FAMOUS CROATS 2009 - LJUDEVIT GAJ

LJUDEVIT GAJ (1809 – 1872) Ljudevit Gaj – politician, linguist, writer, and journalist – central person of the Croatian national reformation and the leader of the Illyrian Movement. He was born in July 8, 1809 in Krapina, his mother was Julijana (maiden name Schmidt) and his father was a pharmacist Ivan Gaj. He attended the elementary school in his home town, and secondary school in Karlovac, he studied philosophy and law in Vienna, Graz and Budapest and was awarded a doctoral degree in Leipzig in 1834. He died in Zagreb on April 20, 1872. In his early youth he wrote pomes in German and Croatian, and in 1826 in Karlovac he wrote a booklet The Castles around Krapina. In the course of his study he became inspired by Pan-Slavism, and facing the challenge and a threat of Germanization and Hungarization he became culturally and politically engaged. In 1830 in Budim he printed a book „Brief Basics of the Croatian Slavonic Orthography“, which was the first common Croatian orthography book; later on he got the agreement from the Royal Government to make a Croatian daily newspaper and wrote a poem „ Appeal for Unity and Harmony between Croats“, searching for the ideological frame of his reformation program, actually a modern idea of the Greater Croatia. Gaj followed the example of Pavao R. Vitezović and the Czech orthography and in his work a Brief Basics of the Orthography he consolidated Croatian language and became famous throughout the country among his contemporaries. When he finally succeeded to get the agreement to make a Croatian daily newspaper, displaying outstanding organisational skills, vigour and energy, he was seen as the leader, supported not only by the young middle-class people but equally by noblemen, first and foremost by count Janko Drašković . In 1853 appeared „The Croatian, Slavonian and Dalmatian News“ with literary addition „Danica“ printed in Kajkavian dialect and old orthography, and from 1836 in Shtokavian dialect and the new orthography with a changed name Illyrian News were published. The Croatian name was at that moment regionally coloured, and under politically benign Illyrian name for all the South Slavs, Gaj actually mobilised collaborators outside of, at that time administrative borders of Croatia. By establishing a printing house and use of a common language and orthography he succeeded in accomplishing national unity. In 1843 the Illyrian name was banned and reformation movement continued to gain ground under the modern national name of Croatia. Gaj’s poem „ Unity and Harmony to Croats“, better known under the title „Croatia is not in ruin yet“ was a hymn of the Illyrian Movement set to music by Ferdo Livadić. It became generally known after being printed and publicly performed in 1835, and gained numerous admirers and became a model of a homeland poem and march, contributing to the reformation atmosphere, and later on contributed to stimulating a Croatian national consciousness. After the Illyrian movement ended, and particularly after several political affairs seriously tarnished Gaj’s reputation, diminishing his influence, his newspaper was redesigned into an official paper.