Josef Marx
Born: November 26, 1881
Passed from Life: July 3, 1939
Obituary from the Heimatbote, dated July 13, 1939
Translated by: Monika Ferrier
Totally unexpectedly, relentless death
has again taken a true Swabian pioneer with his wife and daughter from our
midst. This time it is our well-known compatriot and friend, Mr. Josef Marx,
his wife and daughter, all three of whom were victims of an auto accident on
July 3. Mr. Marx was a true Swabian, through and through, and was well-known
and loved everywhere in the United
States where German-Hungarian Swabians,
Austrian Burgenlanders and others of German descent
live. His untiring Swabian spirit is to be thanked for the existence of the
"Heimatbote", today the largest compatriot newspaper in the United States.
For it he sacrificed many years of tiring publicity; only a few days earlier he
had returned from the eastern areas of New York
and surroundings to begin a holiday trip to New Mexico to visit his daughter. They
stayed over a week in Artesia and undertook a short excursion over the weekend
to old Mexico. Returning from there, on the way to Artesia,
the terrible tragedy occurred. The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Marx, Mrs. Eva Joerger, was at the wheel, when she lost control of the
vehicle close to Alamogordo, and the car, with its 4 occupants plunged more
than 100 feet into a deep gully. During
the plunge, one door opened and the son of Mr. and Mrs. Marx fell out of the
wagon; this saved his life. The other occupants, Mr. Josef Marx (born 1882 in Kleinbecskerek), Mrs. Eva Marx (nee Klein from Blumenthal),
and the daughter of Mrs. Marx, Mrs. Eva Joerger (nee
Schmidt, 37 years of age), died immediately, while the son, Johann Schmidt was taken
to a CCC hospital and treated there. The son of Mrs. Joerger
had not come along on the week-long trip but had stayed with the daughter, Anna
Solt, nee Schmidt, in Artesia, and so was spared from
the terrible tragedy. In the meantime, Johann Schmidt as well was released from
the CCC hospital, and the two sons accompanied the three bodies to Chicago, where they were
laid out in state in the funeral home of our compatriot, Nick Stich Co., Inc., 845
West Armitage Avenue. On
Monday, July 10, at 9:30 a.m., the earthly remains of the deceased were brought
to St. Theresa's church and blessed, and from there laid to eternal rest in St.
Joseph's cemetery. Peace to their ashes!
An uncommonly strong participation of
guests at the funeral of the so unexpectedly and suddenly departed brave German
compatriot was testimony of his far reaching worth and belovedness,
as were the speeches at the gravesite and the extremely large number of flower
arrangements.
The so suddenly departed was mourned
by a seldom seen large group of friends and acquaintances, as well as many
relatives here in the United
States and in the old homeland. The
survivors are: Josef Schmidt, son of Mrs. Marx; the son of Mrs. Joerger and Anna Solt, nee
Schmidt, daughter of Mrs. Marx; Katharina and Nikolaus Muschal, nee Marx;
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Josef Marx, and 5 grandchildren; the mother of Mrs.
Marx, Eva Klein, nee Zeitvogel of Blumenthal; Johann
Marx, the father of Mr. Marx and brothers in Kleinbecskerek,
Banat; the sister of Mrs. Marx, Katharina nee Klein,
wife of Anton Lennert, from Glogowatz, Banat, at
present living in Dayton St., Chicago; the sister of Mr. Marx, Susanna, Mrs.
Philip Lenhardt, in Los Angeles, California. Then, the brothers and sisters-in-law of Mrs. Marx, Johann and
Elisabeth Klein, Mathias and Elisabeth Klein, Frank and Violet Zellner in South Chicago.
Josef Marx
and his life goal.
After his discharge from the railroad
regiment in Korneuburg, Josef Marx voyaged to the United States
where he soon found a position at the "Deutsch-Ungarischer
Bote". After this newspaper folded in 1917, Mr.
Marx made it his life goal to found a compatriot newspaper. And so, in 1921 he
founded the "Heimatbote". His talent and his unsurpassed endurance
gave to the compatriot association a service whose popular and cultural merit
cannot be judged highly enough!
With the death of Josef Marx, the
compatriot association lost a very industrious pioneer of German heritage in America, who in
the first instance always tried to maintain the interests of the Swabian
compatriot association. That he was able to do so, often under the most
difficult of circumstances and without thought for himself is due only to his
unshakeable idealism! Only too often he learned from his own experience that
riches cannot be gained from popular, cultural and editorial work. All these labours
are seldom acknowledged and even more seldom rewarded materially. They are not
a work area for materialists. But, Mr. Josef Marx was always an idealist, and
for this reason, fought and worked joyfully for years, in order to see that his
Endeavour, to serve the Swabian compatriot association, was fulfilled. He was
the first to realize the necessity of a strong, widespread, compatriot
newspaper, and he founded the "Heimatbote" in the year 1921.
Of course the beginning was very
hard, and it cost Mr. Marx many a sleepless night and personal sacrifice, in
order to make possible the edition of the newspaper for the next week. If he
sometimes stood before a sheer unsolvable task, then it was due only to his
iron will and his love for the German-Hungarian compatriot association, which
time and again helped him over all the large obstacles. He did not lose heart
and with his endurance laid the foundation for the largest compatriot newspaper
in the United States and Canada.
Josef Marx completed his work in the
end, and in the "Heimatbote" gave his dear Swabians a good true
friend, which in the hearts of tens of thousands became as well loved as its
creator, Josef Marx, himself loved it. Besides the
"Heimatbote", Josef Marx gave the compatriot association another
gift, into which he poured just as much idealism, patience and love as into the
"Heimatbote"; this is the "Deutsch-ungarischer
Familienkalender", in which we read beautiful
stories of the homeland, which took us back to our youth, to the circle of our
family in the old homeland. Some readers had tears in their eyes, moved by the
awakened beautiful memories which were brought forth by these homeland stories,
and which they were again able to dream about. And hearty laughter often
strengthened our tired spirit, when we read the cheerful stories in the Swabian
dialect.
We hope that the spirit of the works
of its creator will live on and develop further into a powerful union and a
common consciousness of our compatriots, in memory of the Swabian pioneer,
Josef Marx, for his devoted work and efforts, for his unselfish lifework in the
service of the compatriot association. He was a true Swabian, a brave German
man who dedicated his life to the service of German heritage. H.R