Novačan ’s Battle of Celje

A 1939 brawl in the Celje coffee house Evropa in and its judicial outcome

Abstract

Anton Novačan went down in history not only as a writer, politician and diplomat but also as a person of mighty stature and restless character. He was considered a man of pleasure and a great bohemian, but his contemporaries also liked to emphasize his inclination to fights. In his youth, he used the strength of his body, to protect Slovenian national interests and to exercise his political ideas, maintaining his hot-tempered reputation to a ripe old age. In 1939 he was the main protagonist of an incident in the Celje coffee house, the Europa. Owing to the social importance of those involved and other considerations, including national-political ones, the incident ultimately received a judicial epilogue. At the same time it was a source of considerable amusement in the social circles of Celje, because some witty chroniclers even mockingly referred to it as the “Battle of Celje”.