The City Hall is hosting an exhibition on general Maister and the fighters for the Slovenian northern border upon the 140th birth anniversary of the general. The City of Ljubljana has honoured the anniversary by laying wreaths before the both monuments of general Maister at the Trg Osvobodilne Fronte (Trg OF) and the Ministry of Defence of the Republic Slovenia building.

The "General Maister and His Fighters for the Northern Border" Exhibition

The exhibition is arranged to honour the memory of the first general of the Slovenian army, Rudolf Maister, the great officer, poet and exceptional historic figure. The organisations behind the exhibition – the General Maister Society in Ljubljana, the City of Ljubljana and the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Slovenia – wished to portray the gratitude for his and his fighters' heroism in the fight for the Slovenian northern border, which was important for the preservation of a vast piece of land along the Slovenian border.

The exhibition will be on view until 7 April 2014 at the Glass Atrium of the City Hall.

Laying wreaths at the General Maister Monuments

Aleš Čerin, Deputy Mayor, laid the wreaths at the general Maister monuments in Ljubljana on the anniversary: first at the monument on the Trg Osvobodilne Fronte (Trg OF), and later on at the one before the Ministry of Defence building.

The Rudolf Maister monument at the Trg Osvobodilne Fronte (Trg OF) is a work of Jakov Brdar, an academic sculptor, and was put up by the City of Ljubljana in 1999. The Rudolf Maister monument before the Ministry of Defence building is a work of Boštjan Putrih, an academic sculptor, and was unveiled in 2000.

General Rudolf Maister

General Rudolf Maister - Vojanov, who was born in Kamnik on 29 March 1874, performed his most important acts during the tumultuous collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1918 - 1919 he and his army prevented Maribor and Styrian Podravje being incorporated into the newly established Republic of German Austria.

At the end of the First World War, the then-town council declared Maribor’s inclusion in the Republic of German Austria, so Maister immediately set up a Slovenian army in the area with about 4,000 soldiers and 200 officers and, on the night of 23 November 1918, he and his comrades disarmed the security guards or the so-called green guard of Maribor Germans. In November and December of that year Maister and his comrades occupied the ethnic border area in Styria. Maister, who served in various regions of Slovenia and of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, died in 1934 at Unec near Rakek, and was buried in Maribor.