“Sorrow for the leader - loyalty beyond the grave .” Dr Anton Korošec is dead

A few notes about the history of the political funeral in Slovenia

Abstract

The author focuses on the funeral ceremonies at the death of the most influential Slovenian politician in the first state of Yugoslavia, Dr Anton Korošec, who died 14 December 1940. The farewell to the deceased was an act imbued with symbols and messages, which indicates that political funerals in the past were not an intimate matter for family (or a close circle) but a performance directed by political protagonists. The author uses this as a basis to shed light on and explain the events in Belgrade and Ljubljana between 7 am on 14 December 1940 and the closing of the burial ceremonies. The article is based on newspaper reports, accounts by the Ljubljana correspondent of the Belgrade Central Press Bureau, memoirs and two particularly intriguing sources: many unpublished photographs taken by the Slovenec newspaper correspondents, and two short films.