František Vladimír Lorenc (24 December 1872 – 24 May 1957), known in Portuguese as Francisco Valdomiro Lorenz, was a Czech-born

polyglot Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. When the languages are just two, it is usually called bilingualism. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolin ...

and

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

born in Zbyslav (nowadays part of the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

). He was one of the first

Esperantists An Esperantist () is a person who speaks, reads or writes Esperanto. According to the Declaration of Boulogne, a document agreed upon at the first World Esperanto Congress in 1905, an Esperantist is someone who speaks Esperanto and uses it f ...

in the world, and was able to communicate in over 100 different languages. Lorenz was persecuted by the

Austro-Hungarian monarchy Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military and diplomatic alliance, it consist ...

due to his involvement with

Esperanto Esperanto (, ) is the world's most widely spoken Constructed language, constructed international auxiliary language. Created by L. L. Zamenhof in 1887 to be 'the International Language' (), it is intended to be a universal second language for ...

, which was associated with

socialist revolutionary Revolutionary socialism is a political philosophy, doctrine, and tradition within socialism that stresses the idea that a social revolution is necessary to bring about structural changes in society. More specifically, it is the view that revolut ...

movements in the region, and he subsequently moved to

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

as a political refugee in 1891. In Brazil, he lived in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

at first, and then in

Rio Grande do Sul Rio Grande do Sul (, ; ; "Great River of the South") is a Federative units of Brazil, state in the South Region, Brazil, southern region of Brazil. It is the Federative units of Brazil#List, fifth-most populous state and the List of Brazilian s ...

(

Southern Brazil The South Region of Brazil ( ) is one of the five regions of Brazil. It includes the states of Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul, and Santa Catarina, and covers , being the smallest region of the country, occupying only about 6.76% of the territory of ...

). Lorenz published over 36 books in 40 languages and was one of the most prominent promoters of Esperanto movement ever in Brazil. Joan Francés Blanc, "O Lorencovi", in František Vladimír Lorenc,
Úplná učebnice mezinárodní řeči dra. Esperanta
', Edicions Talvera, Vert-Saint-Denis, 2012, He died in Dom Feliciano (Brazil) in 1957.

References

Budo Esperanta de Valença
Francisco Valdomiro Lorenz
- In Portuguese Centro Educacional à Distância (CED

- In Portuguese

External links

* 1872 births 1957 deaths Brazilian Esperantists Brazilian people of Czech descent Emigrants from Austria-Hungary to Brazil {{Esperanto-stub