By John M. Michels
Sebastian
Leicht was born in Backi Brestovac. He was ‘Beta Vukanovic School of
Art’ best graduating artists, as well as ‘die Akademie fuer Bildende
Kuenste’ in Munich. His book of paintings, Weg der Donauschwaben,
is specifically close to our hearts.
Sebastian Leicht: "Zusammengepfercht im Hungerlager" (Lonly Child)
1944-1947
At the beginning of the war, the Serbian officials
took hostages in some German villages as a bargaining chip against
anticipated German invasion. In Brestowatz, Leicht was included
among the village's important personalities.
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Brestovac Hostages List ca. 1941. Sebastian Leicht is # 17
During WWII Leicht was
serving with the Military towards
the end of the war in some capacity similar to a war correspondent on
the Western Front. His output was paintings and drawings rather than
reportorial text.
He would
thus seem not to have been in a position to flee his ancestry home, as
such. His wife and daughter did escape somehow though. After the war
they were all living in Passau in Germany for many years before he died
in 2002.
Sebastian
Leicht did accompany the transport of a refugee group of 661 persons
under the leadership of Paul Deutchle of his village. Leicht made
contact with them in Ebenfurth, Austria in October of 1944. The group
had orders from the refugee Command of the Volkesdeutsche Mittelstelle,
signed by Christian Brücker as leader of the Flüchtlingskommando.
(Brücker later became leader of the Donauschwaben organization in
Sindelfingen.) The orders were a movement authorization for the 661
people with 95 wagons and 185 horses to move from Ebenfurth to Budweiss,
in Czechoslovakia. Leicht told Deutschle to take the orders back to
Brücker and have them changed from Budweiss to Linz, in Austria, which
he did.
Leicht did
a fairly large number of drawings on the western war front and
whereabouts of these are not known. There is supposedly a warehouse of
paintings confiscated by the US during the war and it would seem an
interesting project, perhaps a thesis of some kind, to locate the
pictures and identify them. Also, there were a large number of Leicht's
works from the 1930's that disappeared after a major exhibit in Germany.
The crook was later found, as well as most of the paintings.
In his
later years, Leicht visited his home in Batschka, which was occupied by
Serbs. They had some of his paintings on display but they would not
return any of them to Leicht! Until recently his works were displayed as
well as sold under his teachers’ name: Beta Vukanovic. The first show of
Leicht’s paintings in Serbia under his own name was in 2005!
The latest
of Leicht's works would include two portraits of Bishop Pacha
for display at the re-opening of the bishop's palace in Temesvár in
about 1994 or so. The painting portrayed Pacha as a young person and as
in his later years.
Leicht did
only one sculpture in his career -- for a centennial celebration of the
village of Filipowa some time in the 1930's. There is also an
interesting story that goes along with that venture!
Brücker's Order in 1944
Sebastian
Leicht' Sculpture
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