Everything about Ivan Hribar totally explained
Ivan Hribar, (
19 September 1851 –
28 December 1941) was a
Slovene banker,
politician,
diplomat and
publicist.
In Austria-Hungary
Ivan Hribar was born in the
Carniolan town of
Trzin in what was then the
Austrian Empire (now in
Slovenia). He studied law at the
University of Vienna, and made a professional career as the representative of a
Czech bank in
Ljubljana between
1876 and
1919.
In the 1880s he became involved in politics, soon emerging as one of the leading figures of the Slovene
national liberalism in
Austria-Hungary. Together with his close political ally
Ivan Tavčar he founded the National Party of Carniola, later renamed to
National Progressive Party. From
1882 he served as city councellor of
Ljubljana. In
1896 he was elected mayor of Ljubljana and became famous for implementing a large scale reconstruction of the town after the
Ljubljana earthquake of
1895. He invited the architect
Max Fabiani to make a new
urban development plan for the town. This included the complete renovation of
Prešeren Square and the area around the
Tromostovje (the
Kresija Palace and the
Philip Mansion), as well as the construction of the
Dragon Bridge: all of these buildings are nowadays considered as central symbols of Ljubljana. Hribar's aim was to transform Ljubljana into a representative centre of all
Slovene Lands and thus create a cultural and economic capital of the
Slovenian people. He carried out a radical modernization of the city's infrastructure, including
electrification and the introduction of
trams. He also cleaned up the city's public finances. During his time in office Hribar often clashed with the
ethnic German minority of Ljubljana on a number of issues.
He remained in office until
1910, when the
Emperor Franz Joseph I refused to confirm his reelection, because of his alleged role in anti-German riots two years earlier, in which two Slovenian students were shot by the
Austro-Hungarian Army. He was succeeded by
Ivan Tavčar.
Between
1889 and
1908, he served as member of the
Carniolan Provincial Diet, and between
1907 and
1911 as member of the
Austrian Parliament.
During his political activity in Austria-Hungary, Hribar was a great supporter of collaboration between Slovenes and other
Slavic peoples, especially
Czechs. He made many efforts to bring
Czech investments to the
Slovene Lands and he helped to establish several institutions on the Czech model, most famously the
Sokol athletic association. He is also said to have based the reconstruction of Ljubljana so that the town would resemble
Prague.
Hribar also had, together with
Mihajlo Rostohar, an important role in the establishment of the
University of Ljubljana.
In the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
After the end of
World War One and the establishment of the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia, he withdrew from party politics, although he remained active in public life. Between
1919 and
1921, he served as the Yugoslav ambassador to
Czechoslovakia. In
1921 he was appointed provisional representative of the Yugoslav central government in Slovenia, a post he held until the implementation of the new
subdivisions in
1923. As a staunch advocate of Yugoslav
nation building, he supported the centralist dictatorship of
king Alexander. In
1932 he was appointed
senator by the king and remained one until
1938 when he retired. In the late
1930s he voiced his support for a common political platform of all patriotic
anti-fascist forces. In
1940, after
Hitler's
Invasion of France, he became one of the founders of the "Association of Friends of the
Soviet Union", which served as one of the rallying grounds for the later development of the
Liberation Front of the Slovenian People.
Hribar was known as a passionate politician and a great Slovene and Yugoslav patriot. After the
Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in
1941, Hribar committed
suicide (at the age of ninety) as a protest against the
Italian annexation of Ljubljana. After returning home from a meeting with the
Fascist Italian authorities which had just offered him the mayorship of the city, he jumped into the
Ljubljanica river, wrapped in the
Yugoslav flag. He left a note with the verses from
France Prešeren's poem
The Baptism at Savica:
Manj strašna noč je v črne zemlje krili,
kot so pod svetlim soncem sužni dnovi.
Less frightening is the night in the folds of dark black earth
than days of slavery under a shining sun.
The embankment from which he jumped into the river was named after him after
World War II.
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