Eduard Pant (29 January 1887 in Witkowitz,

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

(now

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) – 20 October 1938 in

Katowice Katowice ( , , ; szl, Katowicy; german: Kattowitz, yi, קאַטעוויץ, Kattevitz) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Upper Silesian metropolitan area. It is the 11th most popul ...

(Kattowitz)) was a journalist and politician of the Catholic German minority in the

Silesian Voivodeship Silesian Voivodeship, or Silesia Province ( pl, województwo śląskie ) is a voivodeship, or province, in southern Poland, centered on the historic region known as Upper Silesia ('), with Katowice serving as its capital. Despite the Silesian ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

in the

interwar period In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the World War I, First World War to the beginning of the World War II, Second World War. The in ...

. He was Deputy Speaker of the

Silesian Parliament Silesian Parliament or Silesian Sejm ( pl, Sejm Śląski) was the governing body of the Silesian Voivodeship (1920–1939), an autonomous voivodeship of the Second Polish Republic between 1920 and 1945. It was elected in democratic elections and ...

from 1922 to 1935 and a

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of the

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of ...

from 1928 to 1935. Eduard Pant came from a working-class Catholic family, but went on to study

Classical philology Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

and

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at the University of Prague, where he earned a doctorate in 1911. He worked as a teacher in German-language schools in Austria (

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

Linz Linz ( , ; cs, Linec) is the capital of Upper Austria and third-largest city in Austria. In the north of the country, it is on the Danube south of the Czech border. In 2018, the population was 204,846. In 2009, it was a European Capital of ...

and

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). In 1914, he returned to Silesia, where he worked at a school in Bielitz before he was conscripted into the Austro-Hungarian Army during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. After the area became part of Poland, he became a Polish citizen in 1920. He was the editor of the German-language newspaper Oberschlesischer Kurier from 1926 to 1930. He was elected President of the Deutsche Katholische Volkspartei in 1927, succeeding the deceased Thomas Szczeponik, and was also President of the Association of German Catholics in Poland. During the 1930s, Pant was an outspoken opponent of the

National Socialist Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

s and a proponent of cooperation between Germans and Poles. He also founded the conservative Catholic and outspokenly anti-Nazi newspaper '' Der Deutsche in Polen'' (1934–1939).

Herbert Czaja Herbert Czaja (November 5, 1914 – April 18, 1997) was a German Christian democratic politician. Czaja was born to a multi-ethnic and multilingual family in Cieszyn in Poland, which was part of Austria-Hungary at the time of his birth. Durin ...

, who later became a politician in

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

and President of the

Federation of Expellees The Federation of Expellees (german: link=no, Bund der Vertriebenen; BdV) is a non-profit organization formed in West Germany on 27 October 1957 to represent the interests of German nationals of all ethnicities and foreign ethnic Germans and their ...

, was a member of Pant's party in the 1930s.

Literature

* * Pia Nordblom: Eduard Pant (1887-1938), in: Schlesische Lebensbilder, 9th volume, ed. by Joachim Bahlcke, Insingen 2007, p. 361-372. * Pia Nordblom: ''Mniejszość w mniejszości – Eduard Pant i jego koło''. Studia Śląskie, Tom LXII (2003), p. 227–254. * Pia Nordblom: ''Für Glaube und Volkstum. Die katholische Wochenzeitung „Der Deutsche in Polen“ (1934–1939) in der Auseinandersetzung mit dem Nationalsozialismus''. Paderborn, München, Wien 2000 (Published by the Kommission für Zeitgeschichte: serial B, Forschungen; vol. 87) * Pia Nordblom: ''Dr. Eduard Pant. Biographie eines katholischen Minderheitenpolitikers in der Woiwodschaft Schlesien (bis zum Jahr 1932)''. In: Oberschlesisches Jahrbuch, Heidelberg, 3 (1987), p. 112–146 f. hierzu ''Redaktionelle Bemerkung'' (= editorial remark) (Addentum to vol. 3), in: Oberschlesisches Jahrbuch 4 (1988), p. 222 {{DEFAULTSORT:Pant, Eduard 1887 births 1938 deaths Politicians from Ostrava People from Austrian Silesia German Christian People's Party politicians Senators of the Second Polish Republic (1928–1930) Senators of the Second Polish Republic (1930–1935) Politicians of the Silesian Voivodeship (1920–1939) Writers from Ostrava Silesian-German people