Stanislav "Staško" Sondermajer (5 September 1898 – 5 August 1914) was the youngest Serbian soldier killed at the beginning of the First World War during the Battle of Cer; he died on the battlefield at the age of 15.

Early life

Stanislav Sondermayer was born on 5 September 1898 in

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...

, in 1914 he was a sixth-grade student of the Second Belgrade Secondary School. He was the youngest of the Sondermayer family, son of surgeon Colonel Dr

Roman Sondermajer Colonel Dr. Roman Sondermajer CMG ( Serbian: ) (28 February 1861– 30 January 1923) was a Royal Serbian Army physician who served as Chief Surgeon of the Royal Serbian Army, Chief Surgeon and Director of the Military Hospital and Chief of the ...

, founder and director of the Serbian Army Medical Service, and of Stanislava Đurić Sondermayer, volunteer nurse in both

Balkan wars The Balkan Wars refers to a series of two conflicts that took place in the Balkan States in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan States of Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria declared war upon the Ottoman Empire and defe ...

, daughter of General

Dimitrije Đurić Dimitrije Đurić ( sr-Cyrl, Димитрије Ђурић; 29 September 1838 – 19 October 1893) was a Serbian army officer, minister of defence, professor at the military academy and member of the Serbian Royal Academy of Science. He also serve ...

and grand-daughter of

Dimitrije Matić Dimitrije Matić ( sr, Димитрије Матић; 18 August 1821 – 17 October 1884) was a Serbian philosopher, jurist, professor, and politician who served as Minister of Education, Minister of Justice and Minister of Foreign Affairs. He ...

. His siblings Tadija and Vladimir, were both junior officers at the outbreak of the war, having both served in the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913 (Vladimir only 4 years older than Stanislav had been decorated with a silver medal for courage) while his sister Jadviga was a volunteer nurse.

War service and death

When war broke out on 12 July 1914, the men were preparing to go to the front following the Austro-Hungarian invasion; Stanislav eager to join the army to defend his homeland stood before his father seeking a blessing to go but his father refused as Stanislav was still too young. Stanislav ran away from home to the border, he was taken in by a local volunteer group somewhere near Šabac; an experienced rider, he managed to enter the service in the Third Cavalry Regiment on July 16 under the command of Colonel Peter Savatic. He participated in the Battle of Cer where he was fatally wounded on August 5, during a charge on the Austro-Hungarian corps near the village of Dobrić, exactly one month before his sixteenth birthday.

Legacy

After the battle the women from the village of Bogosavac found his body and brought him back to the village to be buried; a diary wrapped in a handkerchief with Stanislav's notes was found on him. In them, he wrote about the death of his mother, two days after the mobilization, and his feelings from being at the front. His body was buried in the center of the village where a monument was later erected to the young hero.

Isidora Sekulić Isidora Sekulić ( sr-cyr, Исидора Секулић, 16 February 1877 – 5 April 1958) was a Serbian writer, novelist, essayist, polyglot and art critic. She was "the first woman academic in the history of Serbia". Biography Sekulić was b ...

wrote the song Tihestrofe, dedicated to Stanislav Sondermajer, while Historian prof. Miodrag Ibrovac, who was also his classmate, wrote: On August 5, 2011, the remains of Stanislav were reburied in Bogosavac, after a memorial prayer service.

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