Josef Johann Janka

After graduating from high school, Josef Johann Janka began a theological education at the German Charles University in Prague and became a member of the student fraternity Ferdinandea in 1916. He joins the Order of the Crucians with the Red Star and takes his vows in 1918. After being ordained a priest in 1919 in St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague, he began his pastoral work as chaplain in Karlovy Vary-Fischern, where he also taught religion at the local school.

In 1938, he moved to Elbogen and worked there as dean until his expulsion on July 3, 1946. In spring 1941, he was summoned to the Gestapo in Karlovy Vary and interrogated. He was accused of having ordered the old wreaths on the war memorial in Elbogen to be removed and burned, which was interpreted as disrespecting the symbols of the Nazi state. He was therefore arrested and held in the Gestapo prison in Karlovy Vary for eleven days without trial. After his release, he was able to remain a pastor in Elbogen.

Josef Johann Janka left the Order of the Teutonic Knights and became a secular clergyman, initially as a cooperator and camp pastor in Dachau and later as a pastor in Weyarn. He spent his retirement in Berbling.