A War after the War — Anton Bračko’s Love Triangle of 1920

Abstract

This cultural and historical treatise is the final part of the trilogy A War after the War (parts I and II were published in Časopis za zgodovino in narodopisje and Kronika), focusing on rela- tions among the Styrian peasantry after World War I. The author examines the love triangle between the spouses Anton and Julijana Bračko, and her sister Jožefa Razborčan, who died after her brother in law and forbidden lover had slit her throat in the proximity of her house in the autumn of 1920. The story of Anton Bračko’s life, formerly a soldier of the Austro-Hungarian army, can due to the tragic ending of the rela- tionship be followed in the criminal file of the Maribor District Court. The author states, inter alia, that the war disrupted the firmly anchored patriarchal patterns of Styrian peasant families and addresses the question of criminal files as a historical source.