“Ljubljanske srajce”

How Slovenian and German newspapers viewed the tensions between Medvode farmers and the Ljubljana “liedertaflers”

Abstract

In 1880, the Ljubljana choir party (Laibacher Liedertafel) organized an outing to the hill of Šmarna gora. The singers, the majority of whom were Ljubljana Germans, apparently behaved disrespectfully there; they hung out their sweaty shirts to dry on the bushes (the incident prompting offensive phrase “ljubljanska srajca” (literally, Ljubljana shirts) to develop later) and returned to the valley wearing only their coats. In addition, they had apparently smoked cigars in the church, played dancing songs on the organ and danced in front of the church. Upon their return, a minor clash broke out in Medvode in the evening between a farm boy and a group of six singers. The German newspapers, spearheaded by the Laibacher Zeitung and Laibacher Tagblatt, blamed Slovene politics for this attack and accused it of instigating the farmers against the German singers. The German newspapers also blamed the gendarmes for the Medvode incident for apparently having failed to intervene appropriately. Janez Jan, head of the Medvode gendarmes, was so upset by the accusations that he took his life three days after the incident. A several-month long spilling of ink and a “journalistic war” ensued between Slovenian and German papers about what had happened on Šmarna gora and in Medvode. In addition, the editor of Laibacher Zeitung, Leo Suppantschitsch, and the superintendent of the Laibacher Liedertafel, Eduard Wraweczke, filed lawsuits against Slovenec, Slovenski narod and Novice. In the end, an 18-year-old farm boy, Anton Košenina from Spodnja Senica, was found guilty of attacking the singers in Medvode and was sentenced to one year in prison for the crime.