Angela Piskernik
{{short description|Austrian-Yugoslav botanist and conservationist}}
Image:Angela Piskernik 1966.jpg
Angela Piskernik (27 August 1886 – 23 December 1967) was an Austro-Yugoslav botanist and conservationist.
Biography
Piskernik was born in Bad Eisenkappel in Southern Carinthia, which remained with Austria after the First World War, and held a Ph.D. in botany from the University of Vienna.Tina Bahovec (2010): Engendering Borders: The Austro-Yugoslav Border Conflict Following the First World War, in: Agatha Schwartz (Ed.), Gender and Modernity in Central Europe: The Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and its Legacy, University of Ottawa Press, {{ISBN|978-0-7766-0726-9}}, pp. 219–234. Among her teachers was Hans Molisch. She worked for the provincial museum in Ljubljana and taught in various secondary schools.
As a nationally conscious Slovene woman, she was active in the Carinthian plebiscite and in a club of migrants.Danijel Grafenauer (2009): [http://www.cliohres.net/books4/6/05.pdf Carinthian Slovenes´ Clubs and the Contacts between Carinthian Slovenes and Slovene-American Politicians] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304062610/http://www.cliohres.net/books4/6/05.pdf |date=2016-03-04 }}, in: Matjaž Klemenčič, Mary N. Harris (Eds.) European migrants, diasporas and indigenous ethnic minorities, Edizioni Plus-Pisa University Press, {{ISBN|978-88-8492-653-1}}, pp. 83–103 In 1943 she was imprisoned and detained in the Nazi concentration camp Ravensbrück.Janez Stergar (2004): [http://www.inv.si/DocDir/Prispevki/JStergar_APiskernik.pdf Dr. Angela Piskernik (1886–1967), Natural Scientist, Environmentalist, and Nationally Conscious Activist from Carinthia] (Abstract in English), Institute of Ethnic Studies, Ljubljana. Retrieved October 31, 2013. She is mentioned in the autobiographic novel "Angel of Oblivion" by the Austrian author Maja Haderlap.Maja Haderlap (2016): Angel of Oblivion (Translated from German by Tess Lewis), Archipelago Books, Brooklyn, New York
After 1945 she became director of the Museum of Natural History in Ljubljana and worked in the conservation service.Mateja Tominšek Perovšek (2012): [http://issuu.com/muzejnzs/docs/katalog_angl_www/63 Slovene Women in the Modern Era] (Exhibition Catalogue), National Museum of Contemporary History, Ljubljana, pp. 63–64 In particular, she made efforts to renew and protect the Juliana Alpine Botanical Garden and Triglav National Park.[http://www2.pms-lj.si/garden/after.html Juliana after 1945] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111229003235/http://www2.pms-lj.si/garden/after.html |date=December 29, 2011 }} Slovenian Museum of Natural History, Ljubljana. Retrieved November 19, 2013.Vito Hazler (2010): [http://hrcak.srce.hr/file/93446 Protection and Presentation of Cultural Heritage in the Triglav National Park and in Regional and Landscape Parks in Slovenia], Etnološka istraživanja (Ethnological Researches), Vol. 1 No. 15, pp. 53–67 She was inspired by the Italian conservationist Renzo Videsott.
In the 1960s she headed the Yugoslav delegation of the International Commission for the Protection of the Alps (CIPRA) and proposed a transnational nature park with Austria in the Savinja Alps and Karawanks. The bilateral park was, however, never realized.Carolin Firouzeh Roeder (2012), Slovenia's Triglav National Park: From Imperial Borderland to National Ethnoscape, in: Bernhard Gissibl, Sabine Höhler, Patrick Kupper (Eds.), Civilizing Nature: National Parks in Global Historical Perspective, Berghahn Books, New York and Oxford, {{ISBN|978-0-85745-525-3}}, pp. 240–255. Today, this area is part of the European Green Belt. She died in 1967 in Ljubljana.
In 2019, Piskernik was honoured with a commemorative stamp issued in Slovenia.[https://www.total-slovenia-news.com/made-in-slovenia/4983-angela-piskernik-scientist-honoured-with-new-stamp Angela Piskernik, Scientist, Honoured with New Stamp] Total Slovenia News. Retrieved January 20, 2020
Writings
- [http://www.dlib.si/details/URN:NBN:SI:DOC-PBZHTJAF/?=&language=eng Jugoslovansko-Avstrijski visokogorski park (predlog za zavarovanje)], containing a summary in English: Yugoslav-Austrian high mountain park (proposition for protection) (1965), {{Lang|sl|Varstvo narave}} 4, pp. 7-15
References
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Category:Slovenian women botanists
Category:Ravensbrück concentration camp survivors