Karađorđe

Đorđe Petrović - Karađorđe. Vladimir Borowikowski 1816.

Coat of arms of Đorđe Petrović - Karađorđe

Djordje Petrovic ( Serbian - Cyrillic Ђорђе Петровић ; to * 1762 in Viševac , Raca , † 26. July 1817 in Radovanje , Velika Plana ), called Карађорђе / Karađorđe ( transcribed Karadjordje = "Black George"), was elected leader of the First Serbian Uprising against the Ottoman Empire from 1804 to 1813 and founder of the Karađorđević dynasty . In German sources he is also called Georg Petrowitsch Czerny out of date.

Life

The ancestors of the Petrović come from what is now Montenegro . Đorđe Petrović was probably born around 1762 in Viševac in Šumadija . In 1785 he married Jelena Jovanović, with whom he fled a year later to Syrmia in what is now Vojvodina . There he volunteered in the then famous Freikorps Mihaljević , which fought for the House of Habsburg in the Russian-Austrian Turkish War from 1787 to 1792, and gained his first military experience. Đorđe Petrović was a first class knight of the Order of St. Anne.

The rise to Heidukenführer

After the Peace of Sistowa he returned to central Serbia and joined the Heiduken of Laza Dobrić and Stanoje Glavaš . Soon Petrović himself became a Heiduken leader, the so-called Harambaša , and gathered around 100 men. Hacı Mustafa Pascha , who was appointed vizier of the Paschaliks Belgrade , took a tolerant attitude towards the Serbs and amnestied several Heiduken groups, including those of the Karađorđe, and distributed weapons among them. Then Petrović and his men fought for Hacı Mustafa Pascha against the unauthorized Osman Pazvantoğlu , supported by the Janissaries stationed in central Serbia . In these battles from 1796 to 1798 Petrović distinguished himself particularly from. At that time he was probably also nicknamed Karađorđe . Although Pazvantoğlu was defeated, the Pasha of Belgrade, Hacı Mustafa Pasha, was murdered by the Janissaries in 1802. The Janissaries then established an unauthorized reign of terror in central Serbia, the so-called rule of the Dahije . This caused the Serbs to revolt in 1803.

The first Serbian uprising

When most of the Serbian leaders and elders around the Knezen of Valjevo Aleksa Nenadović were betrayed and captured and murdered by the Janissaries, the Serbs gathered on February 14, 1804 (February 2 according to the Julian calendar) in the wooded area of Orašac and called the First Serbian uprising . Karađorđe was elected leader. The rebels achieved several victories in the next few years: Karađorđe led the Serbian resistance army near Šabac near the village of Mišar to one of the first victories against the Ottoman army, after which he conquered Belgrade and put an end to Janissary rule.

After their victory, the rebels received an order from the Sultan of Constantinople to lay down their arms and submit to the new pasha of Belgrade. But they refused and fought directly against the Ottoman Empire from then on. Although the Ottoman army detachments, which were supposed to put down the uprising, were up to ten times as powerful in some cases, they did not succeed in defeating the rebels. Rather, the rebels brought under their control an area from Belgrade in the north to Kosovska Mitrovica in the south. They were supported by Russia .

In 1807 the rebels set up their own government. Its highest authority was the great Serbian People's Council, the Sovjet praviteljstvujušči serbski , with Karađorđe as president. In 1808 he was given the honorary title Vožd , which means leader or military leader (similar to Vojwode ).

The Second Serbian Uprising

Napoleon's war against Russia began in 1812 , and the Ottomans used this opportunity for a new major offensive against the rebellious Serbs. The Ottomans recaptured Serbia by 1813, Karađorđe fled to Austria in October 1813, which meant the end of the First Serbian Uprising. One of the subordinate leaders, Miloš Obrenović , first surrendered to the Ottomans, but then fell back and organized the Second Serbian Uprising in 1815 .

Extradition and death

Karađorđe's tomb in Topola

In 1817, the Serbs in northern central Serbia were granted autonomy, which led to the establishment of the Principality of Serbia and in 1878 to the country's independence. Karađorđe, who had meanwhile emigrated to Moldova , established contacts with Greeks who were also preparing an uprising (see Greek Revolution ). Karađorđe returned to Serbia in 1817 to take the lead again and prepare a new uprising. In order to signal his loyalty to the Ottoman Sultan and not to risk what he had achieved, Miloš Obrenović left Karađorđe on the night between July 13th / 26th. July and July 14th / 27th Kill July 1817. He sent the severed head to the Porte in Constantinople as evidence of his death.

Little things worth knowing

• There is a mineral water brand in Serbia that bears his name: Mineralna Voda Karađorđeva .
• There is a karađorđe schnitzel : Karađorđeva šnicla
• The stadium in Novi Sad has been called the Karađorđe stadium again since 2007, as it was until 1994 .
• The stadium in Zrenjanin is called Stadion Karađorđev park

literature

• Constantin von Wurzbach : Kara Djiordje . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 10th part. Imperial-Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1863, p. 463 f. ( Digitized version ).
• G. Herring: Karadjordje . In: Biographical Lexicon on the History of Southeast Europe . Volume 2. Munich 1976, pp. 342-345

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Karl Joseph Stegmann: Allgemeine Zeitung No. 276, from October 3rd, 1817 . Ed .: Karl Joseph Stegmann. October 3, 1817, p. 1103 .

predecessor	Office	successor
Ottoman Empire	Serbian Prince 1804 - 1813	Miloš Obrenović