Karel Dežman

Karel Dežman, also known as Dragotin Dežman and Karl Deschmann (3 January 1821 – 11 March 1889), was a Carniolan liberal politician and natural scientist. He was one of the most prominent personalities of the political, cultural, and scientific developments in the 19th-century Duchy of Carniola. He is considered one of the fathers of modern archeology in what is today Slovenia. He also made important contributions in botany, zoology, mineralogy, geology and mineralogy. He was the first director of the Provincial Museum of Carniola, now the National Museum of Slovenia. Due to his switch from Slovene liberal nationalism to Austrian centralism and pro-German cultural stances, he became a symbol of national renegadism.

He was born to an upper middle class Slovene family in Idrija, Duchy of Carniola (now in Slovenia). After his father's death in 1824, he moved to Ljubljana, where he was raised by his uncle Mihael, who was a financial supporter of the Slovene national revival, and a personal friend of the philologist Franc Metelko.

After finishing high school in Ljubljana and Salzburg in 1839, he enrolled in the University of Vienna, where he studied medicine and law. In Vienna, he soon came under the influence of Slovene romantic nationalists, and became part of the Slovene radical youth. Among others, he participated in the public funeral of the Polish exile patriot Emil Korytko in Ljubljana, and was chosen to carry his coffin.

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