Herbert Otto Roth

Herbert Otto Roth, later often called in New Zealand Bert Roth, ( born December 7, 1917 in Vienna, Austria, † 27 May 1994 Mount Eden, Auckland, New Zealand), was Austrian- New Zealand socialist, historian and librarian at the University of Auckland.

Early years

Herbert Otto Roth was born on 7 December 1917 as a son of Mr and Mrs Therese Pepi Heilpern and her husband Emil Roth, a railway engineer, in Vienna. He was considered a child as something introvert and being an avid reader of books.

Interested quite early on the political left, he joined during his final year in 1934 at the Red Student Association in Vienna. In 1935, Roth wrote at the Philosophical Faculty of the University in Vienna and studied physics and chemistry, but collapsed in 1938 his studies due to the political changes in Austria in the 6th semester from. In 1936, he joined the Red Falcons and was already in September 1937 her state chairman.

Escape from the Nazis

After the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in March 1938 and he was called up for military service, Roth fled through Germany to Switzerland and later to France. In Grenoble Roth tried his chemistry studies continue, but was interned after the start of the Second World War in France as an enemy. His mother, who had fled to England in 1938, helped him to emigrate to New Zealand in February 1940.

Life and work in New Zealand

Coming from France reached Roth Wellington in April 1940, where he was not recognized as a political refugee, but was regarded as immigrants from enemy territory. About the contacts his mother met the influential New Zealand Roth left economists and intellectuals Bill Sutch, who would become his mentor. Roth visited his readings in the Workers' Educational Association ( WEA) in Wellington and found very soon after the political left in New Zealand.

In 1941 he became a member of the Society for Closer Relations with Russia ( Society for closer relations with Russia ). He was a founding member of the left Young People's Club and its first elected secretary. But the Department of Justice intervened because they saw an enemy alien in it. Roth requested in 1944 the New Zealand citizenship, which he also received in March 1946.

Since his arrival in New Zealand, Roth worked in various jobs in different industries, such as a temporary worker in a foundry, as a worker on a dairy farm in the Wairarapa, as woodworkers in Petone and as a carpenter apprentice in the company Fletcher Construction. 1944 called for military service, he joined the Royal New Zealand Air Force and worked for them on the Norfolk Iceland as a meteorologist. While serving in the Air Force, he enrolled at the Victoria College in Wellington and graduated in 1946 with a bachelor's degree. In August 1946, he first worked as a meteorologist in the civilian sector in Rongotai district, where nowadays is the airport in Wellington.

On November 29, 1946 Roth married his wife Margaret Frances Hogben, a journalist and later a poet. She became known later under the name Margot Roth. The marriage produced two sons and a daughter were born.

1947 Roth visited the New Zealand Library School, followed by a job as a department manager at the National Library Service in Wellington a year later. In 1952, he took a different department and remained there until 1961. 1956 he became an associate member of the New Zealand Library Association, whose 1964 member ( FNZLA ) and later its president. From January 1962 until his retirement in January 1983, he worked as deputy librarian at the University of Auckland. In 1968, he assumed additional responsibility as an archivist.

Roth's first book was published in 1952. It was a biography of the New Zealand educators George Hogben, his father in law. In the 1950s and 1960s, most of his work published in academic journals. This was followed by other publications in book form. But most of his writings are unpublished. Yet had his collection of historical documents, starting with the so-called Waterfront Dispute in 1951, in which up to 22,000 dockworkers were 151 days in the strike and documents which he amassed until his death, can be used as discount today about the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington be.

Roth survived by his wife separated in 1981 and divorced on 6 June 1984. He died on 27 May 1994 at his home in Mount Eden.

Works

• Herbert Otto Roth, Trade Unions in New Zealand Past and Present. Reed Education, Wellington 1973.
• Herbert Otto Roth: The Historical Framework. In: John Deeks (ed.): Industrial Relations in New Zealand. In 1978.
• Bert Roth, Janny Hammond: Toil and Trouble The Struggle for a Better Life in New Zealand. Methuen Publishing Ltd, Auckland 1981, ISBN 0-456-02860-9.
• Bert Roth, New Zealand Post Office Union ( ed.): Along the line: 100 years of Post Office Unionism. Wellington, 1990, ISBN 0-473-00958-7.
• Herbert Otto Roth: New Zealand Trade Unions - a Bibliography. Auckland University Press, Auckland 1994, ISBN 0196479673 (2nd edition).
• Herbert Otto Roth: Parnell, Samuel Duncan ( example). In: Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage, accessed on 28 October 2012 ( HTML, English).
• Herbert Otto Roth: Eight - Hour Day Movement ( example). In: An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand - Online Edition. New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage, accessed on 28 October 2012 ( HTML, English).