Life story
Ľudovít Štúr was born on 28 October 1815 in Uhrovec as the second child of the teacher Samuel Štúr. He was educated in Ráb and at the Evangelical Lyceum in Bratislava, where as a young man he was captivated by ideas about the right of the Slovak people to their own language and a dignified place among the nations.
He became the leading figure of the generation of Štúr's followers. In 1843, together with Jozef Miloslav Hurban and Michal Miloslav Hodža, he codified standard Slovak on the basis of the Central Slovak dialect — an act that holds the Slovak language together to this day. He published Slovenskje národňje novini, the first political newspaper in Slovak.
In the revolutionary years of 1848–1849 he stood at the head of the national movement, helped found the Slovak National Council, and demanded equal rights for the Slovaks. He was a deputy of the Hungarian Diet, yet his appeals met with a deaf authority. After the defeat of the revolution he lived under police surveillance in Modra, with his brother.
He died on 12 January 1856 in Modra from the effects of a hunting injury. He left behind a nation that had learned to claim its own tongue. His name is borne by a town, universities, and an order of merit; his legacy — that a small nation has the right to be itself — has endured through all ages.
Biographical information from public sources. Portrait: Wikimedia Commons (Public domain).
Constellation of Life
Important milestones that shaped their journey.