“Erased from the Face of God”: Slovene Economic Nationalism in Press Reports on A. Kajfež & Co. in Kočevje

Abstract

The paper looks into how influential the ideology of economic nationalism was in Slovene lands and in what contexts it appeared. This is explored through a case study of an entrepreneur and landowner, Anton Kajfež, and his sons, owners of one of the largest Slovene companies in Kočevje (Gottschee) before World War I and in the interwar period. The company focused primarily on timber trade and became a significant shareholder in many regional companies and banks. Kajfež was a promoter of the local Slovene economy and used his wealth to strengthen it with a series of projects designed to attract Slovene labour, with the goal of overtaking the influence of the Gottscheers, a local group of German origin. The Kajfež family ran up a deficit of several million dinars, so bankruptcy had to be declared in 1928. Because of the close ties the Kajfež company established in the region, the collapse was a major blow to the entire local Slovene economy and politics. The Gottscheers celebrated the company’s demise and its negative impact on Slovenes. The affair is an example of a late interwar national struggle between Slovenes and Germans, much more common in the Austro–Hungarian period.