General Rudolf Maister and his fighters

Rudolf Maister

I really don`t have a hero, but I respect and admire a lot of people. They have values like bravery, good-heartedness, and a good work ethic.

One of these people is Rudolf Maister. He was born in 1874 in the town called Kamnik. When he was twenty years old he graduated from the military academy in Vienna and was nominated cadet and leader of a troop. Later, when he finished training, he served in Ljubljana and in Celovec (German name Klagenfurt). In 1895 he was promoted to lieutenant and became officer. After this, he served in many Slovenian towns and got familiar with the land and people. In a tiring army exercise in 1910 he became ill with pneumonia so he was sent to Egypt for medical treatment. After his recovery he was sent to Maribor where in 1917 he was promoted to a colonel of the Black Army.

In 1918, towards the end of World War I, German forces proclaimed that Maribor became a part of Austria. Rudolf Maister, like other Slovenian people, did not agree with this decision, so he organized local volunteers (Maistovi fighters) and took control of the city of Maribor and the region of Lower Styria. At this time the National Community of Slovenia took political control and promoted Colonel Maister to General. In the next week he established the first Slovenian army, which had 4000 men.

Rudolf Maister and his fighters fought very well and won many battles and saved our northern borders from the German army. The truce was signed on the 13th of February, 1919. The Slovenian people lost Celovec in the Plebiscite in 1920. Even though we lost a lot of Slovenian land in the Plebiscite, Rudolf Maister and his fighters did a great thing because they seved Maribor and all the Slovenian Styria from Germany.

Rudolf Maister was also a poet and an artist.

I respect him and all his fighters very much because they were brave soldiers and fighters for our Slovenian land and rights.