Der Verband der nationalen Minderheiten Deutschlands (1924–1938) und das Wirken Jan Skalas vor dem Hintergrund historischer Erinnerungsnarrative

Abstract

The Association of National Minorities in Germany (1924–1938) and Jan Skala’s Work Against the Background of Historical Narratives of Memory

After World War I, the national minorities in the German Empire secured certain concessions in the political, economic, and cultural spheres. In addition, the “foreign-language ethnic groups” sought to advance their interests through their own civil society organizations. As the political representative body for Germany’s indigenous minorities, the Association of National Minorities of Germany carried out a wide range of activities at the national and supranational levels during the 1920s and early 1930s. These cam­paigns are documented in particular in the association’s journal Kulturwille (1925) and Kulturwehr (from 1926 onward), whose editor-in-chief was the Sorb Jan Skala. In 1936, he was forced to resign from his position as editor-in-chief of Kulturwehr. Its final issue was published in late 1938. The final years of Jan Skala’s life were marked by persecu­tion. In January 1938, he was arrested by the Gestapo. After his release from prison in October 1938, he worked for various private companies. In February 1944, he fled from bombed-out Berlin to the area around Namslau (now Namysłów, Poland), to stay with his wife’s relatives. There, Jan Skala tragically lost his life on January 22, 1945, at the age of 55. After 1945, various memorials were erected in his honour in Upper Lusatia and Poland. The close ties between Poles and Sorbs in their shared commemoration of Jan Skala continue to this day.