Tihomir Ostojić

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Tihomir Ostojić

Dr. Tihomir Ostojić (Serbian Cyrillic: Тихомир Остојић; Potiski Sveti Nikola, Vojvodina, then part of Austria-Hungary, 17 July 1865 - Vienna, Austria, 18 October 1921) was a professor at the Serbian Visoka škola in Novi Sad, musicologist, literary and theater critic, literary historian, secretary of Matica Srpska and dean of the Faculty of Philosophy in Skopje.

Youth and education

At the age of 11 months, Tihomir lost his father Rade Ostojić. He grew up with his mother Saveta (née Firićaski), who moved to Novi Sad in order to provide her son with a better education.

Tihomir Ostojić finished primary school in Potisk Sveti Nikola. He then attended the Novi Sad Gymnasium, where he would later teach. His teacher was Jovan Grčić, who, recognizing his talent for music, welcomed him into his house, where he stayed until his graduation. During his high school days, he was a choir leader, he even composed, and he played piano and violin as instruments. Already as a high school student, he tried his hand at literary creation. At the end of 1882, he translated the work of Hofner - "Everyone is the smith of his own happiness".

As a cadet of Tekelianum, he studied philosophy (Germanic and Slavic studies) in Budapest. He was very active in the Budapest student literary society "Kolo mladih Srba". At the regular meetings of the society, he reads his many written works. She signs as Stražilova's correspondent with the pseudonym "Tih. Radova O." His works on Serbian history and small critical essays originate from his student days.

He passed the professorial exam and defended his doctoral thesis on Dositej Obradović (1894) in Vienna, under the aegis of the famous professor Vatroslav Jagić.

Educational and public work

Tihomir Ostojić worked at the Novi Sad High School from October 1889 to 1911 as a professor. He taught Serbian, Hungarian and German languages, philosophy, and occasionally singing and gymnastics. As a versatile intellectual, he publishes a number of books on music, theory and performance. At that time, they considered him a professor and a "hardworking and deserving musician" who also plays the piano well. Upon his arrival at the high school department in Novi Sad, he took over the management and conducting of the high school choir. New musical titles appear every year: "Staro Karlovac pjenije" for four voices on sheet music (1887 and 1890), "Serbian folk circle" for piano (1891), "Serbian sounds" of songs and dances for piano (1892), and books on church sheet music "Mala Katavasia..." (1880 and 1894). During his life, Ostojić mostly dealt with Dositej Obradović, and the first in a series of works about Dositej appeared in 1894. He published Dositej's fables in his mother's "books for the people". The indefatigable Tihomir founded the first Sokol Society in Novi Sad in 1901, but it operated without written rules. The work consisted in the physical exercise of the youth twice a week, and on Saturdays friendly meetings were held to discuss Slavic unity. In the Novi Sad Serbian reading room, prof. Ostojić was the vice president. At one of the social events held in the reading room in March 1902, he gave a lecture entitled: "Does Novi Sad have the conditions to become the center of Serbs in this region?". In 1905, he was the vice-president of the Zmaj (Dragon) Society of Writers, Journalists and Artists of Sremski Karlovci. One of the social activities was taking care of erecting a monument to the poet Jovan Jovanović Zmaj. He was a great and close friend of the painter Uroš Predić, whom he visited in Orlovat in 1904.

Intellectual circle "Movement"

At the end of the 19th century, Doctor of Philosophy Ostojić gathered around him a group of younger intellectuals who were looking for reforms in contemporary society. They believed that the change should be initiated and led by Matica srpska. The reforms of Matica Srpska that took place in 1899-1900. years are his work. He founded the magazine Pokret, which was published periodically from 1899 to 1912. In it, he most often attacked Matica srpska, demanding changes in the way this institution was run. The focus of criticism was on Letopis (periodical) and Matica Library. Ostojić worked as an editor for six yearbooks, starting in 1903, on the modernization of "Calendar Matica srpska".

Matica srpska

Tihomir Ostojić got attached to Matica early on; since 1898 he has been a member of its Literary Department. In 1911, Ostojić was elected secretary of Matica Srpska, with the task of rebuilding Matica and including it in the national revival movement. He held that position until March 1920, and that work was included in his retirement. As part of the reforms, he established expert bodies, "choruses", for education, art, history, anthropogeography and ethnology, as well as for the Serbian language. He proposed changes in student scholarships, worked on expanding membership and establishing a network of trustees, improving the edition of the Book for the People and publishing activities.[4] He also edited the Chronicle of Matica Srpska from 1912 to 1914.[12]

Serbian National Theater

He occasionally published theater reviews in the newspaper Pozorište, which also represents his first contact with the Serbian National Theatre (SNP). He was elected as a member of the Theater Department of the Society for the Srpsko Narodno Pozorište (Serbian national Theatre) in 1904, and as its president in 1907. As in the case of Matica Srpska, he demanded radical reforms and modernization of the theater.

World War I

After the outbreak of the First World War, he was attacked by the Austro-Hungarian authorities, as well as other prominent Serbian intellectuals in the Monarchy. Due to the disciplinary investigation that was conducted against him in Matica, and at the request of the commissioner, due to the publication of pictures of the Serbian army in the Balkan War in Matica's calendar for 1914, he resigned. Ostojić was left without an income, earning money by writing for Zagreb magazines and collecting data for the "Croatian Biographical Lexicon". He was interned due to the "spreading of Serbian propaganda" in September 1914 in a camp in Baj, then in Sekešfehervar, where he contracted tuberculosis in 1916. Even during his internment, which he spent ill and in poverty, he wrote tirelessly. During the war, he published a study on Branko Radičević in Rad JAZ in Zagreb. He returned to Novi Sad in May 1917 in a serious state of health. He recovers in Fruška gora, and then got involved in political preparations for the liberation of Vojvodina. Even during the war months, he returned to the position of secretary of Matica srpska.

Departure to Skopje

From April 1920 he was offered the position of professor and dean (May 1920) of the newly-founded Faculty of Philosophy in Skopje, Ostojić accepted this position and left Novi Sad. In May 1920, the Minister of Education made a decision to count the years (1889-1920) as a lecturer and professor at the Novi Sad High School and secretary of Matica Srpska into the pension of Ostojić, then a full-time professor at the University of Skopje. He stayed in office for a short time, due to his deteriorating health. As a dean in Skopje, he received the Order of St. Sava for educational work. In Skopje, during that year of successful work, he founded the "Scientific Society", which he presided over.

Death

He went to a sanatorium in Vienna for treatment, where he died on 18 October 1921. Tiholir Ostojić was buried on 3 November 1921 at the Belgrade New Cemetery.

He was married to Jelena, the manager of several women's boarding schools. After his death, from 1931 she ran her "Big Girls' Boarding School" in Sombor.

Academician

He was a corresponding member of the Serbian Royal Academy (from 1910) and corresponding member of the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts in Zagreb.

Selection from the bibliography

• "Serbian Literature from the Great Migration to" Dositej Obradović" (1905)
• "Dositej Obradović in Hopovo" (1907)
• "Zacharia Orfelin", "his life and work" (1923)
• "History of Serbian Literature" (1923)

See also

• Kosta Manojlović
• Petar Krstić
• Miloje Milojević
• Stevan Hristić
• Stevan Mokranjac
• Isidor Bajić
• Davorin Jenko
• Jovan Đorđević
• Josif Marinković
• Nenad Barački
• Stefan Stratimirović
• Branko Cvejić
• Stefan Lastavica
• Stanislav Binicki

References

• Translated from Serbian Wikipedia: https://sr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A2%D0%B8%D1%85%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%B8%D1%80_%D0%9E%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%98%D0%B8%D1%9B

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