Creative wordsmith in poetry and literature. - A Sorbian journalist named Mina Witkojc defends the cultural legacy of her people.
Mina Witkojc, born on May 28, 1893, hailed from a Wendish servant girl and an innkeeper in Burg im Spreewald. She got herself educated at the local village school in her hometown. It's there where her affection for literature burgeoned. Furthering her education, she attended the higher school in Cottbus.
Post-graduation and prior to moving to Bautzen in 1922 - a city with a more significant Sorbian population, she spent her formative years toiling as a day laborer in Berlin. As a member of the Sorbian family, her exposure to their language and culture commenced at an early age, and she later mirrored these endeavors through poems and essays she published in numerous Sorbian and German magazines, showcasing her ardent affection for her lineage and homeland. Exploring nature motifs was her medium of choice. Additionally, she translated poems from other Slavic languages. Her efforts culminated in becoming the editor-in-chief of the Lower Sorbian paper Serbski Casnik ("Sorbian Newspaper").
Mina Witkojc: A Champion for the Conservation of Sorbian Culture
Mina Witkojc dedicated herself to the promotion and protection of Sorbian culture, joining several Sorbian-related associations and organizations. The 1930s, however, brought with them a restrictive atmosphere under National Socialism, which led her to depart from Serbski Casnik when the government prohibited Sorbian languages and banned her from authoring anything. Instead, she opted to voiced her convictions on Sorbian homeland through her texts and poems while interacting with other intellectuals from Slavic cultures. These actions led to her acquiring a residence ban in the Dresden administrative district in 1941 and the Frankfurt/Oder administrative district in 1942, forcing her to leave Lausitz. For defying these prohibitions, she was nabbed for hanging Sorbian-oriented posters in Bautzen during municipal elections.
Reunited with her village, she sustained her writing career in Burg, contributing a plethora of writings to Nowy Casnik and releasing a poetry anthology christened as K swětłu a słyńcu (To the Light, to the Sun). In 1964, she was felicitated with the Ćišinski Prize.
Remaining steadfast and a key representative of Sorbian culture until her final breath on November 11, 1975, Mina Witkojc's legacy continues to inspire through two schools and a library in Burg, named after her. Moreover, a street in Cottbus carries her name. Also, activists honoring the Sorbian language are presented with the Mina-Witkojc Prize.
Original source: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mina_Witkojc.
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Source: www.stern.de
