Jože Pučnik

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Jože Pučnik in the late 1990s.
Jože Pučnik in the late 1990s.

Jože Pučnik (9 March 1932 – 11 January 2003) was a prominent Slovenian public intellectual, sociologist and politician.

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[edit] Early life and formation

Pučnik was born in the small village of Črešnjevec near the Lower Styrian town of Slovenska Bistrica, in what was then the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (now in Slovenia). His came from a Roman Catholic peasant family who has supported the Liberation Front of the Slovenian People during World War Two. Already as a teenager, Pučnik clashed with the Communist establishment. Because of some critical thoughts published in the high school paper Iskanja ("Quests") he was prohibited to take his final exam.[1] Since he couldn't enroll in the University, he was drafted in the Yugoslav People's Army. After completing his service, he took the final exam, passed it successfully and enrolled at the University of Ljubljana, where he studied philosophy and comparative literature, where he graduated in 1958.

While living in Ljubljana, he became involved with a group of young intellectuals, known as the Generation of '57, which tried to challenge the rigid cultural policies of the Titoist regime in Slovenia and open a space for public debate. Among Pučnik's closest collaborators from that period were the literary historian Janko Kos and the philosopher Ivan Urbančič. Pučnik believed the system could be changed from inside and therefor joined the Communist Party of Slovenia. At the same time, he published several articles in the magazine Revija 57, in which he opelny criticised specific policies carried out by the Communist regime.

[edit] The dissident years

In 1958, Pučnik was arrested, accused of "subversion of the Socialist system" and sentenced to 9 years in jail. At the trial, which lasted only a couple of hours, he was accused of having instigated workers to strike. Some have suggested that Pučnik's imprisonment was a deliberate attempt by the regime to silence the dissident intellectuals.[2] He was released in 1963 and he immediately continued writing for the alternative journal Perspektive. At this point, he was already publicly stating his disapproval of the regime.[3] In 1964, his article Problemi napega kmetijstva ("The Problems of Our Agricolture") was published in the journal Perspektive. In it, Pučnik criticized the agricoltural policy of the regime, agrumenting its inefficiency using publicly available official data. He was arrested again, sentenced to another 2 years in prison and expelled from the Communist Party.

During his time in prison, Pučnik became the idol of his generation.[4][5] The playwright Dominik Smole dedicated him the play Antigone and Primož Kozak portrayed him in the leading role of his play Afera ("The Affaire"). Both plays were a metaphor of the totalitarian repression in Communist Yugoslavia.[6]

[edit] Emigration and academic career

Pučnik was released from jail in 1966. After some unsuccessful attempts to find a job, he decided to emigrate to Germany. He settled in Hamburg, making a living from manual jobs. When he decided to enroll to postgraduate studies at the University of Hamburg, the University of Ljubljana refused to issue him a copy of his degree.[7][8] He thus enrolled again to undergraduate study of philosophy and sociology, obtaining his PhD in 1971. He worked at the University of Hamburg and Lüneburg, where he taught sociology. During his life in Germany, Pučnik became a supporter of the German Social Democratic Party, maintaining close relations with several of its leaders.

In the academic sphere, he became influenced by the theories of Jürgen Habermas, Niklas Luhmann and his system theory, as well as by several phenomenological sociologists such as Alfred Schutz and the Slovene-born Thomas Luckmann.[9]

During his exile years, he maintained a correspondence with several of his old firiends, especially Ivan Urbančič.

[edit] Return to Slovenia

In the 1980s, Pučnik could again publish articles in Slovenia, this time in the alternative journal Nova revija. He returned to Slovenia in 1989 upon the invitation of the newly formed opposition Social Democratic Union of Slovenia. He was elected president of the party in 1989 and the next year he was chosen as the leader of the DEMOS coalition, a common platform of all democratic opposition parties in Slovenia. The coalition won the first democratic elections in 1990. Pučnik ran for President of Slovenia but lost to Milan Kučan, last secretary general of the Communist Party of Slovenia. He was nevertheless elected in the Slovenian Parliament and remained the official leader of the DEMOS coalition. Between 1990 and 1992, he was among those who led Slovenia to independence from Yugoslavia. In 1992, after the fall of Lojze Peterle's coalition government, Pučnik decided to lead his party into a coalition with the Liberal Democratic Party and shortly served as vice-president in Janez Drnovšek's first government.

In the elections of 1992, Pučnik's Social Democratic Party of Slovenia suffered a defeat, barely guaranteeing the entry into Parliament. He resigned his post as president of the party in favour of Janez Janša. Between 1992 and 1996, Pučnik served as a member of the National Assembly of Slovenia. During this time, he led a parliamentary commission set to clarify the political responsibilities for the summary killings perpetrated by the Communist regime in Slovenia after World War Two.

After 1996, he retrieved from active politics, but remained the honorary president of the Social Democratic Party of Slovenia and continued to voice his opinion on matters of public interest. He remained utterly critical of the policies of Prime Minister Janez Drnovšek and President Milan Kučan.

He died in Germany in 2003 and was buried in his home village of Črešnjevec.

[edit] Legacy

Pučnik is considered by many to be one of the fathers of independent Slovenia. In 2006, he was posthumously awarded the Order of Distinct Merits of Slovenia and in 2007 the Government of Slovenia honoured him by naming the main international airport in Slovenia, Brnik Airport after him. The Slovenian liberal conservative think tank Jože Pučnik Institute is also named after him.

[edit] Major works

  • Kultura, družba in tehnologija ("Culture, Society and Technology", 1988).
  • K političnemu sistemu Republike Slovenije ("Towards a Political System of the Republic of Slovenia", 1990).
  • Iz arhivov slovenske politične policije ("From the Archives of the Slovenian Political Police", 1996).
  • Izbrano delo ("Selected Works", edited by Ivan Urbančič, Janez Janša et al., 2003).

[edit] References

  1. ^ Mladina.si
  2. ^ Interview with Taras Kermauner on the Sloevnian National TV
  3. ^ Mladina.si
  4. ^ Odprti kop - Intervju: Dr. Taras Kermauner
  5. ^ Mladina.si
  6. ^ Odprti kop - Intervju: Dr. Taras Kermauner
  7. ^ Inštitut Jožeta Pučnika => joze pucnik
  8. ^ Mladina.si
  9. ^ http://www.ceeol.com/aspx/getdocument.aspx?logid=5&id=F681B62B-37ED-4910-8E7B-93F5B140CCE7

[edit] Sources

  • Niko Grafenauer, "Beseda o Jožetu Pučniku" in Ampak, yr. 4, n.1 (January 2003), 10.
  • Drago Jančar, "Stvar Jožeta Pučnika" in Konec tisočletja, račun stoletja (Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, 1999).
  • Dean Komel, "Jože Pučnik: prestopanje družbe kot zastopanje kulture" in Nova revija, yr. 26, n. 301/303 (May-June 2007), 2-8.
  • Božo Repe, "Človek, ki je pospeševal in radikaliziral dogodke: Jože Pučnik" in Delo, yr, 45, n. 14 (January 15, 2003), 6.
  • Rudi Šeligo, "Jože Pučnik: 1932-2003" in Ampak, yr. 4, n.1 (January 2003), 4-5.
  • Ivan Urbančič, "Jože Pučnik 1932-2003" in Delo, yr. 45, n. 17 (January 22, 2003), 2.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links