József Klekl (Slovene: Jožef Klekl) (October 13, 1874 – May 30, 1948) Slovene (Prekmurian) Roman Catholic priest and politician in Hungary, writer, governor of the Slovene People's Party (Slovenska lüdska stranka), later congressman in Belgrade. Klekl was an active proponent of the independence of Slovene March in Hungary (Slovenska krajina), some time the fusion with State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs.
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Klekl born in Prekmurje, in Krajna, near the Styrian border. Here also was born the writer József Klekl (b. 1879), his cousin. Inasmuch as he is the senior, his distinction is József Klekl the Elder (Jožef Klekl Stari) in Slovenian. His parents, István Klekl and Teréz Sálmán, were farmers. The Klekl family is of German descent. His grandfather Anton Klekl was born in Kellerdorf, near Radkersburg, Austria.
On July 11, 1897 Klekl became priest and five year chaplain of Ferenc Ivanóczy in Tišina. Ivanóczy was at the time the governor of the Hungarian Slovenes. From 1902-1903 he was chaplain in Incéd (Burgenland), and from 1903-1905 in Črenšovci. In 1905 he became priest of Pečarovci. In 1910 he retired on a pension and lived in Črenšovci.
In 1904 Klekl founded the Hungarian Slovene Catholic newspaper Marijin liszt. In 1914 he founded the semi-radical newspaper Novine. In this news organ he took a stand against the Hungarisation of Prekmurje.
In 1918 the Austro-Hungarian Empire was breaking up. Klekl was in connection with the famous Slovene politician Anton Korošec. Korošec and a few Slovene politicians were behind the independent Slovene March, what would later make member of Yugoslavia. Klekl, József Szakovics, Iván Bassa, István Kühár and József Csárics worked out the Slovene March programme, but in Hungary the Bolshevik administration came to power and Serbian forces quickly annexed the Prekmurje.
For a long time the Prekmurians were angry at Klekl, as he did not give rise to the independent Slovene krajina. The country of Szentgotthárd henceforward remained in Hungary and in Prekmurje the official language became Slovene, not Prekmurian.
After 1920, Klekl became a congressman in the Yugoslav capital. In 1941 he enlisted in the Hungarian Army.
Klekl and Szakovics actively wrote and championed the standard Prekmurian dialect in the 20th century, which after 1945 was banned.
Klekl died in Murska Sobota in 1948.
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