Cultural monument
19Century
The Era of Building National Halls or National Cultural Centres
In Slovenia, following the example of the Czechs, they began to build national homes in the second half of the 19th century. They were supposed to be the place where the economic, political and cultural life of the increasingly enlightened Slovenes took place.
The first national hall was built in Novo mesto in 1885; they were followed in 1896 in Ljubljana (now housed in the National Gallery), 1897 in Celje, 1898 in Maribor, 1904 in Trieste (which was burned down by Italian fascists in 1920), and in a few smaller towns.
In Maribor and Styria, they realized early on that the development of the Slovenes could be accelerated by careful management, which must be closely linked to sound financial management. For this purpose, they designed a loan scheme, but the state regency in Graz did not allow it. A few years later, they approved it, but at that time the Slovenes were politically divided, so they did not bring it into existence.
Postcard of the National House in Maribor
Moneylenders in the 1890s
1882leta
The Slovenian Political Society
It took a decade for Slovenians to restore their unity and establish the Slovenian Political Society in Maribor in 1882.
At the same time, the Credit Union for Maribor and its surroundings was founded to protect Slovenians, especially farmers, from German financial institutions.
Established on a cooperative basis, the Credit Union provided loans to its members at low interest rates, aiming to strengthen Slovenian identity in Styria.
Mr Jernej Glančnik
The president of the Credit Union was the lawyer Mr Jernej Glančnik, who also served as president of the Slavic Reading Society, the leading Slovenian cultural association in Maribor at the time.
He worked extremely hard to expand the Credit Union's influence across the countryside, where smaller credit unions were established under the management of the central institution in Maribor.
The Credit Union provided financial support to Slovenian cultural institutions, schools, and national defense societies.
1890leta
The Credit Union's General Assembly Decides to Build the Slovenian Cultural Centre
Economic and cultural activities in the city were thriving, creating a need for a suitable headquarters.
In 1890, the Credit Union's General Assembly decided to build a Slovenian Cultural Centre in Maribor, which would serve as its headquarters and provide shelter for various Slovenian organizations. The Slavic Reading Society, the city’s central cultural organization, had spent almost four decades wandering from one humble tavern or inn to another.
The Credit Union bought the building land at the intersection of Nagy Street and Kopališka Street (where the building stands today), and consulted the Czech Society of Architects in Prague for the building's design. They recommended the architect Jan Vejrych, who also created the plans for the building.
Plan by architect Jan Vejrych
National House in Maribor in the years 1899–1903
1890-1900
The Search for Unity
There was no consensus among the members of the Credit Union with regard to the location or the necessity of building the Cultural Centre.
They eventually agreed on the current location. However, there were even greater disagreements about whether it was even advisable to build such a large and luxurious building.
Many believed that the money should have been used to support Slovenian farmers in the region to help them withstand German pressure.
- In 114.000, supporters of the construction won by a narrow majority at the general assembly. The cost was estimated at an enviable XNUMX guilders.
They began building the home and had it under a roof by the end of 1898.
At the beginning of 1899, it was further equipped, so that the loan sharks met there for the first time on February 26, 1899.
The Slovenian Cultural Centre or National Hall (Narodni dom) Becomes a Modern Home for Slovenian Organisations
The massive two-story building was, according to national opponents "the castle that rises in the middle of the German fortress".
The official census of 1900 recorded that, based on the spoken language, 19.293 Germans and only 4.062 Slovenes lived in Maribor. However, the city was the natural center of the vast Slovenian hinterland, in which Slovenian organizations and institutions were increasingly multiplying. The National Center became a modern and suitable place to live. In addition to the Loan Library, the Slavic Reading Room and the Maribor Reading and Singing Society, the Historical Society for Slovenian Styria with a museum and the draft of a historical archive moved into it. The People's Library, the first Slovenian public library in Maribor, was established as part of the Slavic Reading Room. They were joined by new societies that emerged within the Slovenian national movement, including Sokol.
The special value of the new building was a rich hall with a theater stage. It was possible to hold assemblies, lectures, social gatherings and dances in it. The hall had 344 seats on the ground floor and on the balcony and 300 standing places. A special acquisition was the stage, on which it was possible to perform dramatic works in several acts, which was not possible before on the collapsible stages in pubs.
Theatrical activity flourished in the new premises, especially after the establishment of the Dramatic Society in 1909, which raised the level of theatrical performances. The audience grew, including from the wider area. Individual performances attracted up to a thousand spectators.
With the National Hall, the Slovenes quickly reconciled with the Maribor Germans, who had already combined their political, social and cultural activities in the theater and casino building in the city center almost half a century ago. The Germans felt threatened in their rights as masters, so they tried to harm the central Slovenian cultural center in every possible way. However, it grew in content and increasingly attracted Slovenians from Podravje.
World War II
After the outbreak of World War I, activities in the National House slowed down, as many of the men who carried out these activities had to join the army, and the building was occupied by soldiers. Towards the end of the war, after the campaign for the May Declaration, with which the Slovenes expressed their will to live in a different country, new life sprang up in the National House. On September 26, 1918, the National Council for Styria was founded there, preparing to take over power from the Austrians.
Under the leadership of Major Rudolf Maister, preparations were underway in the National House for a military takeover of power in Maribor and Styria. On November 1, 1918, the National Council in the National House promoted Rudolf Maister to general and ordered him to defend the city and Slovenian Styria for the new state. In just over three weeks, General Maister created a Slovenian army of several thousand men, cleared the city of the opposing German Green Guards, and secured the ethnic border from Radgona to Velikovec. The Maribor Loan Bank provided two million kronor to financially support the operations of the Slovenian army.
General Rudolf Maister
After the establishment of the State of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, the role of the National Hall in Maribor changed. The theatre activities were transferred to the nationalised theatre building, which, however, had a technically better equipped stage, while the casino opened its doors to many activities that had previously taken place in the National Hall. The new Study Library and the People's University settled there. The business premises of the Loan Office continued to be located in the National Hall. The People's Library had to retreat to the ground floor, where, as the best general library at the time, it gave a "metropolitan impression". From 1927, the Slavic Reading Room limited its activities to it alone. The building was home to Sokol-Matica, the Maribor Sokol parish and the Sokol credit cooperative. In addition to them, the Yugoslav-Czechoslovak League, the Adriatic Guard, the National Defence, the Slovenian Women's Society and the Dramatic Society also had their own premises. The western part of the building housed the headquarters of the liberal-oriented Association of Cultural Societies, while the first floor housed the student society Napredek and the academic societies Triglav and Jadran.
The Maribor Sokol Puppet Theatre also began operating in the National House in 1922, initiated by puppeteers from the Czech Club.
In 1931, the stage in the large hall was remodeled by the Loan Company so that it was only suitable for smaller performances and performances, and at the expense of the stage, a small hall was enlarged on the second floor. Just before World War II, the Young Generation Theatre, which also had a puppet theatre, also began operating in the National Hall.
Bomb funnels on the Drava in 1945
WorldWar II
When Maribor was occupied by the occupiers, the National House was confiscated on 7 May 1941 by a decree of the Commissioner of the State Commissariat for the Consolidation of Germany, and then handed over for use to the Province of Styria. According to an order from 1942, the city of Maribor received ownership rights to the building. During the occupation, various services of the Styrian Homeland Association operated in the building; among other things, confiscated Slovenian libraries from occupied Styria were brought there. When the building was hit during the bombing, many of them were destroyed, and many were lost immediately after the war, when crowds of refugees, prisoners and soldiers poured through the demolished building.
The Rebirth of the Cultural Centre
After the end of World War II, the National House building was taken over by the army, repaired and converted into the Yugoslav Army Home. The legal status of the building was settled under unclear circumstances – on 22 September 1946, the extraordinary general assembly of the Loan Company in Maribor decided that the Loan Company would donate the National House to the Yugoslav Army Home in exchange for other buildings. In the entrance hall, the new owners installed a commemorative plaque with a misleading inscription in Serbo-Croatian that the building was donated to the army by the “citizens of Maribor”.
When the memorial plaque in the entrance hall of the National Hall was removed in 1993, it was discovered that the Yugoslav Army had carved a Serbo-Croatian inscription on the back, while the front retained the Slovenian text from the time the National Hall was opened. The names of those who helped build the National Hall are engraved on the right side of the plaque.
When the Yugoslav National Army withdrew from Slovenia in 1991, the Maribor National Center was handed over to the Territorial Defense, after which it passed into the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Slovenia. From there, the Maribor municipality took over its management and established the public institution Cultural and Event Center Narodni dom Maribor.
Commemorative plaque of the Loan Office
This text was written for the 100th anniversary of the Cultural Centre's construction in 1998 by the Slovenian literary historian, theatre historian, dramaturg, librarian, translator, and publicist Bruno Hartman.
Want to know more?
Read the contribution of researcher Monika Pemič with the title Newly discovered documents from the 90s for Maribor National House from archives and collections in Prague and Maribor.
