Đuro Šurmin (4 September, 1867 – 22 March, 1937) was a

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

n literary historian and politician.

Biography

He was born in Sišćani. He studied

Slavic Studies Slavic (American English) or Slavonic (British English) studies, also known as Slavistics, is the academic field of area studies concerned with Slavic peoples, Slavic peoples, languages, literature, history, and culture. Originally, a Slavist or ...

Classical Studies Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek and Roman literature and their original languages ...

, and

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

at the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb since 1890, receiving a Ph.D. in 1897 with a thesis titled ''Riječi muškoga roda â-osnova u hrvatskom jeziku'' (Â-stem Words of Masculine Gender in Croatian). There, he worked as a teaching apprentice in Croatian and Serbian literature beginning in 1899, becoming a regular professor in 1906, and then serving as the dean between 1907 and 1908. In 1908, he temporarily retired, in 1910 reemployed, and, in 1921, permanently retired. He died in

Zagreb Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...

in 1937.

Political engagement

Šurmin was actively involved in politics. Since 1906 he served as a parliamentarian for the Croatian People's Progressive Party, supporting the Croat-Serb Coalition until 1917. In 1914–1922 he was the city councilor of

. In the National Council of the

Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a country in Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 until 1941. From 1918 to 1929, it was officially called the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, but the term "Yugoslavia" () has been its colloq ...

he belonged to the non-partisan group of politicians who rallied around the newspapers ''Male novine'', serving as a commissioner for commerce, trade and industry. In the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes he was originally a member of the Advanced Democratic Party, then in the period 1919–1924 as member of the Croatian Community, and finally in 1925 founding the uninfluential Croatian People's Party. In 1920 he was elected to the Constituent Assembly and served as the Minister for Social Affairs, and also later as the Minister of Trade and Industry (1924–1925). His political activity in the 1930s was tied with the regime. He was particularly active in various economic bodies, such as being the President of the People's Bank for Savings and Loans in 1925–1935.

Work

His scientific work was in the fields of history of literature, history and philology: * ''Povjest književnosti hrvatske i srpske'' (History of Croatian and Serbian Literature, 1898) * ''Iz zajedničke književne prošlosti Bosne i Slavonije'' (From the Common Literary Past of Bosnia and Slavonia, 1901) * ''Hrvatski preporod'' I–II (Croatian Revival, 1903–1904) * ''Stvaranje Srbije'' (The Creation of Serbia, 1921) * ''Osnovke ugovora u Londonu 1915.'' (The Principles of the 1915 Treaty of London, 1928) * ''Vojska i hrvatska politika 1915. god.'' (The Army and Croatian Politics in 1915, 1932) As part of the ''Monumenta historico-juridica Slavorum meridionalium'' project he prepared a collection of medieval, predominantly

Glagolitic The Glagolitic script ( , , ''glagolitsa'') is the oldest known Slavic alphabet. It is generally agreed that it was created in the 9th century for the purpose of translating liturgical texts into Old Church Slavonic by Saints Cyril and Methodi ...

monuments, which were published as ''Hrvatski spomenici'' (Croatian Monuments, 1898). His legacy is preserved in the Croatian State Archives in Zagreb.

References

1867 births 1937 deaths People from Čazma Croatian politicians Croatian philologists Croatian literary historians 20th-century Croatian historians People from Austria-Hungary Burials at Mirogoj Cemetery {{Croatia-writer-stub