We would like to introduce to you one of the well-known people of Kranj, general and poet Rudolf Maister.
Watch a short animated film.
→ Commander of the battles for the Slovenian northern border in 1918 and 1919.
→ On November 1, 1918, he took military command in Maribor and Lower Styria.
→ In addition to his military career, he was also a poet, painter, and bibliophile.
→ He spent his high school years with his family in Kranj.
→ Bust on the house at Maistrov trg.
Rudolf Maister was born on March 29, 1874, in Kamnik as the youngest of three sons in a family of a financial guard. He attended elementary school in Mengeš, and in 1883 his family moved to Kranj, where he continued his education at a four-year boys’ elementary school and then at a lower secondary school. He already showed an interest in literature at this stage, publishing a handwritten newsletter called Inter nos. He finished secondary school in 1890. As his father died when he was thirteen, he decided to pursue a military career. He completed his officer training in Vienna in four years and then served in numerous locations throughout Austria-Hungary. From 1914, he was stationed in Maribor, where he had a historic role when, amid the political and military chaos surrounding the collapse of Austria-Hungary at the end of World War I, the members of the Maribor City Council declared the city part of German Austria on October 30, 1918, Maister countered the next day with the words: “I do not recognize these points. I declare Maribor to be the property of the State of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs, and I assume military command of the city and all of Lower Styria on behalf of my government.” The National Council, which took over administration in this area, promoted Maister from major to general. When the Germans established the so-called Green Guard, Maister declared mobilization and peacefully disarmed the German units with the assembled soldiers. He later continued fighting along the Yugoslav-Austrian border, which dragged on with mixed success until the fall of 1919, when a plebiscite finally determined the course of the Carinthian part of the border. In 1923, Maister was forced into retirement. In addition to his military career, he was also a poet and published two collections, love poems Poezije and patriotic poetry, Kitica mojih. He was also an amateur painter and book lover, who amassed an extensive home library. He died on July 26, 1934, in Unec.
The most famous Slovenian general spent seven years of his youth in Kranj. Since their arrival in 1883, the family had lived in a house at 5 Maistrov trg, but after his father’s death in 1887, they moved to a neighboring building for three years, where they remained until they moved to Ljubljana in 1890. In 2002, a bust of the general, created by academic sculptor Alenka Vidrgar, was placed on the building where they lived most of the time. The square has been named after Maister since the end of World War II. The lower secondary school that Maister attended was then located in a building on Tomšičeva Street, opposite the wall by the Khislstein castle park. He had to repeat the second grade of this school, as he was emotionally affected by his father’s death and had problems with Latin, but he was particularly good at drawing.
Apart from his youth, Maister encountered Kranj at least once more, during tense negotiations between the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes and the Republic of Austria regarding the border issue. Maister attended these peace negotiations that took place at the National Reading Room in Kranj between 4 and 6 June, 1919. In honour of the two members of the Yugoslav delegation, Maister and the politician Dr. Gregor Žerjav, a celebration with torches was organized by members of the reading room, the Sokol gymnastic society and the association of firefighters.
PHOTO: Medobčinski muzej Kamnik
THE EVENT IS CANCELED…
