Preliminary communication
Josip Juraj Strossmayer the Great District Prefect and Parliamentarian in the Croatian Diet
Stana Vukovac
; Slavonski Brod, Hrvatska
Abstract
In 1849 Josip Juraj Strossmayer was appointed the bishop of the Đakovo-Srijem diocese. Well, the die is cast ; well my poor self was really appointed on the 18th of the month for bishop Đakovo-Srijem, writes a young 34-year-old bishop to a friend, a notable young politician, Brod-born Andrija Torkvat Brlić. He is joyful but points out: Ja ostadoh uviek, koi sam i bio samo ću gledat, što je sviuh nas dužnost u kriepostima napriedit. Ladja, kad uzvodu ide, ako se svojski neupreš, borme ona će natrag. ( I have not changed but I would try to improve myself, which we all should in our virtues. A ship sailing upstream, shall turn downstream, if we do not try hard enough to keep it that direction.) He said it all. He would not change himself, but do anything for the prosperity of his homeland. We will follow the versatility of Strossmayer’s activities in struggle for homeland independence. There were many tasks, and he who was young and decisive, promised : «...za Slavoniu i Horvatsku više me sad briga mori neg ikad» (« I am more worried for Slavonia and Croatia now than ever.») This was not a momentary enthusiasm, as proved by later Strossmayer’s achievements by which he marked the whole 19th century culture in Croatia. Strossmayer, a parliamentarian in the Croatian Diet in 1861, posed among other things a question of national educational system because his motto was : By education to freedom!. His introduction into the Đakovo diocese did not detain the young bishop in narrow ecclesiastic activity fields because the cruel ten-year long period of Bach absolutism imposed fast reaction on all fields as to protect the Croatian people, as well as to alter conditions in Croatia swiftly. The Croatian language was a special concern and love of Strossmayer. To put it back to public life, was an imperative and with its public exposure, Croatia would have it much easier to resist strong Germanization and Hungarization which seriously threatened... Relieving the Home Secretary Bach (22 August 1859), a strenghtening of Empire’s council in Vienna; a new Croatian-Slavonian-Dalmatian Vice-Roy Josip Šokčević announced concrete actions: Call to Order of the Diet (15 April 1861) but also the usage of the Croatian language in the whole public life in Croatia. The county of Virovitica-Osijek-Virovitica altering its old name returned the name Virovitica, and its first district prefect, in new conditions, became Josip Juraj Strossmayer. He would not be the district prefect for long but as a Diet parliamentarian he would start the ball of change rolling in a backward and oppressed Croatia.
Keywords
Josip Juraj Strossmayer; bishop; the great district prefect; Diet parliamentarian; Vice-Roy’s conference; the Diet of 1861
Hrčak ID:
21577
URI
Publication date:
27.12.2007.
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