![Engelbert Besednjak 1929](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/Engelbert_Besednjak_1929.jpg)
Engelbert Besednjak (March 14, 1894 – December 21, 1968) was a
Slovene Christian Democrat
Christian democracy (sometimes named Centrist democracy) is a political ideology that emerged in 19th-century Europe under the influence of Catholic social teaching and neo-Calvinism.
It was conceived as a combination of modern democratic ...
politician
A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...
,
lawyer and
journalist
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...
. In the 1920s, he was one of the foremost leaders of the Slovene and
Croat
The Croats (; hr, Hrvati ) are a South Slavic ethnic group who share a common Croatian ancestry, culture, history and language. They are also a recognized minority in a number of neighboring countries, namely Austria, the Czech Republic, Ge ...
minority in the
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
-administered
Julian March
Venezia Giulia, traditionally called Julian March (Serbo-Croatian, Slovene: ''Julijska krajina'') or Julian Venetia ( it, Venezia Giulia; vec, Venesia Julia; fur, Vignesie Julie; german: Julisch Venetien) is an area of southeastern Europe wh ...
. In the 1930s, he was one of the leaders of Slovene anti-Fascist émigrés from the
Slovenian Littoral, together with
Josip Vilfan,
Ivan Marija Čok and
Lavo Čermelj. He is considered one of the best Slovene public speakers of the 20th century.
Biography
In Austria-Hungary
He was born to a
Slovene-speaking lower-middle-class family in
Gorizia
Gorizia (; sl, Gorica , colloquially 'old Gorizia' to distinguish it from Nova Gorica; fur, label= Standard Friulian, Gurize, fur, label= Southeastern Friulian, Guriza; vec, label= Bisiacco, Gorisia; german: Görz ; obsolete English ''Gori ...
, in what was then the
Austro-Hungarian Empire (now in
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
). After finishing the
German-language
German ( ) is a West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Italian province of South Tyrol. It is also a ...
State Gymnasium
State Gymnasium is an arena on the campus of Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. It was opened in 1913, and once was the school's primary indoor athletic facility, before the opening of Hilton Coliseum. It is located at the corner of Union Dr ...
in Gorizia, he enrolled at the
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich hist ...
, where he studied law, graduating in 1920.
In the years before
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, he joined the young generation of
Christian Socialist
Christian socialism is a religious and political philosophy that blends Christianity and socialism, endorsing left-wing politics and socialist economics on the basis of the Bible and the teachings of Jesus. Many Christian socialists believe cap ...
activists around the
Carniolan priest
Janez Evangelist Krek
Janez Evangelist Krek (27 November 1865 – 8 October 1917) was a Slovene Christian Socialist politician, priest, journalist, and author.
Life and career
He was born and baptized ''Johann Krek'' in a peasant family in the village of Sveti Greg ...
, who challenged the conservative leadership of the
Slovene People's Party. Together with the priest
Virgil Šček, Besednjak became one of the leaders of the Slovene Christian Socialist youth in the
Austrian Littoral. Between 1913 and 1914, he was the president of the Christian Social Association (''Krščansko-socialna zveza'') in
Gorizia and Gradisca
The Princely County of Gorizia and Gradisca (german: Gefürstete Grafschaft Görz und Gradisca; it, Principesca Contea di Gorizia e Gradisca; sl, Poknežena grofija Goriška in Gradiščanska), historically sometimes shortened to and spelled " ...
, and between 1917 and 1919 he was a personal secretary of the chairman of the Slovene People's Party,
Anton Korošec
Anton Korošec (, ; 12 May 1872 – 14 December 1940) was a Yugoslav politician, a prominent member of the conservative People's Party, a Roman Catholic priest and a noted orator.
Early life
Korošec was born in Biserjane (then Duchy of Styr ...
.
In the Kingdom of Italy
After World War One, he returned to Gorizia, and soon became one of the main figures of Slovene and Croat
political Catholicism
The Catholic Church and politics concerns the interplay of Catholicism with religious, and later secular, politics. Historically, the Church opposed liberal ideas such as democracy, freedom of speech, and the separation of church and state und ...
in the
Julian March
Venezia Giulia, traditionally called Julian March (Serbo-Croatian, Slovene: ''Julijska krajina'') or Julian Venetia ( it, Venezia Giulia; vec, Venesia Julia; fur, Vignesie Julie; german: Julisch Venetien) is an area of southeastern Europe wh ...
, an administrative region formed out of the former Austro-Hungarian
Adriatic provinces annexed to
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
. In 1919, he became chief editor of the Slovene daily newspaper ''Edinost'' (Unity) of
Trieste
Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into prov ...
, and in 1921 he was elected to the Provincial Assembly of the
Province of Gorizia
The Province of Gorizia ( it, Provincia di Gorizia, fur, Provincie di Gurize; sl, Goriška pokrajina) was a province in the autonomous Friuli–Venezia Giulia region of Italy, which was disbanded on 30 September 2017.
Overview
Its capital was th ...
. From 1922 to 1924, he was director of the newspaper ''Goriška straža'' (The Guard of Gorizia). In the mid-1920s, he was a member of the executive board of the League of the Slovene Agrarian Workers in Italy, and of the National Council of Croats and Slovenes in the Julian March. He also served as editor of the journal ''Socialna misel'' (Social Thought).
In 1924, he was elected to the
Italian Parliament
The Italian Parliament ( it, Parlamento italiano) is the national parliament of the Italian Republic. It is the representative body of Italian citizens and is the successor to the Parliament of the Kingdom of Italy (1861–1943), the transitio ...
on the unified list of Slovene, Croat and
South Tyrol
it, Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano – Alto Adige lld, Provinzia Autonoma de Balsan/Bulsan – Südtirol
, settlement_type = Autonomous area, Autonomous Provinces of Italy, province
, image_skyline = ...
ean parties. Besednjak thus became, together with the
national liberal
National liberalism is a variant of liberalism, combining liberal policies and issues with elements of nationalism. Historically, national liberalism has also been used in the same meaning as conservative liberalism (right-liberalism).
A seri ...
politician
Josip Wilfan
Josip Vilfan or Wilfan (30 August 1878 – 8 March 1955) was a Slovene lawyer, politician, and human rights activist from Trieste. In the early 1920s, he was one of the political leaders of the Slovene and Croatian minority in the Italian-admini ...
who was also elected on the same list, the highest representative of the around half a million
South Slavs
South Slavs are Slavic peoples who speak South Slavic languages and inhabit a contiguous region of Southeast Europe comprising the eastern Alps and the Balkan Peninsula. Geographically separated from the West Slavs and East Slavs by Austria, ...
living in Italy. He quickly rose to prominence for his eloquent defence of minority rights against
Fascist Italianization
Italianization ( it, italianizzazione; hr, talijanizacija; french: italianisation; sl, poitaljančevanje; german: Italianisierung; el, Ιταλοποίηση) is the spread of Italian culture, language and identity by way of integration or ass ...
. Despite his consistent criticism of the regime, he insisted on the political loyalty to the Italian state. He did not join the
Aventine Secession, but continued with regular parliamentary work until mid 1926.
His parliamentary speeches, in which he defended
minority rights
Minority rights are the normal individual rights as applied to members of racial, ethnic, class, religious, linguistic or gender and sexual minorities, and also the collective rights accorded to any minority group.
Civil-rights movements ...
, and
human rights
Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...
in general, from the early abuses of the
Fascist regime
Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy an ...
, became famous among the Slovenes and Croats. Besednjak's speeches also attracted the attention of the Italian political scene and included parliamentary debates with the highest officials of the regime, including the Minister of Education
Giovanni Gentile
Giovanni Gentile (; 30 May 1875 – 15 April 1944) was an Italian neo-Hegelian idealist philosopher, educator, and fascist politician. The self-styled "philosopher of Fascism", he was influential in providing an intellectual foundation for ...
and
Benito Mussolini himself. These speeches were printed in an integral version by Besednjak's journal ''Goriška straža'', thus becoming widely known in the Slovene public. Several of his statements and punchlines entered the daily speech or acquired legendary status. His most famous speeches were directed against the school reform which sanctioned Italian as the sole language of education in Italy. In his last speech, delivered in the Italian
Chamber of Deputies, he stated that, after the abolition of Slovene and Croatian language schools, every South Slavic family in Italy would transform itself into a school. In his concluding remark, he stated that "the laws of States are mutable, but Nations live forever", thus famously asserting the
natural right
Some philosophers distinguish two types of rights, natural rights and legal rights.
* Natural rights are those that are not dependent on the laws or customs of any particular culture or government, and so are ''universal'', '' fundamental'' an ...
of peoples before the established legal conventions.
In exile
In 1929, Besednjak emigrated to
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
, but already the following year he returned to
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
in order to work at the
Congress of European National Minorities in
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
, serving as its vice-president. Afterwards, he moved to the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Kraljevina Jugoslavija, Краљевина Југославија; sl, Kraljevina Jugoslavija) was a state in Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 until 1941. From 1918 ...
, settling in
Belgrade. Throughout the interwar period, he remained a member of the Slovene People's Party, supporting its centrist faction led by the Christian Democratic politician
Andrej Gosar
Andrej Gosar (30 November 1887 – 21 April 1970) was a Slovenian and Yugoslav politician, sociologist, economist and political theorist.
Early life and career
Gosar was born in a working-class family in Logatec, Inner Carniola, in what was ...
. After 1935, when the party leadership decided to support with the conservative Yugoslav government of
Milan Stojadinović
Milan Stojadinović ( sr-Cyrl, Милан Стојадиновић; 4 August 1888 – 26 October 1961) was a Serbian and Yugoslav politician and economist who served as the Prime Minister of Yugoslavia from 1935 to 1939. He also served as Fore ...
, Besednjak became increasingly critical of its policies. Although he remained a member of the Slovene People's Party, he became disenchanted with its authoritarian and
corporatist
Corporatism is a Collectivism and individualism, collectivist political ideology which advocates the organization of society by Corporate group (sociology), corporate groups, such as agricultural, labour, military, business, scientific, or guil ...
shift.
He spent the
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
years in Belgrade. Although he did not join any of the political factions fighting against the German occupation of Yugoslavia. Initially, he rejected both the
partisan movement and
Draža Mihajlović's
Chetniks, as well as the various
collaborationist militias (such as the
Slovene Home Guard
The Slovene Home Guard ( sl, Slovensko domobranstvo, SD; german: Slowenische Landeswehr) was a Slovene anti- Partisan military organization that was active during the 1943–1945 German occupation of the formerly Italian-occupied Province of Ljub ...
). After 1943, he collaborated with the so-called "Catholic Centre", led by
Jakob Šolar and
Andrej Gosar
Andrej Gosar (30 November 1887 – 21 April 1970) was a Slovenian and Yugoslav politician, sociologist, economist and political theorist.
Early life and career
Gosar was born in a working-class family in Logatec, Inner Carniola, in what was ...
in the
Province of Ljubljana, and
Virgil Šček in the
Julian March
Venezia Giulia, traditionally called Julian March (Serbo-Croatian, Slovene: ''Julijska krajina'') or Julian Venetia ( it, Venezia Giulia; vec, Venesia Julia; fur, Vignesie Julie; german: Julisch Venetien) is an area of southeastern Europe wh ...
, trying to keep a balance between the pro-Communist
Liberation Front of the Slovenian People
The Liberation Front of the Slovene Nation ( sl, Osvobodilna fronta slovenskega naroda), or simply Liberation Front (''Osvobodilna fronta'', OF), originally called the Anti-Imperialist Front (''Protiimperialistična fronta'', PIF), was a Slovene ...
and various
anti-Communist forces. After 1944, however, he became increasingly supportive of
Josip Broz Tito's partisan movement, believing that the
Communists
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
would be the only force able to achieve the annexation of the
Slovenian Littoral and
Istria to
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...
, as well as the only ones capable to keep the country together.
[Boris Mlakar, 'Goriška sredina' In Prispevki za novejšo zgodovino 57, 2 (1997)]
Return to the Julian March
With the Paris Treaty of 1947, the
Istrian peninsula and most of the
Slovenian Littoral were annexed to the
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, with the breakup of Yu ...
. Gorizia and the Slovene-inhabited
Venetian Slovenia
Slavia Friulana, which means Friulian Slavia ( sl, Beneška Slovenija), is a small mountainous region in northeastern Italy and it is so called because of its Slavic population which settled here in the 8th century AD. The territory is located in ...
remained part of Italy, while Trieste and the neighbouring villages were included in the Allied-administered
Free Territory of Trieste
The Free Territory of Trieste was an independent territory in Southern Europe between northern Italy and Yugoslavia, facing the north part of the Adriatic Sea, under direct responsibility of the United Nations Security Council in the aftermath ...
. In 1950, Besednjak settled in Trieste. There, he was among the co-founders of the Slovene Christian Social Union, which later merged with other Slovene democratic and
anti-Communist parties in Italy into the
Slovene Union
The Slovene Union ( sl, Slovenska skupnost, SSk, it, Unione Slovena, US) is a political party in Italy representing the Slovene minority in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region. Its Slovenian language name means literally "Slovene Community", but th ...
. After the annexation of the
Province of Trieste
The Province of Trieste ( it, Provincia di Trieste, sl, Tržaška pokrajina; fur, provinzia di Triest) was a province in the autonomous Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of Italy. Its capital was the city of Trieste.
It had an area of and it had a ...
to Italy in 1954, he retired from public life. In the late 1950s, he published a memoir dedicated to his friend and collaborator Virgil Šček. The text remains, to this day, one of the most comprehensive sources on the Slovene and Croat political movement in the Julian March under the Kingdom of Italy.
He died in Trieste in 1968.
See also
*
Josip Ferfolja
Josip Ferfolja (27 September 1880 – 11 December 1958) was a Slovene lawyer and Social democratic politician, and human rights activist from the Province of Gorizia. Although he was an Italian citizen for most of his life, he considered himself f ...
*
Boris Furlan Boris Furlan (10 November 1894 – 10 June 1957)Brecelj, Marijan. 1978. "Borut Furlan." ''Primorski slovenski biografski leksikon'', vol. 5. Gorizia: Goriška Mohorjeva družba, p. 394.Jevnikar, Martin. 1989. "Boris Furlan." ''Enciklopedija Slovenij ...
*
TIGR
TIGR, an abbreviation for ''Trst'', ''Istra'', ''Gorica'', and ''Reka'', full name Revolutionary Organization of the Julian March T.I.G.R. ( sl, Revolucionarna organizacija Julijske krajine T.I.G.R.), was a militant anti-fascist and insurgent or ...
Sources
*Egon Pelikan, ''Engelbert Besednjak v parlamentu - Discorsi parliamentari dell'on. Engelbert Besednjak'' (Trieste: Krožek za družbena vprašanja Virgil Šček, 1996).
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Besednjak, Engelbert
People from Gorizia
20th-century Slovenian lawyers
University of Vienna alumni
Slovene People's Party (historical) politicians
Italian Slovenes
Slovenian Roman Catholics
Slovenian anti-fascists
1968 deaths
1894 births
Yugoslav lawyers