Aleš Arih: Rudolf Maister, a famous Slovenian

At Rudolf Maister’s birthhouse, on so called Maister’s evenings were hosted by many different lecturers, historians, cultural figures and writers. This time, the General Maister Kamnik Society invited historian and president of the Maribor Society General Rudolf Maister Aleš Arih to visit. He will talk about how Rudolf Maister, a great Slovenian, is thought of in Styria, where his fateful decisions and actions took place. Aleš Arih will present the relationship to Maister from the first to the second Yugoslavia. And so, does the attitude towards Maister fighters. In the past, experts were not engaged in collecting material and researching the period of the first war, the creation of our country and the upheavals in Maribor. A major problem that is almost impossible to solve after a hundred years is the lack of a systematic approach to this important period in Slovenian history, although the attitude towards this long-neglected topic has changed considerably. There are still a lot of tasks for the Slovenes to do with Maister, but some important ones have already been done: for example, the publication of the 100th anniversary of the fighting for the northern border at the Mladinska knjiga publishing house. It is also a great achievement that the Maister Library at the University Library Maribor finally received the status of a cultural monument, and so on.

Aleš Arih is Professor of History and Geography. For thirteen years he successfully managed the Regional Museum of Ptuj-Ormož; in 2013, he retired. Throughout his life, he has also been researching with Maister. He has lectured and produced several exhibitions. One of the most important is the last Maister after the Maister, a house of remembrance with which he worked as one of the experts. The layout is on view in the former, beautifully renovated Štupica villa on Zavrh in Slovenske gorice. Today, Professor Arih is the president of the Society of General Rudolf Maister Maribor, and he is working intensively on Maister’s even greater recognition.