Stephan Duic

Stephan Duić ( Croatian Stjepan "Stevo" Duić ; born December 17, 1877 in Otočac , Lika , Austria-Hungary ; † September 28, 1934 in Karlsbad , Czechoslovakia ) was a lieutenant colonel in the Bosnian-Hercegovinian Infantry Regiment No. 2 , an elite military force of the Austro-Hungarian army .

After the First World War , Duić belonged together with Ivan Perčević , Vjekoslav Servatzy , Gustav Perčec , Narcis Jeszensky u. a. to the circle of high-ranking former Austro-Hungarian officers who supported the fascist Ustasha movement in the struggle for a Croatia independent of Yugoslavia . From 1929 until his death he was the military advisor to the Ustaša leader Ante Pavelić and the organizer of the Velebit Uprising . Duić was presumably murdered by agents of the Royal Yugoslav secret service and was posthumously appointed general of the Croatian army .

Life

Youth and education

Duić came from a Croatian family that can be traced back to 1689 and whose headquarters are in Donje Pazarište near Gospić (Lika) and was born in Otočac as the son of tax officer Martin Duić. His mother Marta, nee Starčević, died in 1882. Duić was the nephew of the politician Ante Starčević .

He attended various elementary schools and, until 1892, the grammar school in Karlovac , after which he enrolled in the local infantry cadet school. In 1896 he graduated as one of the 50 best graduates and came to Austria as a deputy cadet officer for the Bohemian Infantry Regiment No. 75 . He was temporarily stationed in the Bay of Kotor . On November 1, 1897 he became a lieutenant and took up the general staff career. In 1902 he went to Vienna and graduated from the Austro-Hungarian War School by 1904 , which he graduated with very good in order to be assigned as an officer to the headquarters of a unit of the Imperial and Royal Mountain Troops .

After the resolution of Rijeka of October 3, 1905, which called for a unification of the Croatian countries and a revision of the Croatian-Hungarian compromise , he went to Zagreb and dealt with the political ideas of his uncle Ante Starčević. Up until the First World War he was assigned to the headquarters of a division there as an officer.

First World War

At the beginning of the First World War Duić was from November 1, 1914 Major in the General Staff and Chief of Staff of the 6th Infantry Troop Division . He took u. a. participated in the battle at Gologory , the Battle of Gródek and the siege of Przemyśl . Furthermore, he took part in the battle in the Carpathian Mountains , deployed near Sighetu Marmației under Colonel General Karl von Pflanzer-Baltin . In February 1915 he fell ill. From May 1, 1916 he was a lieutenant colonel in the General Staff; In June 1916 he was in command of the assault group of the 11th Infantry Brigade of the Bosnian-Hercegovinian Infantry Regiment No. 2 during the victim-heavy storming of the 1,824 meter high Monte Meletta in the seven municipalities near Asiago (Veneto) . For the storming of Monte Meletta he received the Knight's Cross of the Austro-Imperial Order of Leopold with war decoration from Emperor Franz Joseph I. From July 1916 he was Chief of Staff of the Croatian 42nd Domobranen Division (officially: 42nd Honvéd Infantry Troop Division ), known as the "Devil's Division " because of its fighting power. In order to match the German ally with its Asia Corps , the Imperial and Royal Orient Corps was set up in Belgrade at the end of 1917 under Duić's leadership , with stations in Constantinople and Albania . During the war he became infected with malaria , the consequences of which he suffered for life.

post war period

After the collapse of Austria-Hungary, he returned to Croatia and made himself available to the Croatian National Council in Zagreb. Disappointed with the establishment of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia , he left Croatia again. In Italy, together with the Theresa knight and former Imperial and Royal officer Gojkomir von Glogovac , he collected released Croatian prisoners of war in a "Croatian Legion", which was dissolved again in 1921 due to the political world situation.

After he realized that Croatian independence could not be achieved militarily for the time being, he withdrew into private life. He moved to the Austrian Graz where he took on a job as a bank clerk. Later he was deputy director of the agricultural health insurance fund of Styria .

After the establishment of the Yugoslav royal dictatorship in 1929, Duić joined the Ustascha movement, which was founded in the same year and which wanted to fight for Croatian independence by violent means. Due to his military knowledge and experience, he became the most important advisor to the Ustaša leader Ante Pavelić in all military matters and thus rose to become an important leader within the Ustaše.

Assassinations and death

On June 18, 1934, Duić was assassinated in his place of residence in Graz. The perpetrator, Croatian Ivan Jargarčec , as "Avenger No. 26" a member of the "Legion of [Yugoslav] Avengers" ( Liga osvetnika ), fired four shots at Duić. None of the shots hit the target. Jargarčec was arrested along with his accomplice, the Yugoslav merchant Milan Kolar . Investigations revealed that the assassination attempt by lawyer Dr. Ljubo Lukatela , who was in contact with the then local commander of Zagreb General Bodi. Lukatela, who had also gone to Graz, was able to escape. The murder order of the "Legion of Yugoslav Avengers" stated:

" The Avenger No. 26.
[...] The Legion of Yugoslav Avengers, which researches the work of every traitor, established that Stevo Duić is one of the main collaborators in the plans against the Yugoslav king and Yugoslav unity and they decided and ordered, that Stevo Duić, as a Yugoslav traitor, has to die.
To carry out this decision, the die designated avenger no. 26. The decision must be carried out in the shortest possible time. "

After this first assassination attempt, Duić stated:

“ [...] on June 21, 1934.
The intended attack on June 17 , 1934 . M. should have been taken seriously, but in my opinion it was carried out with unsuitable means, because I have the impression that Jargarčec Ivan, who was supposed to carry out the assassination [...] does not have the strength and brutality that is necessary for such an act is. […]
I believe that with the approach of St. Vitus Day (June 28th, the Serbian day of remembrance of the assassination of the heir to the throne Franz Ferdinand ) the organization wanted a sensation for traditional reasons and fell for me. […]
Jargarčec shot four times with the pistol. I think it is entirely possible that the information provided by Jargarčec is correct and that the mysterious swearing-in ceremony in Belgrade actually took place. "

On August 16, 1934, Milan Kolar was sentenced to three years' imprisonment for the crime of attempted induction to ordered murder.

Hardly three months later, Duić had gone to Karlovy Vary to cure his malaria, which he had suffered during World War I, and he was found dead on September 28, 1934 in a hotel in Karlovy Vary. He was found wearing only a nightgown, sitting next to the balcony door, with a vine string around his neck. Presumably he was strangled asleep in his bed, then dragged through the hotel room to the balcony door and tied to the door. To fake suicide, the perpetrators loosely attached the end of the noose to the lower hinge , just three feet from the floor (as the cord was too short). The organizer of the murder is said to have been the high- ranking royal Yugoslav police officer Vladeta Milićević , who was then Yugoslavia's permanent delegate to the International Police Organization in Vienna.

On October 3, 1934, he was buried in the St. Leonhard cemetery in Graz. A post-mortem on December 10, 1934 in Graz did not reveal any reliable evidence of murder or suicide.

Afterlife

Duić was stylized as a Croatian martyr in the propaganda of the Ustasha movement and, shortly after the establishment of the Independent State of Croatia , was posthumously promoted to the rank of general in the Croatian army by Slavko Kvaternik and Ante Pavelić on June 6, 1941.

Awards (selection)

• Order of the Iron Crown III. class
• Order of the Iron Crown II class
• Knight's Cross of the Austro-Imperial Order of Leopold with war decoration

See also

• Velebit uprising

literature

• Mario Jareb: Ustaško-domobranski pokret: od nastanka do travnja 1941. godine [The Ustaša-Domobranen movement: from its origins to April 1941] . Hrvatski institut za povijest, Zagreb 2006, ISBN 953-060817-9 .
• Ante Pavelić: 100 godina [Ante Pavelić: 100 years] . Arr. Višnja Pavelić. Naklada Starčević & Libar, Zagreb 1995, ISBN 953-96369-1-4 , p. 175-180 .

Web links

• Austria's Armed Forces: Description of the fighting for Monte Meletta with mention of Duić. Retrieved April 16, 2012 . 

Individual evidence

1. Jump up ↑ Mario Jareb: Ustaško-domobranski Pokret: od nastanka do travnja 1941. godine. Hrvatski institut za povijest, Zagreb 2006, p. 140, para. 435.
2. ↑ Martin Broszat, Ladislaus Hory: The Croatian Ustascha State 1941-1945. In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte. Number 8, 2nd edition. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1965, p. 24.
3. ↑ Ante Pavelić: 100 godina / uredila Višnja Pavelić ( Ante Pavelić: 100 years / edited by Višnja Pavelić). Naklada Starčević & Libar, Zagreb 1995, p. 175.
4. ^ ^{A b c d} Karl Vocelka : Habsburg Weddings 1550–1600: Cultural-historical studies on the Mannerist representation festival. (= Publications of the Commission for the Modern History of Austria 65). Böhlau Verlag , Vienna / Cologne / Graz 1976, p. 243, no. 363.
5. ^ Rudolf Henz : Providence and Resistance. Styria Verlag , Graz 1981, p. 70.
6. ↑ Austria's Armed Forces: Description of the battles for Monte Meletta with mention of Duić. Retrieved November 13, 2012 . 
7. ^ Rudolf Henz: Providence and Resistance. Styria Verlag , Graz 1981, p. 71.
8. ↑ Ante Pavelić: 100 godina / uredila Višnja Pavelić ( Ante Pavelić: 100 years / edited by Višnja Pavelić). Naklada Starčević & Libar, Zagreb 1995, pp. 176-177.
9. ↑ Ante Pavelić: 100 godina / uredila Višnja Pavelić ( Ante Pavelić: 100 years / edited by Višnja Pavelić). Naklada Starčević & Libar, Zagreb 1995, p. 176.
10. ^ ^{A b c} Arnold Suppan : Yugoslavia and Austria 1918–1938: bilateral foreign policy in the European environment . Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 1996, p. 413.
11. ^ Konrad H. Klaser (di Kurt Koppel ): Spies, Bombs and Conspirators in Serbian Politics . Europa Verlag, Zagreb 1941, p. 122 .
12. ↑ KLASER 1941, p. 122 f.
13. ↑ KLASER 1941, p. 93.
14. ↑ Vladeta Milićević: The regicide of Marseille: The crime and its background . Hohwacht-Verlag, Bad Godesberg 1959, p. 12.
15. ↑ Dr. Sušnjara: The situation of the Catholic Church in Croatia . In: Church in Need: Shocking Persecution of Christians at our Gates . Ostpriesthilfe , Königstein / Ts. 1953, p. 85.
16. ^ Arnold Suppan: Yugoslavia and Austria 1918–1938: bilateral foreign policy in the European environment . Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 1996, p. 409.
17. ↑ Ante Pavelić: 100 godina / uredila Višnja Pavelić ( Ante Pavelić: 100 years / edited by Višnja Pavelić). Naklada Starčević & Libar, Zagreb 1995, p. 180.
18. ↑ Text of the appointment printed in: Ante Pavelić: 100 godina / uredila Višnja Pavelić ( Ante Pavelić: 100 years / edited by Višnja Pavelić). Naklada Starčević & Libar, Zagreb 1995, p. 179.