Angela Piskernik Explained

Angela Piskernik (27 August 1886 – 23 December 1967) was an Austro-Yugoslav botanist and conservationist.

Biography

Piskernik was born in Bad Eisenkappel in Southern Carinthia, which remained with Austria after the First World War, and held a Ph.D. in botany from the University of Vienna.^[1] Among her teachers was Hans Molisch. She worked for the provincial museum in Ljubljana and taught in various secondary schools.

As a nationally conscious Slovene woman, she was active in the Carinthian plebiscite and in a club of migrants.^[2] In 1943 she was imprisoned and detained in the Nazi concentration camp Ravensbrück.^[3] She is mentioned in the autobiographic novel "Angel of Oblivion" by the Austrian author Maja Haderlap.^[4]

After 1945 she became director of the Museum of Natural History in Ljubljana and worked in the conservation service.^[5] In particular, she made efforts to renew and protect the Juliana Alpine Botanical Garden and Triglav National Park.^{[6] [7]} She was inspired by the Italian conservationist Renzo Videsott.

In the 1960s she headed the Yugoslav delegation of the International Commission for the Protection of the Alps (CIPRA) and proposed a transnational nature park with Austria in the Savinja Alps and Karawanks. The bilateral park was, however, never realized.^[8] Today, this area is part of the European Green Belt. She died in 1967 in Ljubljana.

In 2019, Piskernik was honoured with a commemorative stamp issued in Slovenia.^[9]

Writings

• Jugoslovansko-Avstrijski visokogorski park (predlog za zavarovanje), containing a summary in English: Yugoslav-Austrian high mountain park (proposition for protection) (1965), 4, pp. 7-15

Notes and References

1. Tina Bahovec (2010): Engendering Borders: The Austro-Yugoslav Border Conflict Following the First World War, in: Agatha Schwartz (Ed.), Gender and Modernity in Central Europe: The Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and its Legacy, University of Ottawa Press,, pp. 219–234.
2. Danijel Grafenauer (2009): Carinthian Slovenes´ Clubs and the Contacts between Carinthian Slovenes and Slovene-American Politicians, in: Matjaž Klemenčič, Mary N. Harris (Eds.) European migrants, diasporas and indigenous ethnic minorities, Edizioni Plus-Pisa University Press,, pp. 83–103
3. Janez Stergar (2004): Dr. Angela Piskernik (1886–1967), Natural Scientist, Environmentalist, and Nationally Conscious Activist from Carinthia (Abstract in English), Institute of Ethnic Studies, Ljubljana. Retrieved October 31, 2013.
4. Maja Haderlap (2016): Angel of Oblivion (Translated from German by Tess Lewis), Archipelago Books, Brooklyn, New York
5. Mateja Tominšek Perovšek (2012): Slovene Women in the Modern Era (Exhibition Catalogue), National Museum of Contemporary History, Ljubljana, pp. 63–64
6. http://www2.pms-lj.si/garden/after.html Juliana after 1945
7. Vito Hazler (2010): Protection and Presentation of Cultural Heritage in the Triglav National Park and in Regional and Landscape Parks in Slovenia, Etnološka istraživanja (Ethnological Researches), Vol. 1 No. 15, pp. 53–67
8. Carolin Firouzeh Roeder (2012), Slovenia's Triglav National Park: From Imperial Borderland to National Ethnoscape, in: Bernhard Gissibl, Sabine Höhler, Patrick Kupper (Eds.), Civilizing Nature: National Parks in Global Historical Perspective, Berghahn Books, New York and Oxford,, pp. 240–255.
9. https://www.total-slovenia-news.com/made-in-slovenia/4983-angela-piskernik-scientist-honoured-with-new-stamp Angela Piskernik, Scientist, Honoured with New Stamp