Alexander Krischan

Alexander Krischan (February 25, 1921 in Žombolj (Template:OF) Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes - June 21, 2009 in Vienna) was a German historian and bibliographer.

Life

Youth and studies

Alexander Krischan attended High School in Jimbolia and also at the Loga Lyceum in Timişoara. Between 1937–1940 Krischan was a piano student and was schooled by Prof. Elise Andrée in Timişoara. One of his colleagues later became the famous Banat organist Josef Gerstenengst.

After graduating in June 1940, Krischan entered student service in the cultural department of the German national community in Timişoara. In spring 1941, Krischan ventured to Vienna and enrolled with a VDA-scholarship at the Vienna University of Economics. He submitted his thesis about the Banat Germans under Maria Theresa at the University of Economics.

After the dissolution of the Post World War II British occupation in 1946 Krischan reinstated his employment at the Foreign Office following a year under British custody. After his release Krischan resumed his studies in Vienna. In the spring of 1948 his degree was complete and he received a diploma in economics. This was achieved in conjunction with his dissertation titled "Austria's foreign trade with the East countries during the global economic crisis from 1930–1938." In summer 1950 he then received his promotion in economics.

Career

Even before his graduation, Krischan joined in 1949 the service of the successor company IG Farben AG, representation in Vienna, the Hoechst Group. With his professional activity in the leading position, he traveled extensively in the Eastern countries (Poland, Russia, Bulgaria, etc.), connected. For years, Hungary and Romania were his most frequent travel destinations. Two extended trips are noteworthy: In 1964 there was a three-week study tour to the United States and to Canada (especially New York, Washington, Philadelphia, Detroit, Wilmington, Toronto). Another ten-day trip took place in 1979 in the People's Republic of China to economic talks in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong as a member of an Austrian business delegation headed by the Austrian Trade Minister and Vice Chancellor Dr. Fritz Bock.

Source research on the history of Banat

Krischan’s interest in the history of his home was awakened as a schoolboy when he became acquainted with documents from the abandoned archives of the Graf family Csekonics (former manorial estate in Hatzfeld). After graduation, Krischan contributed to the Fachdienst the Cultural Office of the German national community in Romania in the German House in Timişoara. The acquaintance with the works of Böhm, Hoffmann, Juhász, Milleker, Schwicker and Wettel in the holdings of the library there aroused his interest in the history of Banat. Much of this interest stemmed from the study of the bibliography of Hermann Hienz. It was a key moment and was instrumental in ensuring that the "Banat Bibliography" no longer remained just a project, as there was nothing like it in the literature of Banat.

First he dealt with the medieval history of his home town, which is first mentioned in the papal Zehentregistern in 1332/33. The product was sent to “German Research in Hungary”, Budapest, and appeared in 1942. After moving to Vienna, the rich holdings of the Hofkammerarchiv exerted a strong attraction on him. Even as a 20-year-old student he began with archival research. Particular emphasis is given to the fact that he first published and critically examined the colonization patent of Maria Theresa from 1763 after completion of the Seven Years' War, which appeared in the “German archive for state and people research”, Leipzig, 1943 (Prof. Meynen).

A new beginning could be made during the fifties when he began professionally to travel to Western countries. This activity should last for years. Here he had the opportunity to see the existing material in Budapest and Bucharest, in particular the periodicals that could not be borrowed.

From West German cultural work in 1969 and 1987, the books “The Temesvar newspaper as Banat Geschichtsquelle 1852-1941”, “The German periodical literature of Banat 1771-1971” and in 2000 “Archival sources for the history of Banat, instructions, memoranda, patents, contracts 1695-1873” were published.

The occasion of his 75th birthday saw the publication of the Festschrift “Banatica”, published by the Association of Banat Swabians in Austria, with contributions from 34 authors. The bibliographer, cultural historian and historian Dr. Alexander Krischan is counted by experts as one of the important Banat researchers of our time. Dr. Krischan has created an extensive private archive, which includes almost all areas of Banat literature, which mainly consists of 20,000 index leaves for the Banat bibliography from 1514 to 1965. The range of topics extends from bibliography, cartography, historiography, balneology to local and settlement history, biography, place names and clan customer to printing and journalism.

Memberships

• Board member of the Society for Chemical Economics, Vienna (1954)
• Board member (later a board member) of the Danube European Institute, Organization for International Economic Relations, Vienna (1957)
• Board member of the Southeast Europe Association, Munich, as representative of Hoechst AG Frankfurt (1963)
• Member of the Economic Policy Committee of the German Chamber of Commerce in Austria, Vienna (1967)
• Board of Trustees of the Federal College of Chemical Industry, Vienna (1970)
• Chairman of the Society of Chemical Economics, Vienna (1971)
• Vice President of the Chemical Society Economics, Vienna (1977)
• Vice President of the Board of Trustees of the German Chamber of Commerce in Austria (1978)

Appreciations and awards

• Silver Medal for outstanding service to the German Chamber of Commerce in Austria awarded (1976)
• Medal of Honor Danube European Institute in recognition of special services (1977)
• Certificate of Honor of the Chamber of Labour in Vienna for 45 years of performance in the service of the Austrian economy (1980)
• Silver Medal of the Chamber of Trade and Industry Vienna for 50 years of professional activity in the house Hoechst (1980)
• Medal of the Society of Chemical industry in recognition of service to the company (1980)
• Awarded the Golden Medal of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria by the Federal President Dr. Rudolf Kirchschläger in Vienna (1980)
• Awarded the Golden doctoral degree Vienna University of Economics (1998)

Independent Publications

• Settlement German in Banat under Maria Theresia 1763-1773. Economic Geographical studies. Wien 1943. 62 S. typescript (thesis; Vienna University of Economics)
• Austria's trade with the West countries of the Great Depression to break from 1930 to 1938. Vienna 1948. 191 S. typescript (dissertation; Vienna University of Economics)
• The career of German aniline dye. Wien 1954. 55 S. (S.A. from: Practical Chemistry)
• Bibliography of IG Farben unbundling. Darmstadt 1957. XVI, 65 S.
• The "Timişoara Zeitung" as a historical source Banat (1852-1949). München 1969. 160 S. (Publications of East German culture work, Series B, Vol. 24)
• 200 years Hatzfeld in Banat (1766-1966). A bibliography. Stuttgart 1972. 53 S. (Donauschwäbisches literature, H. 17)
• Supplements for Hatzfeld-Bibliography (1967-1983). Wien 1985. 16 S. typescript
• The German periodical literature of Banat. Newspapers, magazines, calendars 1771-1971. Bibliography. München 1987. 142 S. (Publications of East German culture work, Series B, Vol. 46)
• German contributions to Banat historiography 1860-1980. Bio-bibliographical sketches. Freiburg 1993. 144 S. (S.A. from Banatica contributions to German culture, born from 1989 to 1993;.. See B24-B33)
• Collected contributions to the cultural history of the Banat 1942-1996. Vol I: treatises;. Vol. 2: Reviews, anniversaries, tributes, Varia. Vienna 1996. 403, 275 S.
• Banatforschung an object. Extract from the oeuvre. Ed. Of Horst Fassel. München 1999. 383 S. (Banat Library, Vol. 7) [contains B18, B20, B24-B33, B13]

References

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