‘The Jackal and the Wolves Are Sneaking…’ The Fate of Franz Stowitschek (1890–1959)
| Stránky | 94–100 |
|---|---|
| DOI | 10.37520/amnpsc.2026.006 |
| Klíčová slova | censorship — German minority — agrarianism — Czech–German relations — political trials |
| Typ článku | Miscellanea |
| Citace | KRYŠTŮFEK, Jan a MAŠEK, Petr. ‘The Jackal and the Wolves Are Sneaking…’ The Fate of Franz Stowitschek (1890–1959). Acta Musei Nationalis Pragae – Historia litterarum. Prague: National Museum, 2026, 71(1-2), 94–100. DOI: https://doi.org/10.37520/amnpsc.2026.006. ISSN 2570-6861 (Print), 2570-687X (Online). Also available from: https://publikace.nm.cz/periodicals/acta-musei-nationalis-pragae-historia-litterarum/71-1-2/the-jackal-and-the-wolves-are-sneaking-the-fate-of-franz-stowitschek-18901959 |
The article examines the life and career of Professor Franz Stowitschek (1890–1959), a German educator, journalist, politician, and cultural figure active in Austria and post-war Czechoslovakia. Drawing on archival sources, printed materials, and regional literature, it reconstructs his political development within the Czech–German milieu of the Eagle Mountains (Orlické hory), his early literary work, and especially the circumstances surrounding the censorship intervention against his prose Der Berghof (1913). The text analyses the response of the Chrudim court, the subsequent parliamentary interpellation by Karl Hermann Wolf, and the mechanism of the so-called immunisation of printed matter within Austro-Hungarian law. The study further traces Stowitschek’s interwar professional and political activities, his evolving relationship with interwar Czechoslovakia, and his activist politics within the German Agrarian Union, including his contacts with Franz Spina. Attention is also paid to his position during the Protectorate and after 1945, when — thanks to his pre-war stances — he avoided expulsion; in the 1950s, however, he became the subject of a politically motivated trial and, shortly before his death, he was accused of supporting ‘revanchist movements and fascism’. The text thus presents a highly atypical life trajectory within the complex national and political circumstances of the twentieth century.