Petar Preradović

Petar Preradović ( born March 19, 1818 in Grabrovnica, Croatia, Empire of Austria; † August 18, 1872 in Fahrafeld at Pott, Lower Austria ) was an Austrian officer and Croatian author. He wrote in Croatian and German. 30 years after his death, he was called " the greatest Croatian poets of the modern age " and is still known as the Croatian national poet.

Life

Preradović was born in the village near Grabrovnica Virovitca which belonged to the Austrian military frontier at that time. His parents belonged to the Serbian Orthodox religious community. Petar Preradović aspired to the career of a professional soldier of the Imperial and Royal Army and received his education at the 1830-1838 Theresa Military Academy in Wiener Neustadt, where he graduated as one of the year's best. In Wiener Neustadt, he converted to Catholicism and started here first poems to write in German. After his withdrawal, he was stationed in 1838 as a second lieutenant in Milan. Here he met Ivan Kukuljević - Sakcinski know who inspired him to write in the Croatian language, which he did from 1842.

1843 Preradović in Zadar was stationed in Dalmatia. Here he began to write for the Croatian language newspaper "Zora Dalmacija ". In 1844 he was lieutenant. In 1846 he was transferred to the Croatian capital Zagreb, where he was in contact with the exponents of the so-called Illyrian movement.

In 1847 he was again stationed in northern Italy and fought in 1848 as a captain against the Italian unification movement. After his return to Croatia in 1849, he was a close colleague of Feldzeugmeister Joseph Jelacic of Bužim. In 1852 he became a Major in 1859 promoted to Colonel and was then active in Temesvár. In 1865, he was inducted into Verona and 1866, when Austria was fighting against the loss of Lombardy, promoted to Major General and Brigadier. In 1868, he was active as such in Pressburg, 1869 in Vienna.

Preradović wrote his poetic work under the influence of national romanticism; his poems often reflect pan-Slavic ideas. He was deeply interested in spiritualism and also wrote some pertinent article about it. His life in the tension between military career, politics and literature was also drawn by poor health and gambling addiction.

Preradović died in Lower Austria Fahrafeld at the age of 54 years. He was buried in Vienna on the Matzleinsdorf cemetery. When he was locked in 1879, his remains were transferred to the 1876 built Mirogoj Cemetery in Zagreb. He had seven children. One of his granddaughters was the writer Paula Preradović, draftsman of the Austrian national anthem; after her Preradovicgasse is named in Vienna Hütteldorf. In the novel " Pave and Pero " Paula Preradović published parts of the correspondence between Preradović Petar ( Pero ) and his first wife, Pauline de Ponte ( Pave ).

In a square in the center of Zagreb is since 1895 a monument to Preradović; the place still bears his name. Vienna is located in the 3rd district at the house Ungargasse 39 where Preradović lived, an attached of the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts commemorative plaque for the " great Croatian poet ". Here Preradović Vuk Stefanović Karadžić met, who also lived at that time in Vienna, and the modern Serbian literary language codified. After working in Vienna, Serbian and Croatian intellectuals believes that the two nations shared a common language.

Works (selection)

• The Uskoks Girl ( Uskočka djevojka, 1841)
• Zora puca, bit Ce dana ( The dawn is breaking, 1844)
• Prvenci ( firstfruits, poetry collection, Zadar 1846)
• Putnik (1846 )
• Nove pjesme ( New Songs, 1851)
• Prvi ljudi ( The first people to Epic, 1862)
• I Kosara Vladimir ( Vladimir and Kosara, epic )
• Kraljević Marko ( King Marko son, Drama )
• Slavenski Dioscuri ( Castor and Pollux Slavonic )
• In my country ( Mojoj domovini )
• Pozdrav domovini ( Greeting to the Fatherland )
• Pjesnička Djela ( Poetical Works, Zagreb 1873)
• Život i pjesme ( Life and Songs, 1909)

A selection of his poems translated into German Mavro Spicer; they appeared in 1895 in Leipzig.

As a translator into Croatian supervised Preradović works of Lord Byron, Goethe, Nikolaus Lenau, Dante, Zygmunt Krasinski and Alessandro Manzoni.