Karol Grossmann

In 1884, at his mother's request, he asked for admission to the seminary in Maribor, and on September 19, his request was granted. Apparently, however, he did not agree with this step, as it was done verbally tradition, as soon as he learned that he would be accepted into the seminary, he ran away from home. When he returned and supposedly calmed down, his mother no longer allowed him to study and tore up his seminary reception desk.

Then he enrolled at the Faculty of Law in Graz. During his studies, he was a member of the Slovenian academic society Triglav, from which many excellent students have been published up to then and also later. Slovenian educated people. After passing all three state exams, he graduated in 1897.

In 1901, Grossmann entered the Graz Bar Association as a lawyer for Styria based in Ljutomer and joined his law office to the office of Dr. Fran Rosine, who you moved to Maribor a few months later. The office was in the building of the District Loan Office on Main Square; in 1910 he moved into his own house in Ljutomer, built in the Art Nouveau style style according to the plan of a Zagreb architect.

As a lawyer, he was very popular and respected by his clients because of his honesty, ability and knowledge. It had an almost exclusively peasant clientele, with only a small number of artisans and commercial. During his tenure, he resolved several large and complex disputes. According to his daughter dr. Bozen, he didn't have any major criminal trials, not because of that, because they did ran into Maribor. He also had a good relationship with his officials in the office. He remained in popular memory as an excellent jurist.

As a well-informed, but also independent and proud man, Grossmann quickly became involved in the social, educational and political life of Ljutomer; with its lively Prle nature, above all but with decisive actions when it came to the rights of Slovenes, he gave Ljutomer some fundamental moves for many years, and certainly until the end of the First World War.

With his friend, the popular district doctor dr. Karol Chlopek, they were the only academically educated Slavs in the then German Ljutomer and great warriors for Slovenian rights. In 1903, they founded the sports association Murski sokol, as a response to German nationalist pressures. Grossmann also worked in the Slovenian reading room (in 1906 even became its president) and to Ciril-Metodov's company, whose branch was founded in Ljutomer as early as 1882. It was a non-partisan association that had a national defense role (it collected funds for education, prevented the Germans from buying the farms of failed Slovenian farmers). Grossmann founded a club of Slovenian cyclists 'Migrating birds', to unite the Slovenians from Ljutomer through sports, he also led a drama club, where he directed and even acted. As a good speaker, in the profession and in society, he arranged lectures with popular science content (geography, astronomy, national economy) and helped himself with illustrations, especially with his slides. His speeches were picturesque, lively; he knew how to be humorous in society, but he also knew how to scold harshly, but because of the frankness and humanity of his critical words, most did not resent him.

Grossmann was aware that the bordering Slovenians also had to become economically independent if they wanted to progress. That is why, among other things, he proposed the establishment of the Križevska national company brick factory, which was supposed to be a counterweight to the German brick factory in Boreci near Križevci, which had the intention of acquiring and Germanizing the peasant proletariat of the surrounding area.

As a conscious Slovene, Grossmann was persecuted in various ways, but this did not scare him, it even encouraged him. He was condemned several times because of his statements and actions fines, which he never wanted to pay, so they robbed him. He always had his iron coffers seized, and then sent his clerk to redeem it.

Even before the war, Grossmann's home was a social meeting place for Slovenian families and intellectuals from Ljutomer, and during the war also for refugees from Tržaški, especially educated people. Despite his he did not go to taverns to be sociable. He loved spiritual entertainment and intelligent conversation. In the last year of the war, Grossmann befriended General Rudolf Maister, the defender our northern borders. This friendship lasted until Grossmann's death.

At the breakup of Austria-Hungary, Grossmann also enthusiastically welcomed Yugoslavia. In a speech dated December 15, 1918, he spoke about freedom, about the cultural world and the hope that we will building a new home from the ruins, in which we will live peacefully and safely. But he also warned against anarchy if man becomes a worshiper of brute force, so according to him freedom must come from out of love and respect for one's neighbor, not out of selfishness. The cradle of our happiness, our freedom, he thought, 'lies in our brains, which must practice thinking not only with the mouth and pocket, but much further'. Grossmann believed in the new country, so he was convinced that we should support it 'with all physical and mental strength.' 'And if we cultivate this selfless hope all citizens of the kingdom of the united Serbs, Croats and Slovenes,' he especially emphasized, 'our hopes must come true!'

Grossmann was also known for taking on the duties of guardian for many children, orphans and illegitimate children. He also supported local artists and students. Although Grossmann had in some periods of good income, he never invested any capital. What he earned, he mainly spent on the family, on the education of all four children and the home, on books and purchases technical innovations. He spent all his free time, when he was not working in the office or reading books, doing various handicrafts. He himself planted, arranged and cultivated a beautiful orchard; first behind the building Loan offices in Ljutomer, where he rented an apartment and an office, later in the garden of his own house.

He even did masonry work. When he bought the house in 1910 - it was not yet fully completed - he added a few balconies and a terrace on the garden side, and later two more pier on the front side of the house. In the garden, he remodeled the old outbuilding by removing the roof and arranging a terrace in its place - a garden with flower beds and dwarf fruit trees, and handsome sockets on both sides of the building.

Many people visited Grossmann's house because of the rich library, to which anyone interested in books had access. Sam preferred to read classic literature, from Shakespeare and Goethe to Prešeren. In the evenings, he also introduced his children to literature; he repeatedly read and commented on various lyrical, epic and dramatic works. Up to date but he was also in all fields of art, science and technology. He especially appreciated Greek, Roman, Persian, Indian and Inca culture.

During the last two years, when he was ill, Grossmann withdrew completely into private life and finally stopped going to the office. He died on August 3, 1929, less than half a year after the death of his own women. At the funeral pyre, they paid their last respects to the local organization Sokol and the Fire Brigade, to which Grossmann devoted a lot of work and affection. He is buried in A thermometer.

A short newspaper report in Slovenské gospodar (in 1907) mentions Grossman's cinematographic performances in the reading club. It is still a trembling, restless projection aroused astonishment and also a lot of laughter at meetings with 'moving' images. This proves that dr. Grossmann also spread film culture among the public, in a time and environment that could not have realized that he was witnessing an extraordinary historical event: the birth of Slovenian cinema.