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“EINS, ZWEI, AND BEFORE I SAY DREI, I HOPE YOU GO TO HELL!” |
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SLOVENE SOLDIERS, SMUGGLERS, WOMEN AND MORE IN THE MODERN PERIOD IN THE LIGHT OF THE FRIULI HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
The article offers an insight into a certain period of the modern era in the lives of the Slovenian -speaking population of the western Slovenian territory, as reflected in historical documents from this era in the Friuli region. The Late Middle Ages and Modern Period Slavs feature in the Friuli historical record, mostly in connection with individual feuds, wars or invasions and are presented as active participants in armed conflicts, while Slovenian women even feature as cold-blooded avengers. The Slovenian population is also mentioned with respect to the weekly market in Čedad (Cividale del Friuli) and trading in the capital of Friuli. Overall, however, the data about the Slavs is scarce, despite the high number of Friuli historical documents, which results from the perception of Slavs in the wider Friuli region as a domestic population who happened to speak a “Slavic” language.
THE SORROWS OF “THE WERTHER OF CELJE”, THE EARTHLY CONCERNS OF HIS SON AND AN INTRODUCTION TO THE DECLINE OF THEIR FAMILY
Memoirs of two descendants of Valvasor, the Barons of Dienersberg from Celje
The handwritten memoirs of two members of the family of Dienersperg Barons, the father Franc Ksaver (1773-1846) and his son Anton Aleks (1829-1889), comprise personal accounts about the period from the mid-1770s till the 1850s. Franc Ksaver began writing a memoir in 1835 in Dobrna. Together with a small note on the destiny of his son Anton Aleks’ two children from 1910, it covers four generations. At first sight, this is a story about the destiny of a once semi-affluent noble family who moved from the area of Celje to Graz in the 1830s and practically collapsed financially after a series of wrong moves following the agrarian reform. However, a peek beneath the surface reveals stories of life and interpersonal relationships that could only be intuited. The central problem of the two generations is the role of the dominant father in what was still a patriarchal family. It is common to each of the two writers that they were unable to live their professional dreams because of the father; this was a complaint common to many in their generation. Even in old age, their memoirs return insistently to what had always burdened them the most. At the forefront lies their self-perception and their experience of the world around them. The “Werther of Celje”, Baron Franc Ksaver, experienced a breakdown in his youth but never committed suicide, even though he had often considered this option after a serious and long-lasting conflict with his “absolutist” father Auguštin, who is practically central to the son’s entire narrative. Baron Auguštin Dienersperg (1742-1814) was a grandson of the Carniolan polihistorian Janez Vajkart Valvasor (1641-1693), and is the joint predecessor of all still living descendants of Valvasor.
“EINS, ZWEI, AND BEFORE I SAY DREI, I HOPE YOU GO TO HELL!”
A few stories about domestic homicide from the pre-constitutional era in Carniola
At a time when women were completely subordinate to men both socially and economically, it was extremely difficult for them to leave their husbands despite harrowing circumstances in the marriage because they had no material means to support themselves and they would also become outcasts from society. It was easier for the husband because the wife had to be obedient – the husband had the right to demand that obedience by force because the corresponding social threshold of tolerance was very high. The husband could afford much in the relationship and beyond it that the wife could not. Some abused and dissatisfied women tried to find a way out of a desperate situation by murdering their husbands. Men, on the other hand, had almost no reason to kill their wives because they could get away with almost everything. They thus killed their wives in drunkenness or in fits of anger. Men also perpetrated more successful murders than attempts at murder– precisely the opposite from women. In the murder cases from the 18th and 19th centuries presented in this article, women most often tried to poison their husbands, while men beat their spouses to death.
THE FAMILY IN LAŠKO IN THE PRE-MARCH ERA
The article presents the family in the town of Laško in the pre-March era on the basis of data obtained from the church civil-status registers of the Laško diocese for the years 1814- 1848. In the pre-March period, Laško was one of the larger market towns; however, owing to its poor traffic connections, it experienced poor economic development. Consequently, the market mostly had small craftsmen who supplemented their shops with agriculture for their own needs. Its small size (545 inhabitants) made Laško demographically unsustainable, which is why 72% of all married couples featured one partner from outside the town. Grooms who married women from Laško were craftsmen from near and far, while brides mostly came from the surrounding rural area. The young couple usually moved into their own home and thus did not live with the parents. It was only later, once the parents died, that the young family moved back to the house in which the husband was born. On average, families had five children. Children were baptized immediately after birth. Careful selection ensured that their godfathers enjoyed a social position equal to that of the child’s parents. Death was common in the family, in particular among infants, only about half of whom lived to adulthood. The average life expectancy was 50 years, so that most children succeeded their father at the age of 20-30.
MERRY APOCALYPSE
Fin-de-siecle Vienna
The capital of the Habsburg Monarchy at the turn of the century was a very interesting place: the capital of the empire was also a fast growing industrial city, a place where poverty and wealth went hand in hand; it witnessed the rise of the new political mass movements and tensions between the monarchy´s nations. Above all, it was a place of a fantastic cultural development and prosperity, carried mainly by the German and liberal-oriented Jewish middle class.
THE MONUMENT OF KING PETER IN KRANJ
The Karađorđević dynasty had no tradition in the new Yugoslav state on which to build its new ruling legitimacy. It thus used monumental art, sculpture and dynastic monuments to help create the cult of the ruler and a historical tradition of statesmanship.
The first monumental public monument to King Peter I the Liberator on the Slovenian territory was ceremonially unveiled on the 1st August 1926 in Kranj. The initiative to raise a monument came from the ranks of pro-liberal townsmen of Kranj. The monument was placed in Zvezda Park between the National Hall (Narodni dom) and the grammar school (gimnazija). The nine-meter obelisk was built of ferroconcrete. The statue of a young man and the relief of Peter I were bronze, while the eagle statue on top of the monument was made of stone from Nabrežina. The sculptor was Tine Kos (1894-1979).
The unveiling of the monument had a pan-Slovenian importance. It was attended by approximately 15000 people, including many distinguished guests, such as King Aleksander I and Queen Marija. The wreath-laying was interrupted by an incident involving representatives of Orjuna. The monument was destroyed by German occupiers in 1941.