 MB)@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.katalog.wienbibliothek.at  

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Matejka, Viktor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian cultural politician and writer
DATE OF BIRTH 4th December 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Korneuburg
DATE OF DEATH April 2, 1993
Place of death Vienna