Marija Terezija

(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Theresa_of_Austria)

Maria Theresa is my hero because she established the school and so I, and all of us in Slovenia, are allowed to and have the right to education and knowledge.

Maria Theresa was born on 13th May 1717 in Vienna and she died on 29th November 1780 also in Vienna. She was married to Francis III of Lorraine and she had sixteen children, the youngest among them was Maria Antonia (today known as Mary Antonietta), who married King Louis XVI. Maria Theresa was the only female sovereign of the territories of the Habsburg Monarchy and today's Slovenia belonged to this monarchy. She was also a German Queen and Holy Roman Empress.

HER INFLUENCE ON THE SLOVENIANS

Maria Theresa highly respected the Slovenians for their honesty and courage. To the territory of the then Slovenian-speaking population, she introduced the Slovenian schools to help train children to enter the German schools. In Ljubljana she established a library of study in 1774. She supported Slovenian art, especially poetry.

She trained the Slovenians to look into the world, while not suppressing their mother tongue. Under her leadership, all the branches of science, arts and crafts made progress. That is why the Slovenians were hurt by her death. One of our national poets, Valentin Vodnik, even dedicated a poem to her.

Before her death she said that if she had been immortal, she would have liked to help and make happy all the poor and miserable people.

Maria Theresa is also known for her reforms in the army and the tax system. She introduced the idea of house numbers to help count the population, and set up offices and ministries. Among other things she improved the economy and transport, the Penal Code and she established the Supreme Court to maintain the law in her countries. And what is the most important for me: she passed the law that all children from age 6 to 12 must attend school.