Who was that? Štefan Furdek

If you have ever visited Bratislava's Petržalka housing estate, you may be familiar with Furdekova Street. But who is this street named after? A native of the village of Trstena, located in the Žilina region, he had a truly colourful life. But only part of it he lived in Slovakia. The second part of his life Štefan Furdek spent in the United States of America, where he actively participated in the organization of the community of Slovak migrants. That is why many call him the father of the American Slovaks.

Stefan Furdek Máte problém s prehrávaním? Nahláste nám chybu v prehrávači.

He attended grammar school in Banská Bystrica and Nitra, then continued his education at the Theological Faculty in Budapest, moving to the University of Prague in 1877 where he studied classical philology and theology.

In 1882, Štefan Furdek moved to the USA, since his native country didn’t like his revivalist attitudes. In the USA he completed his theological studies and settled in Cleveland, Ohio, where he worked first among Czech immigrants and later founded the Slovak settlement of St. Ladislav in Cleveland.

He soon became one of the most important organizers of Slovak compatriot associations and movements in America. In 1890 he founded the First Catholic Slovak Unity, of which he became the first chairman and whose membership gradually grew to 100,000 members. He was also the editor of its magazine Jednota.

In 1907 he was a co-founder of the Slovak League and became its first chairman. The League gradually became the umbrella for all the major Slovak associations in the USA and during the First World War it was the only truly recognized representative of Slovaks on the world stage. It was the author of two important documents supporting the establishment of a common state of Czechs and Slovaks: the Cleveland Agreement and the Pittsburgh Agreement.

Furdek also founded a number of other associations: the Association of Slovak Journalists, the Central Slovak National Committee and the Union of Catholic Women. He also organized cultural life and education in his native language for Slovak children in Cleveland. He also tried to support his compatriots in his native country in every possible way and organized support actions to promote Slovak cultural life in Slovakia and protest rallies against the national policy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Today you can find streets named after Štefan Furdek in several Slovak towns and you could even find his statue in Cleveland. So now you know who Štefan Furdek was!