Josef Willinger - od učitele češtiny a tělocviku k elitě okupační správy protektorátu
Josef Willinger – From a Czech and Physical Education Teacher to an Official of the Protectorate Central Occupation Office

Summary/Abstract: Josef Willinger was from the generation of Czech Germans who sought a position in the new Czechoslovak state. His post-war study of Czech at the German University in Prague opened the door to a position as a secondary school teacher in minority (German) education where Czech language was a new compulsory subject. In addition to teaching Czech, Willinger also launched into preparing language textbooks for youth. In frontier areas, however, he was increasingly influenced by German nationalism instigated by the Third Reich. His teacher’s career in Cheb continued successfully even after the secession of the frontier zone and during the integration of the local German schools into the Third Reich’s organisational structure. In the summer of 1941, Willinger’s personal contacts cleared the way to a position of the head deputy of the department of secondary schools and educational institutions at the Ministry of Education and National Enlightenment in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. He was appointed to actively participate in the destruction of the Czech secondary education. Willinger kept this position until the end of the war, even after the administrative reform where, consequently, the German heads of the ministry departments were moved to the educations sections of the Reich Protector’s office.

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