On 6 February 1795, Prince Wilhelm of Auersperg (finally) obtained a granted concession from Vienna and construction works commenced. However, because the works proceeded slowly, pig iron first flowed from the blast furnace only a year later, on 17 April 1796. Production immediately exceeded expectations. The ironworks buildings were built on the banks of the Krka River, and water was used to power bellows for blowing air into the blast furnace and kilns, to drive sledgehammers, to wash and crush ore, and to power machines in the mechanical workshops, wood lathes, grinders, saws and pumps.

With the advent of the water-powered double drum blower, which was built in Dvor, iron ore production was even faster. The quality and quantity of pig iron produced have also increased significantly. This allowed the Dvor Ironworks to expand and modernise. In 1804, the Dvor Ironworks became the first ironworks in the whole of the then Slovenian territory to smelt cast iron directly from the blast furnace.

The Dvor Ironworks: Unrivalled in the Whole of Carniola

After the abolition of the Illyrian provinces, the iron manufacturing industry in Carniola fell into a severe crisis. In March 1817, the management of the Dvor Ironworks reduced the number of employees from 216 to 92, and the total production of iron dropped sharply from 493 to 143 tonnes. The drastic cuts were caused by competition from English and Swedish iron in Italy and the Middle East, which was 20% cheaper. Nevertheless, from 1820 to the mid-19th century, the Dvor Ironworks had no real competition in Carniola, as it was the only iron foundry that dominated the domestic market, as well as the markets in Italy and Croatia.

In 1822, the dilapidated blast furnace was rebuilt and raised by 2.5 metres, and two years later, two more cupola furnaces with a height of over three metres high were built. They enabled pig iron from the blast furnace to be melted directly into cast iron. The cupola furnaces enabled a significantly higher production of quality cast iron, and the transformation of the Dvor Ironworks from a classical ironworks to a large iron foundry was complete. During this period, a limestone and slag crusher, a sledgehammer, a crane for carrying heavier products and a new material storage building were also acquired. In the 1830s, the Dvor Iron Foundry again employed between 220 and 250 workers and produced between 392 and 448 tonnes of pig iron, foundry and other products annually. It has thus become the largest and even the only foundry in the whole area south of the Alps.

As such, it struggled to meet the great number of orders it received from home and abroad. Its products were abroad mainly sold in Italy and Croatia. In 1835, it also had three warehouses: in Ljubljana (in Auersperg’s Princely Court), in Trieste and in Venice. In Dvor, the quality of the products was ensured by well-trained employees, who came mainly from the Styrian lands. The Dvor Iron Foundry also employed a large number of miners, foresters, charcoal-burners and carriage drivers, who were exclusively locals. Until the middle of the 19th century, there was no iron foundry in Carniola that was comparable to the one in Dvor in terms of technology, quality and quantity of the products produced and the number of workers. On 13 March 1836, it was therefore granted the status of a privileged ironworks at provincial level.

Poor Management and the Emergence of competition Led to an Inglorious End

On 9 August 1836, the Dvor Ironworks was hit hard by the death of its most successful director, Ignatz Vitus Engelbert Pantz. Owner Auersperg has not had a lucky hand in choosing his successor. In the years that followed, a lack of management experience and poor business decisions by Pantz’s successors led to the deterioration of many factory buildings and installations. The lack of even basic maintenance work has led to a sharp decline in the quality of pig iron and iron products. Irregular payments also caused the workers’ eagerness and productivity to dwindle.

In addition, in the second half of the 19th century, the Dvor Iron-Foundry also found a competitor in the Rosthorn Ironworks in Prevalje in Carinthia, which mainly produced rails, axles and railway wheels. Foundries in Bohinjska Bistrica (producing pinions, hydro turbines, rings and pistons for steam engines, sewer equipment and iron railings) and in Gradac in White Carniola (Bela Krajina) (producing mainly semi-finished products made of iron, and ammunition) were also put into operation. The Dvor Ironworks did not undergo any major technological development in the second half of the 19th century.

Moreover, in 1870, before the great banking crisis in the Habsburg Monarchy, it was still fully operational. It continued to produce agricultural machinery and tools, mining and ironworks machinery, mill machinery, etc. However, by this time there already operated 27 competing iron foundries in the Austrian part of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. Many other iron foundries in the monarchy already had railway connections to their markets, but in Dvor, raw materials and products still had to be transported by horse-drawn carts. However, the status of the Dvor Ironworks deteriorated drastically after the foundation of the Austrian-Alpine Coal, Iron and Steel Industry Company in Vienna in 1881. In a very short time, it dominated the ironworks industry in the whole of Inner Austria and, with its performance and diversification of iron industry, dictated the direction of development in this industry and thus the fate of the existence of other iron foundries.

The Dvor Ironworks managed to keep up with the competition for only about six years before it finally lost power. Due to competitors using more modern assets and because of outdated transport connections made the production much more expensive, and this was the main reason for the final collapse of this once leading Carniolan iron foundry. On 1 October 1891, the Dvor Ironworks officially ceased operations altogether. For Dvor and the surrounding area, its closure was a severe economic blow, leaving many people jobless. This was followed by increased migrations from the area. For ten years after the closure of the foundry, the inhabitants of Dvor quietly hoped that production would resume, at least to a limited extent, but in the end it never came about.

Predominantly Artistic Pieces and Useful Products

Throughout its history, the Dvor Iron Foundry has produced a wide variety of mainly artistic pieces and useful products. For example, they produced 94 different types of machines, machine parts, tools, kitchenware, irons, stoves, roof tiles, tomb crosses, railings and weights, and they also cast 89 different types of artistic castings for personal, domestic and ecclesiastical use (imperial and royal coats of arms, religious and ancient reliefs, writing instruments, clock and iron bases, candlesticks, jewellery, etc.). The production of artistic cast iron products, such as tombstones, decorated stoves, railings, window grilles, fountains, etc., was a special feature of the Dvor Ironworks.

Its products were not drastically different in shape from those of other renowned foundries across Europe. As early as 1820, naval cannons were being cast according to English models. The products were also labelled in Dvor, most famously with the HOF IN KRAIN signature. The products of the Dvor Iron Foundry were distinguished at three industrial and trade exhibitions of the Inner Austrian states and were unrivalled among the hardware products in Slovenia. In 1833, they also cast the one-metre-high coat of arms of the Auersperg princes in Dvor for the façade of the health spa building in Dolenjske Toplice.

Round and square coal and wood-fired stoves formed an important part of the production of the Dvor Ironworks. They had 14 different stove models in stock. In addition to these, cannons of various calibres, ammunition, boilers, pots for cookers, kitchen and other bowls, cooker plates, cemented ballasts, kitchen mortars, door jambs, plumbing tubes and sewer covers were cast. Two thirds of total production was devoted to cast products.

Sources:

• Pungerčar, Majda. 2021. Na Dvoru ulita umetnost. Novo mesto: Dolenjski muzej.
• Šorn, Jože. 1980. Železarna na Dvoru pri Žužemberku: zgodovina, tehnologija, izdelki. Novo mesto: Dolenjski muzej.
• Žargi, Matija. 2000. Železarna na Dvoru ob Krki. Novo mesto: Dolenjska založba.

Prejšnja objava: Ljudska balada o detomorilki: slovenske in kočevarske različice.

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The beginnings of mining in Kočevska area

Mining in Kočevska area dates back to the first years of the 19th century. In September 1803, Prince Karl Wilhelm Auersperg was the first to obtain a mine prospecting licence for lignite in the area where Trata is today and opened the “Wilhelm’s Excavation Site”. The prince did not persist with the excavation for long, because the volume of excavated material was modest and the mineral ore did not prove useful in the iron industry, which he fostered as the owner of the ironworks operating in Dvor near Žužemberk. After a long period without mining activity in the area, in 1820 the mining rights were granted to Ivan Röthel, an inhabitant of Kočevje, who opened the “St. John” excavation site. Although the volume of excavated coal was not abundant, he exploited it for industrial purposes, for his brickworks. It was the first plant in Kočevje to introduce lignite into the production process.

Later, coal was mined in Kočevje by some wealthy townspeople, and the most prominent was the Viennese Razinger family, which was involved in glassmaking. Brothers Anton, Nikolaj and Franc immigrated to Kočevje in 1849 and two years later received the prospecting right. The success of the glassworks led to more and more coal being mined to meet production needs. In 1859, seven additional 7 mining site measurements (7×4,5 ha) were granted with 150 miners working there. As intensive mining required increasing investments, the Razinger family became over-indebted and gradually went bankrupt.

Kočevje Coal Mine: prosperity under Trbovlje ownership

At the end of the 19th century, the Trbovlje Coal Mining Company took over ownership of the coal mine and started investing in it. A brickworks, lime kiln, separation plant, heating plant, machine shop, central workshop, sawmill and a steam engine with an electric generator were built. In September 1893, Kočevje officially opened a railway line to Ljubljana for the transport of lignite, and the first train operations had already commenced on this route two months earlier. The “Iron Road” enabled the Kočevje Mine to break into the international market and fostered industrial development of the town of Kočevje. The coal mine became the largest industrial plant in the Kočevska region, and its operation also brought the first electrification to the town. In 1919, a water pipeline was built from the Rinža River to the mine with an electric pump.

Mining continued uninterrupted during the World War I, but after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, the Kočevje mine’s operations declined. The railways were nationalised, and the coal supplies were significantly reduced. The Trbovlje Coal Mining Company cut investments and consequently a large number of workers were let go. In 1919, around 1.200 miners were employed, but in 1930 only around 100 still worked there.

Kočevje miners’ revolt

During the World War II, a field committee of the Liberation Front of the Slovene Nation was organised in the Kočevje mine. Kočevje miners went to the partisans in large numbers and also carried out various acts of sabotage, delivering material and food to the partisans through the mine. Because miners left to fight in the war, there was a marked decline in mining activity. The Italians arrested many of the miners from Kočevje, some of whom were deported to a concentration camp in Padua. The mine administration sent food parcels to the internees. During the Italian occupation, the mine was fenced off with wire. In December 1943, the Partisans destroyed most of the mining installations. As there was no electricity for pumping, the pit was flooded with water, making it impossible for the occupying forces to extract the coal.

After the end of World War II, the Trbovlje Coal Mining Company became state-owned. The mine was first renamed to Kočevje Mine and then to Kočevje Lignite Mine. Restoration work began, but destroyed equipment and unskilled miners hindered the re-establishment of production. The operation of the mine was essential for the economy of Kočevje, therefore the miners were exempted from compulsory military service. Due to a shortage of local labour, miner workers from Dry Carniola, Central Sava Valley, and Slovene Littoral and Prekmurje Regions were recruited. In August 1950, the Workers’ Council took over the management of the mine, abandoning production on the open-pit mine and retaining only pit mining. In 1961, a new separation plant was opened, which improved the quality of the coal, and production began to rise sharply in the following years.

Merger with ITAS and mine closure

In 1970, lignite production exceeded 200,000 tonnes. The miners were well paid for their successful work, and their income was among the highest in the municipality. Although the Kočevje Mine rose to the top of the Yugoslav coal mines during this period, coal reserves gradually declined. The administration decided to switch production in order to retrain the miners. The production programme of the fast-growing ITAS company allowed for a relatively simple and quick retraining, and a referendum on the merger of the company and the mine was successfully held in May 1971. After approval by the two Workers’ Councils, the mine was formally incorporated within ITAS in March 1972. Although the mine had been scheduled for closure four years earlier, the energy crisis meant that mining continued until 28 February 1978. This finally marked the last day of the turbulent history of the Kočevje Coal Mine.

Kočevje Coal Mine today

Today, Kočevje’s mining past is still reflected in the infrastructure from that period. The most famous remnant is certainly the increasingly popular Rudnik Lake. The abandoned buildings of the mine separation plant and the former mining colony are further reminders of the history of the mine workers. But there there is also another illustrative reminder, namely the names of local settlements, such as Rudarsko naselje (Mining settlement) and Rudnik (Mine). The areas of Trata are marked with Roman numerals from I onwards, according to the site measurements, which were measured and staked out in 1849. Also worth mentioning is the railway line to the capital, which was after many decades re-established as a regular line in January 2021.

Viri:
Jerbič Perko, Vesna. 2005. Rudnik rjavega premoga Kočevje. Kočevje: Pokrajinski muzej.
Rustja, Karel. 2015. 120 let kočevske železnice. Kočevje: Pokrajinski muzej.
Zupan, Janko. 1963. Rudarji ob 20-letnici kočevskega zbora. Kočevje: Kočevski tisk.

Read how retired miner Franc Volf remembers miners life in Kočevje here.

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The retired Kočevje miner recalls that the coal mine held a great significance to the town of Kočevje and Kočevska region in general during the time he worked there. The mine provided livelihood for many families and the mining profession was held in high esteem.

“The mine was undoubtedly of crucial importance for the entire Kočevska region, not just for the town of Kočevje. To be perfectly honest, the then Kočevje practically “grew” from the mine. In industrial and economic terms, everything revolved around the mine. At that time, there was also a large Tekstilana factory that mainly provided employment for our wives, and LIK, another important company. But there is no doubt that the mine was in all respects the main driver of development in the town and its wider surroundings.”

The love of mining outweighed the difficult work

The following recollections of the retired miner from Kočevje best illustrate very strenuous and dangerous work in the mine:

“I got up at 5am because we started work at 6am. I was lucky to live near the mine. Before entering the mine, you had to change into mining work clothes. We miners were often wet because there was lots of water in the pits. We had to dry our clothes by the next day. There was a load of work, but it was also well paid. Because there were so few of us in the pits, we could not be “slacking”. We had to work a lot and hard. It was also dangerous. It is well known that a mine that is closing is the most dangerous for miners. There were times when the pressure around us was so intense that the mineral deposit collapsed before our eyes.”

Although the daily work in the coal mine was hard, he loved it. “We also worked on Saturdays and Sundays, there were practically no days off. We always had to be 100% present with our body and mind. Fortunately, I was young and was fit enough to withstand all the strains. It was also quite helpful that I led a healthy life, and didn’t drink alcohol or smoke, which was unlike many of my mining colleagues. In a way, working in the mine was like being married – we mine workers were a bit smitten with the mine. After the mine closed, I went to work at ITAS with a very heavy heart. When the coal mine ceased operations, it must have been us, the miners, who suffered the worst. We really loved this job, so it was really difficult to leave the mine behind.”

Not only colleagues, but also friends

As Franc Volf points out, the Kočevje miners were not only colleagues, but also true friends. Together, they spent many hours working in the mine and many afternoons socialising during leisure activities.

“We liked to spend time together. Mine workers are a special kind of people, so we stuck together a lot. In those days, there were still trade union trips or excursions. Mine workers from all over Slovenia met often. For example, people from Kočevje went to Trbovlje, Zagorje or Hrastnik, and they visited us. We visited each other, got to know each other and had a good time. We were friends. I don’t know if workers in any other line of business shared such a strong bond. We had quite a few friends in Trbovlje in particular, as Trbovlje was considered a kind of Slovenian mining centre at that time.”

There were many amusing anecdotes, and heavy tragedies as well

Despite the difficult working conditions and physically demanding working hours, the friendly relationships between the miners brought about many interesting stories. Franc Volf remembers particularly well an anecdote where older miners liked to “play a trick” on their younger colleagues.

“When a young miner came to work in the mine, the older miners would send him to the ventilating assembly, which was always running, saying that the electric connection was there. Not knowing this, the newcomers headed there, and when they arrived, they immediately rushed back to where they came from, because there was no oxygen up there. We also talked about the notorious Perkmandeljc, and we scared the young miners that he was watching us from above. These jokes could be cruel, and some colleagues were completely petrified. In the ten years I worked in the mine, there was plenty of such events.”

Unfortunately, his time in the Kočevje mine was also marked by two tragedies, which he still remembers vividly to this day.

“We have had two fatal accidents when the shaft caved in on two of our miners. Vinko Kotar and Jože Lipovec lost their lives in work accidents. Having also worked as a mine rescue worker, I have been personally involved in both tragedies. Both of them remained stuck in the shaft for about 14 to 20 days because we simply were not able to get to them before that. They were caught where the Mine Lake is today. At that time, there were two other lakes, and we faced a high risk of ingress of silt – that is, a mixture of water, mud and clay. So we had to break through to them from a completely opposite side. We miners always greeted each other with “good luck”, and we meant it literally, because we never knew what awaited us in the mine. We were always with one foot in the ‘afterworld’.”

Only a handful of miners are still alive today

Once a year, Kočevje miners meet on their special day, the Miner’s Day. Miners’ Day, which is commemorated on 3 July, is celebrated every year at the Kočevje Regional Museum, where a social event is organised to reminisce about miners’ lives. With the exception of this organised gathering of former mining comrades, the few who are still alive, according to Franc Volf, rarely see each other due to old age and illness.

“Unfortunately, there are very, very few of us left. I can count my Kočevje mining colleagues who are still alive today on the fingers of one hand. And those who are still with us are already very old and in poor health. I was one of the youngest miners at the time, but most of my peers have already passed away. In fact, all those miners who lived less healthy lives, who smoked, drank alcohol, etc., have passed away long time ago. Fortunately, what has kept me going, apart from a healthy lifestyle, is that I often hike in the woods where I hunt and pick mushrooms.”

Source: interview with retired Kočevje miner Franco Volf, conducted on 14 November 2023. 11. 2023.

In the previous post, read:Student project for the Gottscheer ethnological exhibition in Občice.

The post Franc Volf, a miner from Kočevje: memories of a miner’s life in Kočevje appeared first on Gottscheer blog.

Who would have thought that one of the least attractive matches of the championship on paper, between two opponents who are not among the world’s top football teams, would attract the attention of soccer fans in Kočevje. During the 36 th minute of the match between the USA and Wales, when young USA forward Timothy Weah dexterously took a pass from a teammate on the edge of the penalty area and beat the Welsh goalkeeper with the outside of his foot to score the Americans a 1–0 lead. You will say nothing special. And you would be right if the son of the Liberian President, who is also considered by far the best football player in Liberian history, George Weah, was not in question. With this, 20-year-old Timothy recalled the golden days of his legendary father, who in 1995 won the most prestigious individual award in the world of soccer, the Ballon d’Or for the best soccer player on the planet.

And why is this soccer player important for Kočevska region, or how is he connected to it in any way? The answer is simple: he is the first (former) soccer player from the Blau-Weiss Gottschee Soccer Club from New York to score in the biggest football championship in the world! Timothy was a member of the New York club’s youth team from 2010 to 2013, where he learned his first soccer skills. Although he has only played for the club in the youth divisions and has never played for them at the professional level, it is a great recognition of the successful work of this USA team with Gottscheer tradition.

Gottscheer Soccer Club in New York

The Blau-Weiss Gottschee Soccer Club was founded in 1951 by a group of immigrant Gottscheers in New York. The founders set it up to “revive the spirit of their homeland”. The club was already successful in its early years in competitions of German clubs in the USA, and soon won the right to compete in US national championships. From the very beginning, they have focused on the systematic development of young players who have gone on to enviable careers at major clubs.

In the first decades, the club was dominated by players of Gottscheer descent or had at least distant Gottscheer roots. This practice has since changed, and today the majority of the team is made up of USA soccer players. Blau-Weiss Gottschee currently has 26 active teams in different age categories, 20 in men’s and six in women’s competition. As a branch, the club is closely linked to one of USA’s most famous soccer clubs, the New York Red Bulls of the elite American MLS league, where it serves as a talent incubator.

As mentioned above, Timothy Weah is the greatest jewel of the youth school of the Gottscheer club, but among its most outstanding “products” are some players who have made a strong mark in the US and internationally. In particular, Mike Windischmann, who even captained the US team at the 1990 World Cup in Italy, Matteo Ritaccio, who currently plays for the youth team of the English giant Liverpool, and Joey Fink, who was a teammate of the famous Pelé in the mid-1970s.

Joey Fink – a Gotscheer Who Played alongside Pelé

The greatest soccer player of all time, the legendary Pelé, has recently left us. Given that the famous Brazilian virtuoso played for only two clubs in his entire soccer career (his home club Santos and the New York Cosmos), there are few former soccer players still alive who can boast of having been his teammates. One of the lucky ones is Joseph “Joey” Fink, an American of Gottscheer descent, who shared a locker room with the King, as the Brazilian was nicknamed, at the New York club for a few months.

Born in New York in 1951, the 71-year-old Fink’s surname suggests that his ancestral roots are in Kočevska region. Fink’s parents moved to the USA from Smuka in Kočevska region in 1950, so that Joey was born just a year later in one of the world’s biggest cities. At the age of eight, as a descendant of the Gottscheer people, he started practising soccer with the Gottscheer club Blau-Weiss Gottschee, where he stayed until the age of 20. He then enrolled to New York University, where he continued to play soccer until, in 1973, he was offered his first professional contract by the New York Cosmos, worth $2,100 per season.

Fink played for the Cosmos as a forward from 1973 to 1975, and in his final season was joined by Pelé, the world’s most famous soccer player at the time. Joey scored 20 goals in the strongest American league, which also earned him six appearances for the US national team. He played 12 games with Pelé. After the New York club brought in Giorgio Chinaglia, a well- known Italian forward, Fink was traded to the Tampa Bay Rowdies. Nevertheless, the honour of playing with the world’s first true superstar is something that even much more famous soccer players than him can envy the American Gottscheer.

This is how Joey Fink remembers the great Pelé: “He was sociable, relaxed and charismatic. He knew how to make us all feel comfortable in his company. He was always smiling, a real people’s man with the quality of a world star. Even though he was already in his mature soccer years when he came to us, at 35 he was still an outstanding soccer player with flashes of brilliance.”

Gottscheers Kicked around in Cleveland as well

Around the same time as in New York, descendants of Gottscheers founded their own soccer club in Cleveland. The Gottscheer Soccer Club was founded in 1953 and Arnold Mausser became its first president. At first, it had only four Gottscheer descendants playing there, but over the decades it has welcomed players from different ethnic backgrounds into its ranks.

The club was conceptualised on the model of the Austrian giant (Austria Soccer Club) from Vienna, and that is why its players initially wore purple jerseys, inspired by the famous team. The Gottscheer team from Cleveland had a good record in the early years of its existence, winning the 1956 Ohio State championship. Many other successes and prizes followed, which also secured the club the right to compete at the US national level.

In the meantime, the club changed its name to German-American Sport Club for sponsorship reasons. In 1985, they moved to Novelty, Ohio, where they have been coaching and playing home games ever since. It currently has a men’s and women’s team, a men’s reserve team and a veterans’ team.

Sources:

• Blau-Weiss Gotschee Soccer Club Facebook page, accessible viahttps://www.facebook.com/BlauWeissGottschee/
• Blau-Weiss Gotschee Soccer Club website, accessible via https://bwgottschee.org/
• New York Red Bulls Soccer Club website, accessible viahttps://www.newyorkredbulls.com/
• Wikipedia site, accessible via https://www.wikipedia.org/
• Sieder, Joseph at al. 1989. 1889-1989 E.O.U.V.
• Online conversation with Joey Fink.

Read more about soccer in Gottschee before the Second World War here.

The post A “Gottscheer” Star among the Heroes of the World Cup appeared first on Gottscheer blog.

Soccer was played recreationally in Kočevska region as early as the end of the 19 th century. The pioneers in the area were German Turners, followed by Kočevje grammar school students. Nevertheless, the beginning of organised soccer in Kočevska region is considered to be the period after the end of the World War I. In 1920, the Kulturno-prosvetno društvo Svoboda Kočevje (Svoboda Kočevje Cultural and Enlightenment Society), which was mainly made up of mine and other workers from Kočevje, became active. Under the umbrella of this society, sportspersons from three sports disciplines – athletes, track and field athletes and soccer players – participated. Today’s Kočevje Soccer Club therefore considers the year of its foundation (despite many subsequent name changes) to be the name mentioned above.

Strong German Influence

The design of the Svoboda coat of arms testifies to the fact that the first soccer club in Kočevje had a strong German influence. It was a circle divided into quarters with four mirrored letters F. These symbolised the German adjectives frisch, fromm, fröhlich and frei (fresh, pious, joyful and free). The first “real” organised soccer match took place in Kočevje on 6 August 1922, when the local Svoboda team hosted the team of the same name (Svoboda) from Most pri Ljubljani.

During this period, soccer was also actively played in the neighbouring villages of Kočevje. The most famous and successful club at that time was the German Sportklub Rapid Mitterdorf from Stara Cerkev. The village had a full soccer team and defeated Svoboda 8:1 in their first match against each other. Alfred Erker, a healthcare worker who had studied in Graz, brought football knowledge to Stara Cerkev, while local merchant Greisch bought the team black and white striped jerseys, modelled on those of the Austrian football giant Rapid from Vienna.

Slovenian-German Derby in Kočevje

In 1926, the Kočevje soccer club was renamed from Svoboda to Sportski klub Jadran. It hosted its matches on the pitch where Gaj Stadium stands today. Kočevje grammar school students played for it mainly, but was also joined by soccer players from Stara Cerkev, who handed it the aforementioned black and white jerseys. Practically at the same time, another Kočevje club of the time, Sportklub Herold, was formed, mainly by German trade apprentices. It was chaired by the glassmaker Walter Engele and played its home matches on the same pitch as the Jadran club. The third football club in Kočevje in the post-war period was the Sportski klub Dijaški dom, which, as its name suggests, was made up of students from the local boarding school.

In 1935, a new soccer club of Gottscheers, Sportklub Rapid Gottschee, was founded in Kočevje. It was part of the so-called Kulturbund (Swabian-German Cultural Association). This was the beginning of the national conflicts and tensions between Slovenes and Germans in Kočevska region, which were also reflected in soccer. In June of the same year, the Slovenian soccer players from Kočevje united for the first time in one single, unified club, which was called Sportski klub Kočevje.

It was the first independent soccer association in Kočevje, which was not just a subsection of a sports association offering with a wide range of disciplines. The most interesting, intense and well attended were the matches between the two city rivals , which were watched live by up to 2,000 spectators. Despite the fact that the pre-war atmosphere in Kočevje was highly- charged, according to testimonies from that time, no major riot, neither by fan groups nor political, took place at any of the matches.

During the World War II, practically all sporting activities in Kočevje ceased. Most of the football players of SK Kočevje joined the national liberation struggle partisan resistsance (NOB), many of them were also internees in German concentration camps. After the war, the majority of the German population was expelled from Kočevska region, which meant the end of German football in the area. This, of course, also marked the end of the matches between the Slovenian and German teams from Kočevje.

Sources:

• Gorše, Jože. 2020. Kočevski nogomet: Že stoletje. Kočevje: Pokrajinski muzej.
• Kordiš, Ivan, Jerbič Perko, Vesna in Pavlin, Tomaž. 2019. Telovadba in šport na Kočevskem. Kočevje: Pokrajinski muzej.
• FC Kočevje website, available at http://www.nkkocevje.si/.

Have you ever heard of the Pollichmandle – the guardian of dormiece? You can find more information about this typical Gottscheer narrative hero here.

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