JULY 17 - A bit on the recent history of the city and area around it.
At the end of WWI and breakup of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the city council of Maribor determined that the city would be annexed to Austria. However, this did not sit well with many Slovenians, as the area is ethnically Slovene. One of the great war heros of Slovenia, Rudolf Maister (a career soldier from WWI fighting for the Austro-Hungarians), came to Maribor to rally his fellow Slovenes to resist this decision by violent means. In the ensuing conflict, the German troops who were in the city were forced to withdraw, and the city was secured for the State of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs. Along with the rest of what is now Slovenia, it was eventually merged into Yugoslavia, where it remained until separating, as previously discussed, in 1991.
