Ľudovít Štúr (Slovak pronunciation: [ˈʎudɔʋiːt ˈʃtuːr]; 28 October 1815 – 12 January 1856), also known as Ľudovít Velislav Štúr, was a Slovak revolutionary, philosopher, politician and writer. He was a leader of the Slovak national revival in the 19th century and the codifier of standard Slovak. He is lauded as one of the most important figures in Slovak history.
Štúr was an organiser of the Slovak volunteer campaigns during the Hungarian Revolution of 1848. He was also a poet, journalist, publisher, teacher, linguist, and member of the Hungarian Parliament.
Ľudovít Štúr was born on 28 October 1815 in Zayugróc, Kingdom of Hungary, Austrian Empire (now Uhrovec, Slovakia; in the same house where Alexander Dubček was later born) as the second child of Samuel and Anna Štúr. He was baptised in the Evangelical Lutheran church in Uhrovec. He acquired his basic education, including the study of Latin, from his father Samuel, who was a teacher. From 1827 to 1829, he studied in Győr, where he attended a lower grammar school. There, he improved his knowledge of history and the German, Greek, and Hungarian languages. These studies inspired his admiration of Pavel Jozef Šafárik, Ján Kollár and Jiří Dobrovsky. In 1829, he decided to change schools.
From 1829 to 1836, Ľudovít Štúr studied at the prestigious Lutheran Lýceum (preparatory high school and college) in Pressburg (modern-day Bratislava) and became a member of the Czech-Slav Society, which stimulated his interest in all Slav nations. The Lýceum boasted a renowned professor, Juraj Palkovič, in the Department of the Czecho-Slav Language and Ancient Literature, the only department at a Protestant school of higher education in 19th century Hungary.
In 1831, Ľudovít Štúr wrote his first poems. From January to September 1834, he temporarily interrupted his studies due to a lack of finances, and returned to Uhrovec, where he worked as a scribe for Count Károly Zay. Later that year, he resumed his studies, was active in the historical and literary circle of the Czech-Slav Society, was responsible for correspondence with members of the Society, gave private lessons in the house of a merchant in Pressburg (Bratislava), taught younger students at the Lýceum, and established contacts with important foreign and Czech scholars. On 17 December 1834, he was elected secretary of the Czech-Slav Society at the Lýceum.
In May 1835, Ľudovít Štúr persuaded Jozef Miloslav Hurban to become involved in the Slovak national movement. Also that year, he was co-editor of the Plody ("Fruits") almanac, a compilation of the best works of the members of the Czech-Slav Society, including poems of Štúr's. He became vice-president of the Czech-Slav Society, teaching older students at the Lýceum the history of the Slavs and their literatures.
In 1836, Štúr wrote a letter to Czech historian František Palacký, in which he stated that the Czech language used by the Protestants in Upper Hungary had become incomprehensible for ordinary Slovaks, and proposed the creation of a unified Czechoslovak language, provided that the Czechs would be willing to use some Slovak words – just like Slovaks would officially accept some Czech words. But the Czechs were unwilling to accept this, so Štúr and his friends decided to introduce a completely new Slovak language standard instead. On 24 April 1836, a trip to Devín Castle (Dévény, now part of Bratislava) by the members of the Slovak national movement took place, led by Štúr as the vice-president of the Czech-Slav Society. The beginning of his group's extensive efforts on behalf of national awareness are linked to this visit to the ruins of Devín Castle, woven together with legends and reminders of Great Moravia. There, The members of the Czech-Slav Society swore to be true to the national cause, deciding to travel around Upper Hungary to drum up support for their ideas. At the castle, they also adopted additional Slavic names (e.g., Jozef Hurban became Jozef Miloslav Hurban, etc.).
From 1836 to 1838, as deputy (non-stipendiary assistant) for Professor Palkovič, Chair of the Czechoslovak Language and Literature Department at the Lýceum where he was previously a student, he taught History of Slavic Literature. He continued to write poetry and under his leadership, the number of members of the Czech-Slav Society continuously increased. In this year, a poem of Štúr's was published in printed form for the first time: Óda na Hronku ("An ode to Hronka"). In April 1837, the Czech-Slav Society was banned due to a commotion between students at the Lýceum. One week later, Štúr founded the Institute of the Czechoslovak Language and Literature, within which the activities of the Czech-Slav Society continued. In that year, he continued to write articles for newspapers and journals, including Tatranka, Hronka, Květy (Czech), Časopis českého musea, Danica (Croatian) and Tygodnik literacki (Polish).
Travels in Germany and early political works
From 1838 to 1840, he attended the (Protestant) University of Halle in Germany, where he studied linguistics, history, and philosophy. He was influenced by the works of the German philosophers Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Johann Gottfried Herder. Also during this period, his poetic cycle Dumky večerní ("Evening Thoughts", written in Czech) was published in the Czech journal Květy. He left Pressburg for Halle in September 1838. On his way to Halle, he spent more than a month in Prague, in the company of Czech patriots. In the spring of 1839, Štúr made a long journey to the Upper and Lower Lusatia in Germany (inhabited by Slavs) and got in touch with the Slavs there. He wrote the short travelogue Cesta do Lužic vykonaná na jar 1839 ("A journey to Lusatia made in the spring of 1839"), written in Czech and published in the Czech journal Časopis českého musea.
In 1840, he returned to Bratislava via Prague and Hradec Králové (Königgrätz), where he spent some time in the house of publisher Jan Pospíšil. From October, he was once again working as deputy for Professor Palkovič at the Department of the Czecho-Slav Language and Literature at the Evangelical Lutheran Lýceum, teaching courses of grammar and Slav history, and continuing his activities at the Institute of the Czechoslovak Language.
During 1841–1844, Štúr was co-editor of Palkovič's literary magazine, Tatranka. In 1841, he started activities aimed at publishing a Slovak political newspaper. He wrote defenses and polemic texts, as well as his Starý a nový věk Slovákov ("The old and the new age of the Slovaks"), written in Old Czech and published in 1935 (not in Slovak until 1994). On 16 August 1841, Štúr and his friends ascended Kriváň (a symbolic mountain in Slovak culture), an event that is now commemorated by annual excursions to its summit. In 1842, he initiated the first Slovenský prestolný prosbopis, a Slovak petition to the Royal Court in Vienna requiring the government to stop national persecutions by the Hungarians in Upper Hungary. His application for a licence to publish a newspaper was turned down in the same year.
Codification of the Slovak language
On 2 February 1843, in Pressburg, Štúr and his friends decided to create a new Slovak language standard (later used as a basis for contemporary literary Slovak), based on central Slovak dialects – a common language that would unify all Slovaks speaking many different dialects. From 26 to 29 June 1843, a special committee met to investigate the Institute of Czechoslovak Language at the Lýceum, also interrogating Štúr.
In July 1843, his defense, Die Beschwerden und Klagen der Slaven in Ungarn über die gesetzwidrigen Übergriffe der Magyaren ("The complaints and grievances of the Slavs in Hungary about the illegal malfeasances of the Hungarians"), which editorial offices throughout 19th century Hungary had refused to publish, was published in Leipzig, Germany. From 11 to 16 July 1843, at the parish house of J. M. Hurban in Hlboké, the leaders of the Slovak national movement – Štúr, J. M. Hurban, and M.M. Hodža – agreed on how to codify the new Slovak language standard and how to introduce it to the public. On 17 July 1843, they visited Ján Hollý, an important writer and representative of the older Bernolák Slovak language standard, in Dobrá Voda and informed him about their plans. On 11 October 1843, although the committee did not find anything illegal about Štúr's activities, Štúr was ordered to stop lecturing and was removed from the function of deputy for Prof. Palkovič. However, Štúr continued to give lectures. On 31 December 1843, he was definitively deprived of the function of deputy for Prof. Palkovič. As a result, in March 1844, 22 students left Pressburg in protest; 13 of them went to study at the Evangelical Lýceum in the town of Levoča (Lőcse). One of the supporting students was Janko Matuška, who took the opportunity to write a hymn, "Nad Tatrou sa blýska", which later became the official anthem of the Slovak Republic.