Wilhelm Waldstein

Wilhelm Kurt Waldstein (born November 9, 1897 in Wiener Neustadt ; † July 22, 1974 in Altaussee ) was an Austrian writer, composer and educator.

Life

Wilhelm von Waldstein was born on November 9, 1897 as the son of the married couple Wilhelm and Katharina von Waldstein in the house at Pöckgasse 4 in Wiener Neustadt. Curate of the Roman Catholic City parish Josef Bauer christened him Wilhelm Kurt. Father Wilhelm Anton Waldstein Edler von Heilwehr was a kk substitute public prosecutor at the district court of Wiener Neustadt . Mother Katharina was the daughter of the Imperial and Royal Ministerial Councilor and Building Councilor Wilhelm Röllig , according to whose plans the district court and the Wiener Neustadt prison were built from 1890 to 1893 . Wilhelm Kurt's older brother was born in Neunkirchen in 1894 .

From 1903 Wilhelm Kurt Waldstein attended the six-class, public, general elementary school in Herzog-Leopold-Straße 4. He received the best grade “one” in all subjects in the first class certificate, only a “three” in singing. Very likely a conflict because his father led the Wiener Neustädter Singverein to excellent performances as a conductor and also worked as an opera composer (the opera Tonietta was performed in the Landschaftliches Theater in Linz in 1904 ). Wilhelm Kurt changed schools and now attended the four-class practice school of the Lower Austrian State Teachers' Seminar in Wiener Neustadt . In 1908 he moved to the Kk Staats-Gymnasium in Wiener Neustadt , where he received excellent certificates. Singing was optional here, which he did not attend. Because of a curvature of the spine caused by illness, he was exempt from gymnastics lessons from 1912. 1915 Waldstein was in World War I figured, but not as a result of longer healing scoliosis for unsuitable declared war service. He graduated from high school in 1916 - two schoolmates are already wearing military uniforms on the high school graduation photo. Waldheim studied German philology , history and geography at the University of Vienna from 1916 . He attended lectures by the Germanists Eduard Castle , Walter Brecht and Josef Seemüller , the historians Alphons Dopsch , Oswald Redlich and August Fournier and the pedagogue Alois Höfler . He wrote his dissertation on the subject of the development of Richard Wagner's artistic reform plans in the decisive epoch between Lohengrin and the ring seal , which was approved with distinction and recommended for printing. The dissertation was published in Berlin in 1922 as issue 17 in the Germanic Studies . On July 21, 1920 Wilhelm Kurt Waldstein received his doctorate in philosophy from the University of Vienna. He then went on to study, aspired to become a teacher, and received full teaching qualifications on June 16, 1921.

From autumn 1921 Wilhelm Kurt Waldstein worked as a revocable teacher for geography, history and German language at the Krupp private high school in Berndorf in Lower Austria . At the end of the probationary year, he was given an excellent certificate and his eloquence, clarity and emphatic emphasis on the always essential moments were praised, as well as his popular education activities in the place as well as his administration of the geographic-historical teaching material collection and his administration of the teachers' library. Waldstein stayed at the Berndorfer Gymnasium for a total of nine years. In 1930 Waldstein was assigned to the Wiener Neustadt Girls' Realgymnasium in Wiener Neustadt and also to the Bundesrealgymnasium for service . His activity at the girls' gymnasium was only brief. By decree of the Federal Ministry for Education, he was assigned to the Bundesgymnasium Wiener Neustadt on October 21, 1930, where he taught German and history until 1938.

When Austria was annexed to Hitler's Germany, he was dismissed from his post on September 15, 1938 for racial reasons . The new director appointed by the National Socialists, Otto Aull, regretted the leave of absence in a courageous gesture and referred to the many years of valuable work, the support of the management and the teaching staff and the pending application to remain in the civil service. The former director Gustav Lassmann , who had become director of the Napola Traiskirchen National Political Education Institute in March 1938 , also stood up for Waldstein . In a letter dated March 16, 1939, the Reich governor rejected the request for exceptional leave in the service . Waldstein was also expelled from the Reichsmusikkammer by the presidents in 1939 and from the Reichsschrifttumskammer in 1940 . With his forced retirement, Waldstein had to live on a modest pension of RM 30 Reichspfennig, tried to improve his situation with private lessons and lived completely withdrawn in Pöckgasse. Mother and son lived in constant fear for husband and father, the district court vice-president a. D. Wilhelm Anton Waldstein, who refused to accept the threat for racial reasons. He died on December 27, 1940 in Wiener Neustadt in the presence of his relatives before he was abducted. Waldstein and his mother spent the last weeks of the Second World War as refugees in Pernitz . In the early summer of 1945 both returned to their apartment in Wiener Neustadt, which had since been looted.

Memorial plaque on the residential building in Wiener Neustadt

On August 30, 1945, the City Senate of Wiener Neustadt decided to temporarily entrust Wilhelm Kurt Waldstein with the management of the city's music school. He also managed the development of the city's secondary schools and was involved in the preparations for the city's 750th anniversary. All of this was done on a voluntary basis . Waldstein only achieved financial security when he was reinstated as a teacher in autumn 1945. On October 8, 1945, the state school board for Lower Austria informed him that he would be taking over active service at the Babenbergerring high school . In June 1946, Waldstein was appointed to the Federal Ministry of Education in Vienna under Federal Minister Felix Hurdes for a trial service . It was there that he was appointed Section Council in 1950. Waldstein lived in Wiener Neustadt until his mother's death in 1952 and only moved to Vienna in December 1952.

Awards

• 1953 Professional title of Hofrat by the Federal President
• 1955 Commander's Cross of the Order of St. New Year's Eve by Pope Pius XII.
• November 1957 Radio broadcast on Radio Vienna by the composer Leopold Matthias Walzel on the occasion of his 60th birthday
• 1959 Grand Decoration of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria (1952) by the Federal President

Publications

• Burning mirror. Book of Epigrams. Wagner University Press, Innsbruck 1967.
• In between. Event and form. Roman, Austrian Publishing House, Vienna 1968.
• The inheritance saved. From a youth in old Austria. Extended reissue of Early Shadows. Donors library, Salzburg 1970.
• Picture and counter-picture. Stories, Stifterbibliothek, Salzburg 1972.

literature

• Gertrud Buttlar : Head of Section i. R. Dr. Wilhelm Waldstein (1897–1974) writer, composer and educator. Special exhibition of the Wiener Neustadt City Museum June 15 to October 31, 1988. Catalog, Wiener Neustadt 1988.

Web links

• Works by Wilhelm Waldstein in the catalog of the German National Library