Ivan Mažuranić

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Ivan Mažuranić (Frontispiece to
Cengic Aga's death , Agram 1876)
Mažuranić's monument in Zrinjevac Park, Zagreb

Ivan Mažuranić [ ˈiʋan maˈʒuranitɕ ] (born August 11, 1814 in Novi Vinodolski , † August 4, 1890 in Zagreb ) was a writer and politician. He is one of the most important personalities of the Croatian national movement in the 19th century.

Youth and education

Mažuranić came from a farming family based on the Croatian coast . After attending the German-language primary school in his native Novi Vinodolski, he continued his education at the Rijeka grammar school from 1828, before moving to the Lyceum in Zagreb in 1833, where he came into contact with Ljudevit Gaj and his ideas of Illyrism and was inspired by it . The encounter with Gaj shaped Mažuranić's further life decisively. Both as a man of letters and as a politician, he later devoted himself entirely to the national Croatian and South Slav cause. Since his first stay in Zagreb, Mažuranić corresponded with his family only in Croatian, while he had previously written in German.

Mažuranić received a scholarship from the Hungarian state in 1834 and attended the lyceum in Steinamanger in the school year 1834/35 . At that time he published his first poems in Danica Ilirska , the first Croatian literary magazine published by Gaj since 1835. In 1835 Mažuranić began studying law at the Zagreb Academy; after graduation in 1838 he worked for a short time in a law firm, but afterwards worked as a teacher at the grammar school in the Croatian capital.

Literary and political activity

In 1840 Mažuranić opened his own law firm in Karlovac . In 1841 he received his doctorate from the legal faculty in Pest and shortly afterwards married Aleksandra, the sister of the poet Dimitrije Demeter . In the same year Mažuranić gave up his office again and took over the post of poor curator in Karlovac, which he held until 1849. In 1842 he published a German-Croatian dictionary together with Jakov Užarević, and in 1844 his supplement (14th and 15th song) to the famous epic Osman by Ivan Gundulić was published .

With his writing Hervati Magjarom ( Eng . "The Croats to the Magyars") Ivan Mažuranić spoke up politically in the spring of the revolutionary year 1848. In it he formulated the political line of the nationally minded Croatians: linguistic and cultural equality as a condition for remaining in the Hungarian state association, preservation and expansion of the autonomy of Croatia-Slavonia. Mažuranić was elected to the Croatian state parliament, where he formulated the most important draft resolutions that were to redefine the position of Croatia within the Habsburg monarchy from the Croatian point of view. In June 1848 he was appointed to the newly founded Banal Council by Ban Josip Jelačić . As Deputy Prosecutor General in Croatia-Slavonia since 1850 and as Prosecutor General in the country since 1854, Mažuranić was instrumental in the modernization of the Croatian judiciary. From 1858 to 1872 he was president of the Matica Ilirska cultural society .

In 1860 Mažuranić was appointed to the newly created Croatian-Slavonian Dicastery in Vienna. This authority, which was upgraded to court chancellery in the following year , emerged in the course of the new imperial policy, which began with the October diploma of 1860 and replaced the failed centralistic neo-absolutism . Ivan Mažuranić became Croatian-Slavonian court chancellor and was a member of the parliament elected in 1861. He was one of the Croatian politicians who wanted to achieve a high degree of autonomy for their home country through close cooperation with the Vienna government and participation in the Reinforced Imperial Council and who refused to be reintegrated into the Hungarian state association. Together with Juraj Haulik and Ivan Kukuljević-Sakcinski , Mažuranić was one of the leaders of the Independent National Party (Croatian Samostalna Narodna Stranka ) founded in 1863 . But his party lost the elections in 1865, while those in favor of Croatia's leaning against Hungary won. Therefore Mažuranić resigned as court chancellor.

In 1867 Mažuranić returned to political life. He was part of the delegation that negotiated the Hungarian-Croatian settlement in Budapest . Elected President of the Sabor in 1872, Franz Joseph I appointed him a year later on the proposal of the Hungarian government to the Ban of Croatia and Slavonia . He was the first and only non-noble person to be appointed to this office. As head of government, Mažuranić tried to achieve the greatest possible autonomy for his country within the framework of the compromise. He successfully implemented reforms in the administration and in the school system. Croatian was established as the sole official language during his tenure. As a ban, Mažuranić enjoyed the trust of the Hungarian government as well as the Viennese court because he opposed the extreme nationalist opposition surrounding the right-wing party . In 1880 Mažuranić resigned from his post in connection with disagreements over the dissolution of the military border. This marked the end of his political career, although he was re-elected to the Sabor in 1886. Until his death in 1890 Mažuranić devoted himself only to his literary activities.

progeny

Ivan Mažuranić's son Vladimir was a lawyer and legal historian, he wrote the first biography of his father. His daughter Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić , the granddaughter of the ban, was an important writer and children's book author.

Works

  • Njemačko-ilirski slovar (German-Illyrian dictionary, 1842).
  • Smrt Smail-age Čengića (The death of Smail Aga Čengić, epic 1846), German including: Cengic Aga's death. from Croatia. transfer by Wilhelm Kienberger. Zagreb 1876.
  • Hervati Magjarom (The Croats to the Magyars, 1848).
  • Ivan Mažuranić: Sabrana djela. 4 vols., Ed. v. Ivo Frangeš i Milorad Živančević. Zagreb 1979. (Complete work edition)
  • Izabrani politički spisi. (Selected Political Writings), ed. v. Dragutin Pavličević . Zagreb 1999.
Numerous poems and prose texts in various magazines and anthologies, later reissued in various collections, e.g. B .:
  • Pjesme (poems), ed. v. Vladimir Mažuranić. Zagreb 1895.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ croat. Bansko vijeće , practically the government of Croatia during the revolution
personal data
SURNAME Mažuranić, Ivan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Croatian writer and politician
DATE OF BIRTH August 11, 1814
PLACE OF BIRTH Novi Vinodolski
DATE OF DEATH 4th August 1890
Place of death Zagreb