Legacy of Joško Tischler

The aim of the proposed project is to record, digitize and present archival material about Joško Tischler (1902–1979), a school teacher, politician and cultural worker from the ranks of the Carinthian Slovenes. As a mathematics and physics teacher, he taught in Celovec/Klagenfurt, Fürstenfeld, Villach/Beljak, and during World War II in Bregenz. Already in the second half of the 1930s, he left a strong mark on the social participation of the Carinthian Slovenes, as he was the president of the Slovenian Cultural Union, which at that time united the Slovene minority in Carinthia. Immediately after the Second World War, in 1949 he was the founder of the political organization of the National Council of Carinthian Slovenes (NSKS), which he led as president until 1960, and then again in the years 1972-1976 (in between he was vice-president). He is considered the "father of the Slovene Lycee": from 1957 to 1967 he was the founding principal of the Federal Lycee for Slovenes in Celovec.

The project will primarily include material that has so far only been involved in research to a lesser extent. The following funds will be reviewed:

• The family legacy of the Tischler family in Celovec
• Archives of the Slovenian Biographical Lexicon at ZRC SAZU
• Personal legacies of Tischler's contemporaries in the NUK Manuscript Collection

The project belongs to a set of biographical research studies that had a renaissance period at the ZRC SAZU already at the time of the creation of the concept of the New Slovenian Biographical Lexicon, in which project leader Andrej Rahten also participated, and in recent years have become one of the hallmarks of research activities at the ZRC SAZU.