Vladislav F. Ribnikar

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Vladislav F. Ribnikar was the founder of Politika, the oldest Serbian newspaper. He led the newspaper from the day it was founded in 1904 until his death in combat in 1914.

Vladislav F. Ribnikar was born in Trstenik (Serbia) in 1871 the eldest son of Dr. Franjo Ribnikar. Vladislav went to school in Jagodina and Belgrade. He studied at the University of Belgrade from 1988 to 1892, received his Masters degree from the Sorbonne in Paris and went to Berlin to study at the Humboldt University on a state scholarship. The coup d’etat in May 1903 which saw the end of the Obrenovic dynasty in Serbia stopped him from finishing his Ph.D. The arrival of the Karadjordjevic dynasty to the throne brought democracy and the freedom of the press for the first time in Serbia. Vladislav F. Ribnikar influenced by his experience in France and Germany decided to participate in this new élan by founding the first independent Serbian newspaper.

The idea to create an independent newspaper, without links to any of the political parties, was a novel idea in Serbia. No one thought that an independent newspaper could survive without help from a political party (there were already eleven daily party oriented newspapers at the time). Luckily for Vladislav his wife was ready to invest her personal fortune into the endeavor. Politika was founded in January 1904 and in only a few years managed to become the most important daily in Serbia.

Vladislav stayed at the helm of Politika until his death in 1914. As a reserve officer he participated in the Balkan wars in 1912-1913. With the start of the First World War he was once again called back to active duty. He was killed in action on the 1st of September 1914 while leading the seventh charge of the day against the Austro-Hungarian army, one day after his youngest brother Darko F. Ribnikar, reserve captain and editor-in-chief of Politika, was killed by an enemy shell.