Andrija Hebrang (son)
Encyclopedia
Andrija Hebrang is a Croatia
n physician and politician. A member of the Croatian Democratic Union
(HDZ), he is currently member of the Croatian Parliament. A physician by vocation, Hebrang had served three terms as Croatia's Minister of Health
(1990–1992, 1993–1998 and 2003–2005) and spent three months as Minister of Defence
(May–October 1998) under six different Prime Ministers. In addition, he was his party's candidate in the 2009–2010 Croatian presidential election, eventually finishing third behind Ivo Josipović
and Milan Bandić
, winning 12 percent of the vote in the first round.
, Yugoslavia
(now Serbia
), to Andrija Hebrang
, a prominent Croatian-Yugoslav politician and Olga Strauss, who came from a well-to-do Pakrac
Jewish family. Her parents saw to her education, and she learned to play piano, and to speak French and German. Hebrang father joined the Communist party and fought for the Partisans in World War II
, becoming a close friend and adviser to Marshall Josip Broz Tito
, eventually becoming a high ranking government member. However, in the late 1940s he fell out of favor with senior Party members, was arrested for treason by the Yugoslav government, and subsequently disappeared. The date of his death and the circumstances are unknown, though it is presumed he died ca. 1949 in a Belgrade prison; the circumstances remain unclear and his body was never recovered. Ustashe
killed 16 members of Hebrang family during the Holocaust
and another 10 members of his family have been killed by communist regime of newly founded SFR Yugoslavia
.
Young Andrija, along with his mother and siblings were put under house arrest in 1948. His mother Olga was imprisoned for twelve years and the children were sent to live with their aunt Ilona in Zagreb
. They lived very poorly, as Ilona's husband was sent to the prison camp at Goli Otok
for several years and she was made to raise the three young children alone. Andrija saw his mother again when he was eleven and she was released from prison in 1960. The family was forced to change their surname to "Markovac" in order for Olga to find employment, though Andrija never accepted his new surname.
After finishing gymnasium, Hebrang enrolled at the School of Medicine, University of Zagreb
where he received his doctorate specializing in radiology and oncology, and began teaching at the university as a professor in 1985. He is married to Danijela Vrhovski-Hebrang, a doctor of medical biochemistry at the University of Zagreb, and they have three children.
he served as a coordinator of the armed forces
from 1993-1994. He was first elected to the Croatian parliament in 1993 and again in 1995.
After the death of the Minister of Defense Gojko Šušak
in 1998, he temporarily took over the position for four months. Afterwards, he pulled himself out of political life. He returned in 2001 as a member of the Croatian True Revival party led by Miroslav Tuđman
, but after talks with the new head of the HDZ Ivo Sanader
, he returned to the Croatian Democratic Union. After the HDZ's victory in the Croatian parliamentary elections of 2003
, he joined Sanader's government as one of the two vice-presidents and the Minister of Health and Social Welfare from 2003-2005. Due to health reasons, he gave up his positions in government and returned to being a member of the parliament.
In April 2010 Hebrang announced his decision to retire from politics, motivated chiefly by disappointment over his poor showing in the presidential election.
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
n physician and politician. A member of the Croatian Democratic Union
Croatian Democratic Union
The Croatian Democratic Union is the main center-right political party in Croatia. It is the biggest and strongest individual Croatian party since independence of Croatia. The Christian democratic HDZ governed Croatia from 1990 to 2000 and, in partial coalition, from 2003...
(HDZ), he is currently member of the Croatian Parliament. A physician by vocation, Hebrang had served three terms as Croatia's Minister of Health
Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (Croatia)
The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare of the Republic of Croatia is the ministry in the Government of Croatia which is in charge of health care and welfare.-List of ministers:...
(1990–1992, 1993–1998 and 2003–2005) and spent three months as Minister of Defence
Ministry of Defence (Croatia)
The Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Croatia is the ministry in the Government of Croatia which is in charge of the nation's military. The ministry was established in 1990.-Ministers:-References:...
(May–October 1998) under six different Prime Ministers. In addition, he was his party's candidate in the 2009–2010 Croatian presidential election, eventually finishing third behind Ivo Josipović
Ivo Josipović
Ivo Josipović is a Croatian politician who has been President of Croatia since 2010. Josipović entered politics as a member of the League of Communists of Croatia , and played a key role in the democratic transformation of this party as the author of the first statute of the SDP that replaced the...
and Milan Bandić
Milan Bandic
Milan Bandić is an influential Croatian politician currently serving his fourth term as mayor of Croatia's capital, Zagreb. Between 2000 and 2009, he was a prominent member of the Social Democratic Party of Croatia . In 2007, he unsuccessfully ran for party president. However, he remained one of...
, winning 12 percent of the vote in the first round.
Early life
Andrija Hebrang was born in BelgradeBelgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
, Yugoslavia
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...
(now Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
), to Andrija Hebrang
Andrija Hebrang (father)
Andrija Hebrang was a Croatian and Yugoslav Stalinist politician.-Early life:Andrija Hebrang was born in the village of Bačevac to father Andrija Hebrang and mother Cela Strasser. During World War I, he was stationed for a time in Osijek, Zagreb, and finally the battlefields in Gorizia, Italy...
, a prominent Croatian-Yugoslav politician and Olga Strauss, who came from a well-to-do Pakrac
Pakrac
Pakrac is a town in western Slavonia, Croatia, population 4,852, total municipality population 8,482 . Pakrac is located on the road and railroad connecting the regions of Posavina and Podravina.-Name:...
Jewish family. Her parents saw to her education, and she learned to play piano, and to speak French and German. Hebrang father joined the Communist party and fought for the Partisans in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, becoming a close friend and adviser to Marshall Josip Broz Tito
Josip Broz Tito
Marshal Josip Broz Tito – 4 May 1980) was a Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman. While his presidency has been criticized as authoritarian, Tito was a popular public figure both in Yugoslavia and abroad, viewed as a unifying symbol for the nations of the Yugoslav federation...
, eventually becoming a high ranking government member. However, in the late 1940s he fell out of favor with senior Party members, was arrested for treason by the Yugoslav government, and subsequently disappeared. The date of his death and the circumstances are unknown, though it is presumed he died ca. 1949 in a Belgrade prison; the circumstances remain unclear and his body was never recovered. Ustashe
Ustaše
The Ustaša - Croatian Revolutionary Movement was a Croatian fascist anti-Yugoslav separatist movement. The ideology of the movement was a blend of fascism, Nazism, and Croatian nationalism. The Ustaše supported the creation of a Greater Croatia that would span to the River Drina and to the border...
killed 16 members of Hebrang family during the Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
and another 10 members of his family have been killed by communist regime of newly founded SFR Yugoslavia
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...
.
Young Andrija, along with his mother and siblings were put under house arrest in 1948. His mother Olga was imprisoned for twelve years and the children were sent to live with their aunt Ilona in Zagreb
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
. They lived very poorly, as Ilona's husband was sent to the prison camp at Goli Otok
Goli otok
Goli otok is an island off the northern Adriatic coast, located between Rab's northeastern shore and the mainland, in what is today Croatia's Primorje-Gorski Kotar county. The island is barren and uninhabited...
for several years and she was made to raise the three young children alone. Andrija saw his mother again when he was eleven and she was released from prison in 1960. The family was forced to change their surname to "Markovac" in order for Olga to find employment, though Andrija never accepted his new surname.
After finishing gymnasium, Hebrang enrolled at the School of Medicine, University of Zagreb
School of Medicine, University of Zagreb
The School of Medicine in Zagreb is a Croatian medical school affiliated with the University of Zagreb. It is the oldest and biggest of the four medical schools in Croatia , having been established in 1917 and with 1,775 students enrolled as of 2008.-History:The School of Medicine in Zagreb was...
where he received his doctorate specializing in radiology and oncology, and began teaching at the university as a professor in 1985. He is married to Danijela Vrhovski-Hebrang, a doctor of medical biochemistry at the University of Zagreb, and they have three children.
Political career
In 1990, he became a member of the newly formed Croatian Democratic Union. He became the Minister of Health from 1990–1992 and again from 1993-1998. During the Croatian War of IndependenceCroatian War of Independence
The Croatian War of Independence was fought from 1991 to 1995 between forces loyal to the government of Croatia—which had declared independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia —and the Serb-controlled Yugoslav People's Army and local Serb forces, with the JNA ending its combat...
he served as a coordinator of the armed forces
Armed forces
The armed forces of a country are its government-sponsored defense, fighting forces, and organizations. They exist to further the foreign and domestic policies of their governing body, and to defend that body and the nation it represents from external aggressors. In some countries paramilitary...
from 1993-1994. He was first elected to the Croatian parliament in 1993 and again in 1995.
After the death of the Minister of Defense Gojko Šušak
Gojko Šušak
Gojko Šušak was the Croatian Minister of Defence from 1991 to 1998. A Bosnian Croat emigreé to Canada, he entered the political life of Croat diaspora in North America, subsequently becoming a close friend and associate to Franjo Tuđman, the leader of the Croatian Democratic Union, a nationalistic...
in 1998, he temporarily took over the position for four months. Afterwards, he pulled himself out of political life. He returned in 2001 as a member of the Croatian True Revival party led by Miroslav Tuđman
Miroslav Tuđman
Miroslav Tuđman is a Croatian scientist and politician, the son of first president Franjo Tuđman.Tuđman was born in Belgrade where he completed grade school, before he moved with his family to Zagreb in 1961.He was born on his parents 1st anniversary...
, but after talks with the new head of the HDZ Ivo Sanader
Ivo Sanader
Ivo Sanader |Split]]) is a Croatian politician who served as the Prime Minister of Croatia from 2003 to 2009.Sanader obtained his education in comparative literature in Austria, where he also later worked in the 1980s. He worked as a journalist, in marketing, publishing and also as a private...
, he returned to the Croatian Democratic Union. After the HDZ's victory in the Croatian parliamentary elections of 2003
Croatian parliamentary election, 2003
-External links:*...
, he joined Sanader's government as one of the two vice-presidents and the Minister of Health and Social Welfare from 2003-2005. Due to health reasons, he gave up his positions in government and returned to being a member of the parliament.
Presidential run
In July 2009, he was chosen by the HDZ to be their candidate for the 2009–2010 presidential election. He competed in the first round with eleven other candidates and won the third place with 12.04% of the vote.In April 2010 Hebrang announced his decision to retire from politics, motivated chiefly by disappointment over his poor showing in the presidential election.
External links
- Croatian Parliament's profile of Hebrang
- Profile at HDZ page
- Profile at the Ruđer Bošković Institute