Kaspar Muth 

Kaspar Muth (born January 15, 1876, in Lovrin, Timiș, Austria-Hungary), nicknamed "King of Banat" because of his authoritarian character, is the personality of the month of January. 

He was a Schwabian politician from the Banat and chairman of the Schwabian Autonomy Party and the Association of Germans in Romania. 

After a trip to the United States of America to raise funds, he returned to Timișoara in 1922 and built the Banatia Gymnasium. It became the largest German school center in Southeastern Europe. Since 1945, the former school building has housed the University of Medicine in Timișoara. 

Kaspar Muth, together with other radicals Schwabs from Banat, founded the Schwabian Autonomy Party and later, in March 1919, the Deutsch Schwabian People's Party.

Kaspar Muth was chairman of the German Party in Romania from 1931 to 1935, and in 1932 he was elected chairman of the Federation of Germans in Romania.

The communist authorities decided to expropriate him. He died in poverty on February 9, 1966, in the only room he was allowed to occupy in his apartment on Cathedral Square.

Excerpt from Scherer, Anton. Kaspar Muth. In Neue Deutsche Biographie 18 (1997). pp. 646-648 [Online-Version]. URL: https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd119369869.html#ndbcontent [20.01.2023].

Text editor: Olga B.  

Translator: Nicole Olariu