The Subcommittee of Matica hrvatska in Osijek in 1936-1945

Sa？etak The subcommittee of Matica hrvatska in Osijek was founded in 1936 on the initiative of several active members and commissioners of Matica hrvatska in Osijek, among which Franjo Helfrich, Aleksander He？imovi？ and Matija Kova？i？ can be singled out. Grammar school teacher Tomislav Paveti？ was elected president at the Constitutional Assembly. The membership structure has been analysed on the basis of available member lists. It has been possible to examine the very rich and propulsive cultural activities of the Subcommittee of Matica hrvatska in Osijek which gave it an important position within the framework of the social, cultural and intellectual network of interwar Osijek. The activities include the establishment of specialized divisions within the Subcommittee, meetings of members, public lectures with home and guest participants, the publication of thematic articles in Hrvatski list, the collaboration with related cultural and heritage institutions in the territory of the city of Osijek, the distribution and sale of publications of Matica hrvatska and so on. These activities continued until 1937; but for a serious review of the activities of the Subcommittee in the following years there is a lack of source materials. However, apparently, even according to rather fragmentary sources, the Subcommittee of Matica hrvatska in Osijek continued its work during the time of World War II and the Independent State of Croatia. After Paveti？’s death in 1940 Milan Bla？ekovi？ became president and many notable members of the Subcommittee took office within the governmental and political apparatus of the newly established state (Stjepan Hefer, Milan Bla？ekovi？, Franjo Helfrich, Kamilo Krvari？, Matija Kova？evi？, Franjo Lukac, Mi？o Mazur and Karlo K？hler) while others primarily pursued their professions (Kamilo Firinger and Josip B？sendorfer). During this period the Subcommittee issued in 1944 its own journal Hrvatski sjever (Croatian North) one of the two active journals of the Subcommittee of Matica hrvatska outside of Zagreb; however, it was issued in two numbers only