Rudolf Maister

Infobox Military Person
name=Rudolf Maister
born=birth date|1874|03|29
placeofbirth=Kamnik, Duchy of Carniola, Austria-Hungary (now in Slovenia)
died=death date|1934|07|26|1874|03|29
placeofdeath=Rakek, Kingdom of Yugoslavia (now in Slovenia)


caption=
nickname=Vojanov
allegiance=Austria-Hungary
State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
serviceyears=1890-1923
rank=Divisional General
commands=Slovenian army
Commander of Maribor
unit=
battles=
awards=Signum laudis
Order of White Eagle
Order of Star of Karađorđe
Order of Saint Sava
laterwork=Poet and self-taught painter

Rudolf Maister Vojanov (March 29 1874 – July 26 1934) was a Slovene military officer and political activist. The soldiers who fought under Maister's command in northern Slovenia became known as "Maister's fighters" ( _sl. Maistrovi borci). Maister was also an accomplished poet and self-taught painter.

Maister was born in the Upper Carniolan commercial town of Kamnik, then part of Austria-Hungary. During World War I, he served as a major in the Austro-Hungarian army. In 1918, towards the end of the war, he organized local Slovenian volunteer forces and took control of the city of Maribor and the surrounding region of Lower Styria with a military action. He was awarded the rank of general by the National Council for (Slovenian) Styria on November 1. The city was thus secured for the newly formed State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, which united with Serbia into the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes on December 1.

On 27 January 1919, a firefight broke out between the local Ethnic Germans awaiting the American peace delegation at the city's marketplace and Slovenian troops under the command of Maister. Nine people were killed and more than eighteen were seriously wounded. The responsibility for the shooting has not been conclusively established. German sources accused Maister's troops of shooting without cause, while Slovenian witnesses, such as Dr. Maks Pohar, testified that the Germans (some still in the uniforms of the German paramilitary organization called Green Guard) attacked Slovenian soldiers guarding city hall. The Germans allegedly attacked the police inspector, Dr. Ivan Senekovič, and pressed towards the Slovenian soldiers in front of the city hall. One German shot with a revolver in the direction of Slovenian soldiers and they responded spontaneously with shots against the crowd. The event became known in German as the "Marburger Blutsonntag" ("Marburg Bloody Sunday").

In November 1919, Maister's forces joined the Kingdom of SHS army's offensive in Carinthia. Maister joined them later and took part of the conquest of Klagenfurt. After the Carinthian Plebiscite, in which majority of the local Slovenian population decided to remain part of Austria, Maister withdrew to private life. He spent most of his later life in an estate in Inner Carniola. He died in Rakek.

References

*Bruno Hartman, "Rudolf Maister: general in pesnik" (Ljubljana: Državna založba Slovenije, 2006)