Karel Lavrič
Encyclopedia
Karel Lavrič, also spelled Laurič or Lauritsch (1 November 1818 - 3 March 1876), was a Slovene liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...

 politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

 and lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...

 from the Slovenian Littoral
Slovenian Littoral
The Slovenian Littoral is a historical region of Slovenia. Its name recalls the historical Habsburg crown land of the Austrian Littoral, of which the Slovenian Littoral was a part....

, and one of the most prominent activists of the Young Slovene movement. Together with the conservative Lovro Toman
Lovro Toman
Lovro Toman was a Slovene politician and author. Together with Janez Bleiweis and Etbin Henrik Costa, he was part of the leadership of the national conservative Old Slovene party....

, he was considered among the most popular Slovene politicians of the 19th century. He was also called the 'tribune
Tribune
Tribune was a title shared by elected officials in the Roman Republic. Tribunes had the power to convene the Plebeian Council and to act as its president, which also gave them the right to propose legislation before it. They were sacrosanct, in the sense that any assault on their person was...

 of Goriška
Goriška
Goriška is a traditional region in western Slovenia on the border with Italy. The name means "the Gorizia region" because it is named after Gorizia, Italy. It is part of the wider traditional region of the Slovenian Littoral . Its principal urban center is Nova Gorica...

'.

Early life

He was born as Karel Edvard Lavrič in a upper middle class family in the Inner Carniolan town of Prem
Prem, Slovenia
Prem is a village above the left bank of the river Reka to the northwest of Ilirska Bistrica in the Inner Carniola region of Slovenia.The Parish Church in the settlement is dedicated to Saint Helena and belongs to the Koper Diocese....

 (now part of the municipality of Ilirska Bistrica
Ilirska Bistrica
Ilirska Bistrica is a town and a municipality in Slovenia. It belongs to the traditional region of Primorska.The town of Ilirska Bistrica is the major economic centre of the district of the same name...

), where his father worked as an Austrian
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire, which was centered on what is today's Austria and which officially lasted from 1804 to 1867. It was followed by the Empire of Austria-Hungary, whose proclamation was a diplomatic move that elevated Hungary's status within the Austrian Empire...

 district judge. He attended elementary school in Postojna
Postojna
Postojna is a town and a municipality in the traditional region of Inner Carniola, from Trieste, in southwestern Slovenia. Population 14,581 .-History:...

. In 1827, after his father's death, the family moved to Ljubljana
Ljubljana
Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants...

, where Karel attended the classical lyceum. In 1835, they moved to Graz
Graz
The more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students...

. There, he joined the circle of young Slovene intellectuals, organized by Davorin Trstenjak
Davorin Trstenjak
Davorin Trstenjak , was a Slovene writer, historian and Roman Catholic priest.He was born in the village of Kraljevci near Sveti Jurij ob Ščavnici, in what was then the Austrian Duchy of Styria...

 and Stanko Vraz
Stanko Vraz
Stanko Vraz was a Croatian-Slovenian poet. He Slavicized his name to Stanko Vraz in 1836.-Biography:...

. Between 1839 and 1843, he studied law at the University of Graz
University of Graz
The University of Graz , a university located in Graz, Austria, is the second-largest and second-oldest university in Austria....

. He continued his studies at the University of Padua
University of Padua
The University of Padua is a premier Italian university located in the city of Padua, Italy. The University of Padua was founded in 1222 as a school of law and was one of the most prominent universities in early modern Europe. It is among the earliest universities of the world and the second...

. Between 1845 and 1848, he travelled extensively around Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

, settling in Trieste
Trieste
Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...

 shortly before the outbreak of the 1848 revolution.

He rose to public prominence in late April 1848, when he published the article in the Laibacher Zeitung
Laibacher Zeitung
Laibacher Zeitung was the largest and most influential newspaper in Ljubljana in the 18th and 19th century. It was written in German and published daily from 1778 till 1918. In its first period, it was published with a supplement Intelligenzblatt aimed at spreading knowledge among the general public...

, the influential German language
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

 newspaper from Ljubljana, supporting the maintenance of Styria and the Kingdom of Illyria
Kingdom of Illyria
The Kingdom of Illyria was an administrative unit of the Austrian Empire from 1816 to 1849. Its administrative centre was Ljubljana and it included the western and central part of present-day Slovenia, the present Austrian state of Carinthia, as well as some territories in north-western Croatia ...

, where the vast majority of Slovenes lived, in the German Confederation
German Confederation
The German Confederation was the loose association of Central European states created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 to coordinate the economies of separate German-speaking countries. It acted as a buffer between the powerful states of Austria and Prussia...

, and the participation of Slovenes in the elections for the Frankfurt Parliament
Frankfurt Parliament
The Frankfurt Assembly was the first freely elected parliament for all of Germany. Session was held from May 18, 1848 to May 31, 1849 in the Paulskirche at Frankfurt am Main...

. These positions were close to the ideas of Carniolian pro-German liberals such as Anastasius Grün, but were at odds with the project of an autonomous United Slovenia
United Slovenia
United Slovenia is the name of an unrealized political programme of the Slovene national movement, formulated during the Spring of Nations in 1848...

 within the Austrian Empire
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire, which was centered on what is today's Austria and which officially lasted from 1804 to 1867. It was followed by the Empire of Austria-Hungary, whose proclamation was a diplomatic move that elevated Hungary's status within the Austrian Empire...

, supported by most Slovenian liberal nationalists.

At the end of 1848, Lavrič settled in the small town of Sežana
Sežana
Sežana is a town and a municipality in the Slovenian Littoral region of Slovenia, near the border with Italy. According to the census of 2008, it has a population of 12,470, of which around 5,332 live in the town of Sežana and the rest in the neighbouring rural areas.Sežana is located about on the...

 near Trieste, where he worked in the Austrian public administration. During this period, he engaged in several successful projects for the improvement of the position of the economically backward Kras
Kras
Karst ; also known as the Karst Plateau, is a limestone borderline plateau region extending in southwestern Slovenia and northeastern Italy. It lies between the Vipava Valley, the low hills surrounding the valley, the westernmost part of the Brkini Hills, northern Istria, and the Gulf of Trieste...

 region, including a vast afforestation
Afforestation
Afforestation is the establishment of a forest or stand of trees in an area where there was no forest. Reforestation is the reestablishment of forest cover, either naturally or artificially...

 program. In 1852, he moved to Tolmin
Tolmin
Tolmin is a small town and municipality in the Littoral region of Slovenia.-Geography:Tolmin, the old town that gave the name to the entire area , is the largest settlement in the Upper Soča Valley , as well as its economic, cultural and administrative centre. It is located on a terrace above the...

, where he opened a successful law firm. He was active in the cultural life of the local German speaking élite. In Tolmin, he converted to Lutheranism
Lutheranism
Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the theology of Martin Luther, a German reformer. Luther's efforts to reform the theology and practice of the church launched the Protestant Reformation...

 to please his fiancé Marie Schimpf, daughter of a wealthy German merchant from Trieste. Her rejection pushed Lavrič to a state of deep depression, which culminated with an attempted suicide in early 1860.

Rise to public prominence

After the introduction of the constitution in the Austrian Empire in 1861, Lavrič became politically active again. He soon rose among the leaders of the Slovene national movement in the County of Gorizia and Gradisca. In 1863, he moved to the town of Ajdovščina
Ajdovšcina
Ajdovščina is a small town and a municipality with the same name and a population of 7000 , located in the Vipava Valley , Slovenia....

 in the Vipava Valley
Vipava Valley
The Vipava Valley is a valley located in the Slovenian Littoral, between the towns of Nova Gorica and Vipava.-Geography:It is a narrow valley, serving as the main passage between Friulian lowland and central Slovenia, and thus also an important corridor connecting Northern Italy to Central Europe...

 and in 1869 to Gorizia
Gorizia
Gorizia is a town and comune in northeastern Italy, in the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia. It is located at the foot of the Julian Alps, bordering Slovenia. It is the capital of the Province of Gorizia, and it is a local center of tourism, industry, and commerce. Since 1947, a twin...

, the provincial capital. A broadly educated intellectual, he became one of the main theoreticians of the so-called Young Slovenes
Young Slovenes
Young Slovenes were a Slovene national liberal political movement in the 1860s and 1870s, inspired and named after the Young Czechs in Bohemia and Moravia. They were opposed to the national conservative Old Slovenes. They entered in a crisis in the 1880s, and disappeared from political life by the...

, the liberal wing of the Slovene national movement. Influenced by the theories of Sismondi, Bluntschli and Karl von Rotteck
Karl von Rotteck
Karl von Rotteck was a German historian, and a prominent advocate of freedom of the press.-Biography:...

, he believed in the need of connecting economic reformism with liberal political institutions in a decentralized state. A powerful orator, he travelled around the region to promote his liberal values of constitutionalism
Constitutionalism
Constitutionalism has a variety of meanings. Most generally, it is "a complex of ideas, attitudes, and patterns of behavior elaborating the principle that the authority of government derives from and is limited by a body of fundamental law"....

, economic improvement, and ethnic and linguistic equality.

Lavrič was among the first Slovene politicians who endorsed the idea of mass public mobilizations of the peasantry in support of the idea of national emancipation. Following the example of Daniel O'Connell
Daniel O'Connell
Daniel O'Connell Daniel O'Connell Daniel O'Connell (6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847; often referred to as The Liberator, or The Emancipator, was an Irish political leader in the first half of the 19th century...

's monster meetings, Lavrič helped organizing mass public rallies in support of the program of United Slovenia
United Slovenia
United Slovenia is the name of an unrealized political programme of the Slovene national movement, formulated during the Spring of Nations in 1848...

. These rallies, known as Tabori, which took place between 1868 and 1871, proved extremely successful. Lavrič was personally involved in the organization in 8 of the 18 rallies. Among those, the most successful were the rallies in Šempas
Šempas
Šempas is a village in the Vipava Valley in the municipality of Nova Gorica in western Slovenia.The Parish Church in the settlement is dedicated to Saint Sylvester and belongs to the Diocese of Koper.-External links:*...

 near Gorizia in October 1868, attended by around 14,000 people, in Vipava
Vipava, Slovenia
Vipava is a small town in western Slovenia with 1500 inhabitants. It is the center of a municipality with 5,185 people. Vipava is built near the numerous sources of the Vipava River, in the upper Vipava Valley, 102 m above sea level...

 in August 1870 (12,000 people), and in Kastav
Kastav
Kastav is a historical town located about 10 km northwest of Rijeka and about 5 km northeast of Opatija in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County in Croatia.-Demographics:The total population of Kastav is 10,472 ....

 in Istria
Istria
Istria , formerly Histria , is the largest peninsula in the Adriatic Sea. The peninsula is located at the head of the Adriatic between the Gulf of Trieste and the Bay of Kvarner...

 in May 1871 (10,000 people).

In 1870, Lavrič was elected to the Provincial diet
Landtag
A Landtag is a representative assembly or parliament in German-speaking countries with some legislative authority.- Name :...

 of Gorizia and Gradisca
Gorizia and Gradisca
The County of Gorizia and Gradisca was a Habsburg county in Central Europe, in what is now a multilingual border area of Italy and Slovenia. It was named for its two major urban centers, Gorizia and Gradisca d'Isonzo.-Province of the Habsburg Empire:...

.

Last years

In the early 1870s, the split between the liberal Young Slovenes and conservatives Old Slovenes
Old Slovenes
Old Slovenes is the term used for a national conservative political group in the Slovene Lands from the 1850s to the 1870s, which was opposed to the radical national liberal Young Slovenes...

 became more acute. The two camps established their own political organizations in the County of Gorizia and Gradisca, and Lavrič became the leader of the local Young Slovene faction. His conservative opponents launched many attacks against his personality, ridiculing his idealism and exploiting his Protestant faith in an overwhelmingly and devoutly Roman Catholic constituency. The split reached its climax in 1873, when the local Slovene nationalists failed to gain a seat in the Austrian Parliament due to their internal divisions. The two Slovene factions in Gorizia and Gradisca reached an agreement in 1875, differently from the neighbouring Slovene region of Carniola
Carniola
Carniola was a historical region that comprised parts of what is now Slovenia. As part of Austria-Hungary, the region was a crown land officially known as the Duchy of Carniola until 1918. In 1849, the region was subdivided into Upper Carniola, Lower Carniola, and Inner Carniola...

, where the fight between the two continued, evolving in a two-party system.

Despite the disappointment over the relations within Slovene nationalism, Lavrič continued his public activities, focusing on the fight for the equality of the Slovene language in public administration and education. His staunch liberalism and universalism
Universalism
Universalism in its primary meaning refers to religious, theological, and philosophical concepts with universal application or applicability...

 gained him the respect of the Italian politicians in the region; one of their most radical leaders, Carlo Favetti
Carlo Favetti
Carlo Favetti was an Italian politician and lawyer from Gorizia, who also wrote poetry in the Friulian language. He was the founder and leader of Italian irredentism in Gorizia and Gradisca....

, publicly praised Lavrič's patriotism and personal integrity, referring to him as the "Slovenian Garibaldi".

Since the early 1870s, Lavrič suffered from frequent depressions. In 1871 and again in 1876, he spent several months in a sanatorium
Sanatorium
A sanatorium is a medical facility for long-term illness, most typically associated with treatment of tuberculosis before antibiotics...

 on the Adriatic coast. In spring of 1876, upon returning from one of these retreats, he committed suicide in his home in Gorizia
Gorizia
Gorizia is a town and comune in northeastern Italy, in the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia. It is located at the foot of the Julian Alps, bordering Slovenia. It is the capital of the Province of Gorizia, and it is a local center of tourism, industry, and commerce. Since 1947, a twin...

. He was buried in the local cemetery.

Sources


Further reading

  • Branko Marušič
    Branko Marušič
    Branko Marušič is a Slovenian historian.Born to an upper middle class Slovene family in Gorizia, Italy, he moved with the family to the Yugoslav side of the Yugoslav-Italian border in 1947, and has been living in Solkan since...

    , Pregled politične zgodovine Slovencev na Goriškem, 1848-1899 (Nova Gorica: Goriški muzej, 2005).

External links

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