Peter Kozler
Encyclopedia
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...
, geographer
Geographer
A geographer is a scholar whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society.Although geographers are historically known as people who make maps, map making is actually the field of study of cartography, a subset of geography...
, cartographer, activist and manufacturer. He was of an ethnic German
Ethnic German
Ethnic Germans historically also ), also collectively referred to as the German diaspora, refers to people who are of German ethnicity. Many are not born in Europe or in the modern-day state of Germany or hold German citizenship...
origin, but identified himself with Slovenian culture
Culture of Slovenia
Slovenia's first book was printed by the Protestant reformer Primož Trubar . It was actually two books, Katekizem and Abecednik, which was published in 1550 in Tübingen, Germany....
and advocated a peaceful co-existence of the Slovene and German cultures in 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...
.
Kozler was born in Koče, a village south of Kočevje
Kocevje
Kočevje is a city and a municipality in southern Slovenia. In terms of area it is the largest municipality in Slovenia. It is located between the rivers Krka and Kolpa and is part of the traditional region of Lower Carniola. It is now included in the Jugovzhodna Slovenija statistical region...
in Gottschee County
Gottschee County
Gottschee County refers to the former German speaking region in the Duchy of Carniola , a crownland of the Habsburg Empire, located in modern day Slovenia...
, in what was then the 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...
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 ...
, and is now Slovenia
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
. He is probably most famous for creating the first map of Slovene Lands
Slovene Lands
Slovene Lands or Slovenian Lands is the historical denomination for the whole of the Slovene-inhabited territories in Central Europe. It more or less corresponds to modern Slovenia and the adjacent territories in Italy, Austria and Hungary in which autochthonous Slovene minorities live.-...
, called Zemljovid Slovenske dežele in pokrajin ("A map of the Slovene Land and Regions") in a scale 1:576000. The map was made during the Spring of Nations in 1848, but published only in 1854 in an almanac
Almanac
An almanac is an annual publication that includes information such as weather forecasts, farmers' planting dates, and tide tables, containing tabular information in a particular field or fields often arranged according to the calendar etc...
called Kratki slovenski zemljopis ("Short Slovenian Geography"), which is regarded as the first geography atlas using exclusively Slovenian toponyms. In the map, which became famous as "Kozler's Map", a red line was drawn, showing the national border of Slovenes. It was soon confiscated by the 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...
military authorities and made available to the public only in 1861. Kozler was also shortly imprisoned by the Austrian authorities for this reason.
Born in a relatively well-to-do family, Kozler made a fortune with beer manufacturing and was the founder of the UNION Brewery
Union Brewery
Union Brewery is a historic building in Iowa City, Iowa. It was built in 1856 and added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 10, 1986....
. He gave large amounts of money to support Slovenian cultural associations and institutions. He was close to the conservative Old Slovene political movement.
Kozler died in 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...
.
Other
Kozler bought a mansion just outside the centerCenter (Ljubljana)
The Center District or simply Center is a city district in the center of Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. It has an area of about . Its major thoroughfares are Slovenian Street , Čop Street , Cankar Street , Wolf Street , Trubar Street , and Miklošič Street , and the major squares are Congress...
of Ljubljana (at the beginning of Šiška
Šiška
The Šiška District or simply Šiška is the most populous of the city districts of Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. Several cultural monuments are located in Šiška, among them St. Bartholomew's Church, built in the 13th century and remodeled between 1933 and 1936 by the Slovene architect Jože...
district), known as the Cekinov grad, and renovated in it in a neoclassical style. Today, the mansion is the National Museum of Contemporary History
National Museum of Contemporary History
National Museum of Contemporary History is in a museum in Ljubljana, Slovenia. It is located in a mansion on the edge of Tivoli Park in the district of Šiška, traditionally known as the Cekin Mansion ....
.
The Kozlers also owned a palace in the center of Ljubljana, close to the Congress Square
Congress Square
Congress Square is one of the central squares in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia.The square was built in 1821 at the site of the ruins of a medieval Capuchin monastery, which had been abolished during the reign of Habsburg Emperor Joseph II. The square was used for ceremonial purposes during...
and Čop Street
Cop Street
Čop Street is a major thoroughfare in the center of Ljubljana, Slovenia. The street leads from the Main Post Office on Slovenian Street to Prešeren Square and is lined with bars and stores, including the oldest McDonald's restaurant in Slovenia...
, which was regarded as one of the finest baroque buildings in the city. The palace was torn down by the Communist authorities in the late 1960s in order to widen the nearby street, which caused a public outcry and marked a milestone in the development of postwar urban development in Ljubljana. According an RTV interview with art historian Damjan Prelovšek (16 October 2006), trees now grow at the site of the former building, demonstrating that its demolition was a political decision and unnecessary in order to widen the street.
Kozler also owned a plot of land in the Ljubljana Marshes, known as Kozler's Thicket. During 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...
, the plot was used as a mass grave for victims of the Slovenian Home Guard torturer and killer Franc Frakelj
Franc Frakelj
Franc Frakelj was a member of the collaborationist Slovenian Home Guard and a member of a secret murderous militia called Črna roka who killed over 60 people during the Second World War...
.
In 1999, a Slovenian postal stamp was dedicated to Kozler.