Ivan Kramberger
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Ivan Kramberger | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 4 May 1936 |
| Died | 7 June 1992 (aged 56) Jurovski Dol, Municipality of Lenart, Slovenia |
| Manner of death | Assassination |
| Party | Homeland National Party (1991-1992) |
Ivan Kramberger (ⓘ); 4 May 1936 – 7 June 1992) was a Slovenian inventor, writer, philanthropist, and politician. In 1992, he was assassinated during his pre-election speech.
Kramberger was born in Ženjak, a former village (now part of the settlement of Benedikt) in northeastern Slovenia, Kingdom of Yugoslavia. He was one of eleven children in a poor family. He made his fortune in Germany, where he worked as a hospital technician and patented a series of improvements for dialysis machines.[citation needed] The funds he had amassed through royalties on his patents, he distributed among the impoverished people in Slovenia in a Robin Hood manner, and he also purchased dialysis machines for hospitals in Slovenia.[citation needed] He lived a modest life with his wife and children, and enjoyed collecting and repairing vintage cars. He was also styled as the "Benefactor from Negova" (Slovene: dobrotnik iz Negove).
Politician
He was an eccentric figure in the Slovene media and politics. He held populist political speeches at the Prešeren Square in the centre of Ljubljana. He was known for making long speeches - sometimes for hours on end - without using notes, and attracted huge crowds wherever he went. With popular backing, he was one of the candidates in the first round of the 1990 Slovenian presidential election, in which he obtained 18.5% of the votes and placed third. Two years later, he stated he would not be a candidate in the 1992 Slovenian presidential election, and would instead run with his political party in the 1992 Slovenian parliamentary election.[1]
