| Paul Tuschinski | |
| Native Name: | Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan: Paul Tușinschi |
| Birth Name: | Paul Tușinschi |
| Birth Date: | 13 August 1945 |
| Birth Place: | Sighișoara, Kingdom of Romania |
| Death Place: | Stuttgart, Germany |
| Alma Mater: | University of Bucharest |
| Occupation: | Linguist, Teacher |
| Nationality: | Kingdom of Romania (1945-1947) Romanian People's Republic (1947-1984) German (1983-2009) |
| Parents: | Virginia von Tuschinski Constantin von Tuschinski |
| Children: | Alexander Tuschinski |
| Relatives: | Demeter von Tuschinski (Grandfather) |
Paul Tuschinski (ro|Paul Tușinschi, 13 August 1945 - 24 August 2009) was a Romanian linguist who was active in German studies while working at University of Bucharest from the 1970s. In 1983, he emigrated to West Germany, where he worked as a school teacher and was involved in the early films of his son Alexander.
Paul Tuschinski was born on 13 August 1945 in Romanian Sighișoara as the first child of Virginia and Constantin von Tuschinski. He had one brother, Peter, born in 1947. The Tuschinski's were an aristocratic family from Bukovina who had lost most of their belongings during World War II and had settled in Sighișoara in 1944. Paul grew up bilingual, speaking German and Romanian fluently. He was close to his parents, and since childhood enjoyed collecting stamps.[1] At the age of 12, Tuschinski was active in learning groups at school, where pupils assisted each other to improve their grades.[2] After graduating Bergschule in Sighișoara, Paul Tuschinski went on to study German and English linguistics at University of Bucharest, and after graduation, he continued working at university. Like his parents, he was critical of the then-current Romanian political system. In March 1973, Paul Tuschinski married Melita née Bogdan, who was from Sighișoara as well and who studied architecture in Bucharest.[3]
In the 1970s, Paul Tuschinski worked as scientific assistant at University of Bucharest.[4] He specialised in contrastive analyses of German and Romanian language. From 1977-1980, he participated in creating the Nomen ("nouns") chapter of Kontrastive Grammatik Deutsch-Rumänisch in Bucharest, receiving a grant from DAAD.[5] [6] Work on the book took about twenty years with a number of contributors. The final work was published in 1993 in two volumes. From the 1970s, Tuschinski published academic articles and co-wrote books on German language and German-Romanian translation.
In 1983, Melita and Paul Tuschinski emigrated to West Germany, where they reverted the spelling of their last name back to the German one which the family had used prior to 1918. They eventually settled in Stuttgart, where Paul Tuschinski taught German and English at secondary school in Stuttgart-Feuerbach. In 1988, Alexander, their son and only child, was born. Alexander went on to be a film director, and from 2006, Paul assisted as camera operator and in several capacities in Alexander's first films. Alexander called Paul his "best friend", crediting him with shaping his sense of humour, as well as his attitude on arts, history and politics. After retiring, Paul Tuschinski started translating the memoirs of Ion G. Duca into German. The translation remained a fragment as he passed away in Stuttgart on 24 August 2009, before being able to finish it.[7]
Alexander Tuschinski's 2010 feature film Menschenliebe is dedicated to Paul Tuschinski in its closing credits, and his 2024 autobiographical documentary film Cutting Squares discusses Paul, their relation and Paul's importance to Alexander's works in several scenes.