Maximilian Peyfuss

Maximilian Peyfuss, also Max Demeter Peyfuss (born 2 August 1944 in Vienna; died 13 April 2019 in Baden near Vienna) was an Austrian Eastern European historian and writer from Maria Enzersdorf near Vienna and was considered an important researcher and translator for Eastern and Southeastern Europe contemporary Romanian literature.

Academic career

After graduating from the federal high school in Mödling[1] and studying German, theater studies, Eastern European history, and Balkan languages at the University of Vienna, Maximilian Peyfuss began his academic career with a dissertation on the history of the Aromanians; indeed some of his ancestors were Aromanians from Albania.

The resulting publication was The Aromanian Question. Its development from the origins to the Peace of Bucharest and the attitude of Austria-Hungary was the first modern publication in German on these people, who were scattered across half the Balkans.

Soon after receiving his doctorate in 1971, Peyfuss became a member of the editorial team at Österreichische Osthefte, which he was also responsible for several years as the successor to Thorvi Eckhardt. In this leading Austrian Eastern European journal at the time, not only did many well-known Western Eastern European scientists publish but also a number of leading specialist representatives from Eastern and Southeastern European countries. Long before the fall of the Iron Curtain, the magazine made significant contributions to overcoming its intellectual and cultural approach, which Maximilian Peyfuss intended.

In 1979 Peyfuss became a university assistant at the Institute for Eastern European History[2] at the University of Vienna and was primarily an employee of Walter Leitsch. In addition to his work in teaching, not least in advising many students and some foreign scholarship holders, Maximilian Peyfuss became editor of the Studia Austro-Polonica series published in Krakow. He deepened his Southeastern European studies, especially in the direction of Romania and Albania, and completed his habilitation in 1989 with a book on the history of the impact of the Moschopolis printing company on the subject of Southeastern European history. This publication on book printing and veneration of saints in the Archdiocese of Achrida / Ohrid was also translated into Albanian in 2003.

After being appointed associate professor for Southeast European History at the University of Vienna in 1992 - the appointment as university professor took place on January 1, 2000 - Maximilian Peyfuss began not only with a two-semester lecture on the topic of Introduction to Balkan Studies, but soon also with the preparation the relocation of the institute, which has been housed separately since 1977, to the newly designed campus in the IX. District.

As a bibliophile, Maximilian Peyfuss had an extensive library that contained many rarities on the history of southeastern and eastern Europe. His bibliophile inclination also prompted him to bring back antiquarian books from his many trips to the Balkans, but also the latest new publications for the institute library, so that the tradition started by Josef Konstantin Jirecek in 1907 was continued.

The University of Timișoara honored Maximilian Peyfuss with an honorary doctorate in 2005.

Translations

Max Demeter Peyfuss helped his Romanian colleagues to become known in the West with several translations. He also translated the poem "Confession" from the "Message of Encouragement" by Petre Stoica.[3] In addition to Petre Stoica, he also translated works by Anatol E. Baconsky.

  • Das Aequinoktium der Wahnsinnigen und andere Erzählungen / Anatol E. Baconsky. Aus dem Rumänischen von Max Demeter Peyfuss; Styria Verlag, 1969 ISBN 978-3-89840-277-4.
  • Die Aromunische Frage. Ihre Entwicklung von den Ursprüngen bis zum Frieden von Bukarest und die Haltung Österreich-Ungarn. Böhlau 1974. ISBN 9783205085874.
  • Die Schwarze Kirche / Anatol E. Baconsky. [Ins Dt. übertragen von Max Demeter Peyfuss] Ullstein Verlag, 1976 ISBN 978-3-550-16263-3.
  • Wie ein zweites Vaterland / Anatol E. Baconsky. Mit e. Nachw. von Wilhelm Steinboeck. [Nach d. rumänischen Orig.-Ms. Übers. u. hrsg. von Max Demeter Peyfuss]; Styria Verlag, 1978 ISBN 978-3-222-11110-5.
  • Die Druckerei von Moschopolis, 1731-1769: Buchdruck und Heiligenverehrung im Erzbistum Achrida. Böhlau Verlag, Wien 1989. ISBN 3205052935.

Family history

After his marriage to Theodora Tirka (1863–1920) from Enzersdorf in 1891, Maximilian Peyfuss’ grandfather, the academic painter Carl Johann Peyfuss, brother of Marietta Peyfuss,[4] settled in Maria Enzersdorf. Theodora Tirka was a daughter from the last marriage of the princely Serbian government banker Demeter Theodor Tirka (1802–1874) with the Upper Austrian Theresia Sulzer (1837–1922). Demeter Th. Tirka, who has had a wealth in Maria Enzersdorf since 1840, came from an Arumunian family from what is now Albania, a member of a small people scattered across the Balkans who find their identity in a Romance language related to Romanian.[5]

Albania

Max Demeter Peyfuss was an activist of the "Austrian-Albanian Association".[6]

Max Peyfuss joined this association in the 1970s as a student of Karl Treimer and held the post of treasurer. His cultural activity in the association begins with his participation in the commemoration in Kosovo, of the 500th anniversary of the death of Gjergj Kastriot - Skanderbeg. In 1970, Max Peyfuss received an invitation from Albania, to which he responded in gratitude by publishing several articles in newspapers. After the publication of these articles, his relations with the then Albanian government deteriorated. This deterioration lasted until the 1980s, when, with the mediation of the academy's president, Aleks Buda, he was allowed to enter Albania.

After a while, Max Peyfuss took over the leadership of the Institute for the History of Eastern Europe at the University of Vienna. Max Peyfuss is popular among historians as a modern-day specialist in Vlach (Aromanian) history with settlements in northern Greece, Albania, Macedonia and Bulgaria.

References

General

Specific

  1. "Wall of Fame".
  2. IN MEMORIAM Maximilian Peyfuss. "On the website of the Institute for Eastern European History. Retrieved August 18, 2019".
  3. "Dr. phil. Maximilian Peyfuss" (PDF).
  4. "PEYFUSS Marietta".
  5. "The Austrian historian Max Demeter Peyfuss regarding his Moschopolitan roots".
  6. "Österreichisch-Albanische Gesellschaft" (PDF).
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