- Petar Preradović
Petar Preradović (
March 19 ,1818 -August 18 ,1872 ) was aCroatian poet.Biography
Preradović was born in the village of
Grabrovnica , which was part of the AustrianMilitary Frontier . His parents wereSerbian Orthodox and, like many from the area, he chose to become a professional soldier. He was educated at the military academy atWiener Neustadt where he converted toCatholicism and later excelled as one of the best students. There he began to write his first poems in German.After graduation he was stationed in
Milan , where he metIvan Kukuljević Sakcinski , who inspired him to start writing in Croatian. Preradović was later stationed inZadar where he began to write for the local Croatian newspaper "Zora dalmatinska" in 1846. He then went toZagreb where he met the leading figures of theIllyrian movement .In 1847 he was again stationed in
Italy where he took part in the Wars of Italian Unification. When he returned toCroatia , he became a close associate ofJosip Jelačić . He was stationed to various Austrian military outposts and gradually rose to the rank of general.Preradović wrote poetry under the strong influence of
national romanticism , while his poems often show Panslavist ideas. Due to family tragedy, he took interest inspiritism and wrote some articles about the subject.His life, torn between his military career, politics and literature, was also marked by gambling problems and bad health. He died in
Fahrafeld ,Austria at the age of 54.He had seven children. One of his grandchildren was
Paula von Preradović , Austrian poet and the author of Austrian national anthem.Gallery
References
External links
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
