Municipality of Kočevje

Municipality of Kočevje Občina Kočevje
Municipality

Flag Coat of arms
Location of the Municipality of Kočevje in Slovenia
Coordinates: 46°38′35″N 14°51′34″E / 46.64306°N 14.85944°E / 46.64306; 14.85944
Country	Slovenia
Government
• Mayor	Vladimir Prebilič
Area
• Total	555 km² (214 sq mi)
Population (2021)^[1]
• Total	15,644
• Density	28/km² (73/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02 (CEST)
Website	www.kocevje.si

The Municipality of Kočevje (pronounced [kɔˈtʃeːwjɛ]; Slovene: Občina Kočevje) is a municipality in southern Slovenia. The seat of the municipality is the city of Kočevje. Today it is part of the Southeast Slovenia Statistical Region. In terms of area, it is the largest municipality in Slovenia.^[2]

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History

In 1247 Berthold, Patriarch of Aquileia granted the area around Ribnica within the imperial March of Carniola to the Carinthian counts of Ortenburg. When the counts received further estates on the wooded plateau down to Kostel on the Kolpa River in 1336 from Patriarch Bertram, they called for German-speaking settlers from Carinthia and Tyrol. These Germanic people became known as the Gottscheers, and their dialect, Gottscheerish.

The Gottscheers lived in isolation in the Gottschee area, which was variably a county, duchy, and district of the Habsburg Empires. They were primarily subsistence farmers, although Gottscheer men were granted the right to peddle in 1492, with peddling becoming a vital source of income in the impoverished area. The Gottscheer population peaked at 26,000 people in the late 19th century, although emigration to Austria and North America increased due to poverty and, later, discriminatory anti-German policies in the young Kingdom of Yugoslavia. By 1939, only 12,500 Gottscheers remained in Slovenia.

As a part of the National Socialist "Heim ins Reich" policy, Gottscheers were hastily resettled to the Rann Triangle, to the northeast of Gottschee, to make way for Italian settlement in the district. Constantly targeted by the Yugoslav Partisans, the Gottscheers fled Slovenia altogether as Nazi Germany collapsed, and were scattered across Germany, Austria, the United States, and Canada. Partisan activity in the region also thwarted Italian settlement aspirations.

The municipality was the site of the Kočevski Rog massacre in May 1945, part of the massive Bleiburg repatriations. Its victims were Slovenes and other Yugoslavs accused of collaboration with the Germans.

Many of the municipality's ex-German villages were abandoned and razed after the war, and the area was resettled by a geographically diverse group of Slovenians, creating a unique mixed dialect area. The municipality remains sparsely populated, and was the site of several secret military installations in Yugoslav times.

Settlements

In addition to the municipal seat of Kočevje, the municipality also includes the following settlements:

Flag

The municipal flag of Kočevje is a tricolor consisting of three equal horizontal bands displaying the colors of Kočevje: blue and white, emblazoned with the coat of arms.^[3] The association with the colors blue and white dates to the 1470s, when Emperor Frederick III approved the design of the coat of arms, along with civic rights, on 19 April 1471. The flag during that time varies from the one seen today. The old flag was a bicolor of blue and white, defaced with the coat of arms, which was also different at the time.

Notable people

Notable people that were born or lived in the Municipality of Kočevje include:

Matej Bor (1913–1993), poet and author
Milan Butina [sl] (1923–1999), academy-trained painter, art teacher, art theorist
Ivan Jurkovič (born 1952), apostolic nuncio to Russia
Zofka Kveder (1878–1926), writer
Alois Loy [Reasonator search] (1860–1923), longtime mayor
Viktor Parma [sl] (1858–1924), composer
Roman Erich Petsche (1907–1993), teacher, painter, and Righteous Among the Nations
Jože Šeško [sl] (1908–1942), secondary-school professor, social revolutionary, communist resistance fighter
Franjo Uršič [Reasonator search] (1898–?), geologist, taught at the secondary school before the Second World War

References

^ "Prebivalstvo po naseljih, podrobni podatki, Slovenija, 1. januar 2021". stat.si (in Slovenian). Retrieved 12 May 2022.
^ "Municipality of Kočevje". Place Names. Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia. Retrieved 4 September 2012.
^ "Zastava in grb Občine Kočevje" [The Coat of Arms and Flag of the Municipality of Kočevje] (in Slovenian). Retrieved 20 August 2017.

Bibliography

Gauß, Karl-Markus (2001). Die sterbenden Europäer. Unterwegs zu den Sepharden von Sarajevo, Gottscheer Deutschen, Arbëreshe, Sorben und Aromunen (in German). Vienna: Zsolnay. ISBN 3-552-05158-9.
Mitja, Ferenc. "Kočevska, Bleak And Empty". Retrieved 14 October 2006.