Jockle, Norbert

Norbert Jokl was born in the town of Bzenets (at that time - Biesenz), the South Moravian Region (now - the Czech Republic ), into a Jewish family. He graduated from high school with honors and entered the University of Vienna to study law and graduated in 1901 with summa cum laude (the equivalent of a modern diploma ), after which he refused to further study law and decided to devote himself to linguistics . He studied Indo-European languages , Slavic studies and romanism under the guidance of such scholars as Vatroslav Jagich , Paul Kretschmer and Wilhelm Meyer-Lubke ; in 1908 received a second honors degree.

In 1903, Jokl became a librarian at the University of Vienna, where he worked in various positions until 1938. At the age of 30, he began to independently study the Albanian language , which at that time was practically unstudied, and devoted all further scientific activity to albanistics .

In 1913, Jokl became a privat-docent with a specialization in Indo-European linguistics, with particular attention to the Albanian, Baltic and Slavic languages. In 1923, he became an extraordinary professor and led the Department of General, Indo-European and Finno-Ugric Linguistics, and in 1937 received the title of Privy Councilor. Jokl published a large number of articles on the Albanian language and Albanistics, and in April 1933, the Hungarian paleontologist and Albanist Baron Franz Nopcha von Felsjo-Silvas , committed suicide due to financial difficulties, leaving his archive Jokl.

After the Nazis came to power, German scientific journals stopped publishing Jokl’s works in accordance with racial laws , he was no longer invited to conferences in Germany. Despite this, Jokl continued to conduct research and in 1937, at the age of 60, he first personally visited Albania , where he was received with honors and awarded the Order of Skanderbeg.

After the Anschluss of Austria, in May 1938, Jockle was dismissed from the university, despite the intercession of the Dean of the Department of Philosophy, Victor Christian . After his dismissal, Jokl, with the support of Christian, filed a petition for employment with the authorities as a “person of mixed blood of the first degree”, but this petition was also rejected.

Over the next four years, Jockl lived in solitude in Neubau on Neustiftgasse 67-69, ^[1] , earning odd jobs and continuing to conduct research at home, which he devoted all his free time to. At this time, one of his students, George Solta, was visiting and assisting Jokle , subsequently professor of linguistics.

Jokle's friends abroad understood that in the Third Reich his life was in danger, and they made attempts to save him. After the occupation of Albania by Italy, through the Italian Ministry of Education, a post of librarian was created specifically for Jokl in Albania with a monthly salary of 600 Albanian francs. Franciscan priest and Albanian writer Gyorgy Fishta September 23, 1939 wrote a letter to the Italian governor of Albania, Francesco Giacomoni, with a request to assist in the extradition of Jokl to Albania ^[2] . Professor of Padua University Carlo Tagliavini joined the request of Fishta. Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano was also involved, but all these efforts were unsuccessful.

March 4, 1942 Yokl was arrested by the Gestapo and sent to a concentration camp. In an attempt to save his teacher, Georg Solta filed a petition with E. Kaltenbrunner , who was in charge of the concentration camps, but Kaltenbrunner responded by saying that he did not have the appropriate authority.

The circumstances of the death of Jokle are not fully understood ^[3] . According to some reports, on May 6, 1942 he was taken to the Maly Trostenets concentration camp near Minsk , where he was put to death. According to other versions, Jokle died in Vienna from abuse or committed suicide from despair ^[4] .

Paul Heigl , Director General of the National Library of Austria , after the arrest of Jokl, achieved that on April 27, 1942, the personal archive of Jokl was confiscated and sent to the National Library. This was done contrary to the wishes of Jokl, who bequeathed his archive of Albania. It was believed that the Jokle archive contains about three thousand documents, in reality, only about 200 are in the National Library, the fate of the others remains unknown.

On April 29, 1982, the Senate of the University of Vienna decided to put the name of Norbert Jockl on the university board of honor ^[1] .

• Studien zur albanischen Etymologie und Wortbildung. Hölder, Wien 1911.
• A (lessander) Brückner: Slavisch-Litauisch. ---: Albanisch. Strassburg 1917.
• Das Finnisch-Ugrische als Erkenntnisquelle für die ältere indisch-germanische Sprachgeschichte (Festschrift für Baudouin de courtenay, 1921).
• Voks albanesische Liedersammlung mit sprachwissenschaftlich-sachlichen Erläuterungen versehen , 1921.
• Linguistisch-kulturhistorische Untersuchungen aus dem Bereiche des Albanesischen. De Gruyter, Berlin (ua) 1923.
• Albaner, Sprache (Reallexikon der Vorgeschichte, hrsg. Von M. Ebert, 1924).
• Südslavische Wortstratographie und albanische Lehnwortkunde. Makedonskija Naučen Inst., Sofija 1933. S. 119-146.
• Zur Ortsnamenkunde Albaniens. In: Zeitschrift für Ortsnamenforschung, 10, 2. Oldenbourg, München (ua) 1934. S. 181-206.
• Zur Lehre von den alb.-griech. Teilgleichungen. In: Revue internationale des études balkaniques, 1. Inst. balkanique, Beograd 1934, S. 46-64.
• Zu den lateinischen Elementen des albanischen Wortschatzes. In: Glotta, Bd. 25, 1/2. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1936. S. 121-134.
• Balkanlateinische Untersuchungen. In: Revue internationale des études balkaniques, 3. Inst. balkanique, Beograd 1936, S. 44-82.
• Sprachliche Beiträge zur Paläo-Ethnologie der Balkanhalbinsel. (Zur Frage der ältesten griechisch-albanischen Beziehungen.) Aus dem Nachlaß hrsg. v. Oskar E. Pfeiffer. Mit einem Vorw. v. Georg R. Solta. Österr. Akad. d. Wiss. Phil. -hist. Kl. Schriften d. Balkankommission. Linguistische Abt., 29. Wien 1984.

• Gerd Simon: Tödlicher Bücherwahn. Der letzte Wiener Universitätsrektor im 3. Reich und der Tod seines Kollegen Norbert Jokl . Universität Tübingen, (Tübingen 1994). - Volltext online (PDF; 0.3 MB) .

• Photo and autograph of N. Jokl