Professor Josef Lentsch

Josef Lentsch graduated with distinction from the School Brothers at the LBA in Vienna-Strebersdorf in 1928. He then initially worked as a primary school teacher. As a young teacher, he became interested in folk culture. In 1935, the Apostolic Administration of Burgenland appointed him to the school administration in Sauerbrunn, and in 1937 he passed the teaching qualification examination for secondary schools. During this time, he also helped to compile the two-volume "Burgenland Reader" and wrote educational and popular articles for various magazines.

As an opponent of National Socialism, he was initially imprisoned in Eisenstadt for seven weeks after the Anschluss, then transferred to Poppendorf as a teacher and dismissed there with effect from November 1, 1938 and retired with fifty percent of his active salary. He first worked as an accountant in Lorenz Karall's brickworks and then as an employee of the Finance Chamber of the Apostolic Administration of Burgenland. In 1940 he was drafted into the German Wehrmacht, and in 1945 he was taken prisoner of war by the Americans.

After returning to Burgenland, he took on the role of provincial party secretary of the recently founded ÖVP (until 1960) and was a member of the Burgenland provincial parliament from 1945-1960. As a member of the Burgenland provincial government, he served as provincial councillor for education from 1949. In 1958, he moved to the office of First President of the Provincial Parliament. In 1961 he was elected governor. During the election campaign for re-election in 1964, he fell seriously ill and lost the election.