120 Years of Planinski Vestnik

Planinski vestnik, the oldest still published Slovenian magazine, has been delighting Slovenian mountain lovers for 120 years. Its first issue was published as the bulletin of the Slovenian Mountaineering Society in Ljubljana on February 8, 1895. Planinski vestnik has in all periods of its publication been a mirror of the work of the mountaineering organization, mountaineering culture, a reflection of general conditions and the spiritual experience of mountains by Slovenians, and today it represents the most complete historical archive of Slovenian mountaineering and its umbrella organization, the Mountaineering Association of Slovenia.





Planinski vestnik is considered the oldest Slovenian magazine still in publication. It has been delighting Slovenian mountain lovers for 120 years. Planinski vestnik, as the bulletin of the Slovenian Mountaineering Society (SPD) in Ljubljana, presented itself to the public in its first issue, which was published on February 8, 1895, with the following program: "So that the Slovenian Mountaineering Society achieves its purpose (to publish, promote and support interesting mountaineering writings and images), the board of the Sl. pl. dr. decided to start publishing a monthly dedicated to gentle mountaineering from 1895, which will publish interesting lectures and various mountaineering writings and images." The young Slovenian Mountaineering Society, in the years of testing national consciousness, needed a connecting, educational, and informative mission, which the Vestnik systematically implemented among the membership. Thus, it anchored itself in the hearts of all who, over this long period, helped to spread mountaineering awareness. Today, Planinski vestnik represents the most complete historical archive of Slovenian mountaineering and its umbrella organization, the Mountaineering Association of Slovenia.



The oldest Slovenian regularly published monthly has been a companion to mountaineers since the time of Jakob Aljaž. Together with the first rare readers, it witnessed the erection of the Aljaž Tower on the summit of Triglav, rejoiced with them at the first hut on Kredarica, reported on the opening of our first paths to the high mountains ... and later relived the boldness of the first climbers at home, and when the time was ripe, also on the highest peaks of the world. Planinski vestnik rejoiced at the setting of important historical milestones and sincerely mourned the tragedies, an inevitable part of all successful stories.



"Planinski vestnik represents a mirror of 120 years of events on the Slovenian mountaineering scene. It stores the entire collection of knowledge with which our mountaineering organization has successfully weathered all the reefs in the period of its long existence. This knowledge is worth as much today as a good cookbook on the shelf; it is useful only when in use - and every good cook is aware of that. Ours is even more complete. It will also record failed dishes, from which future generations of mountaineers can draw lessons," emphasizes Vladimir Habjan, editor of Planinski vestnik since 2001, on the venerable jubilee, who also illuminates the current role of the magazine: "In the Slovenian media space, Planinski vestnik has important cultural and professional value, attracting a wide circle of readers, including those not from mountaineering ranks. If we look even broader, today's magazine is comparable in form and content to a series of the highest quality foreign mountaineering and alpinistic magazines."



"Planinski vestnik has successfully combined contents interesting to a wide circle of mountain lovers with contents important to the mountaineering organization in its rich history. I believe that Planinski vestnik will continue to maintain an appropriate balance between diverse mountaineering topics and thus remain the central Slovenian magazine in the field of mountaineering, while also being the magazine of the mountaineering organization - and that would also be my central wish on the 120th anniversary of the magazine. On this occasion, I would like to thank everyone who has in any way collaborated in creating the respectful tradition of Planinski vestnik from the beginnings to today," greets the 120th anniversary of Planinski vestnik the president of the Mountaineering Association of Slovenia, Bojan Rotovnik.



Planinski vestnik has been in all periods of its 120-year publication a mirror of the work of the mountaineering organization, mountaineering culture, a reflection of general conditions and the spiritual experience of mountains by Slovenians. It published diverse contents: information on the most important events in mountaineering, from organizational, club, and economic to sports, expeditionary, and others, scientific and popular science articles from the history of mountaineering, orography, meteorology, glaciology, speleology, toponymy, and other sciences, mountaineering-alpinistic travelogues, articles on nature and nature protection, literary contributions, poems, and literary reviews. Today, Planinski vestnik tries to "educate the reader with professional-educational articles, culturally educate with literature and excellent photography, raise awareness in an environmental spirit, and with historical articles significantly contribute to the knowledge of Slovenian mountaineering and its role in the turbulent past. With descriptions of excursions in the center of the magazine, it safely directs him on mountaineering paths, which is actually the most important for every visitor to the mountain world," highlights member of the editorial board Dušan Škodič in a short historical outline of Planinski vestnik, which you can read in full at the end of the message.



In 2012, after more than ten years, the project of digitizing all issues of Planinski vestnik was completed. Today, all copies from 1895 onwards are available in PDF format on the website www.pvkazalo.si, where the search engine for individual publications is also of great help. Since January 2010, the magazine has been published in large A4 format, giving readers a richer graphic appearance with better photographs in addition to quality content. Due to the modern design that follows global trends in such publishing, it is experiencing a new, youthful rise again. It is not read as an ordinary magazine, but as an invitation to mountaineers, alpinists, skiers, cyclists, cavers, paragliders ... or simply mountain aesthetes, in short, to all for whom it means a lot to return home satisfied and internally fulfilled from their activities in the mountains. Therefore, for many, it is an indispensable companion between the mountains and at home.



With the February issue, we mark the venerable 120th anniversary of the publication of Planinski vestnik, the oldest still published Slovenian magazine. The first issue of our monthly was published on February 8, 1895, issued by the then only two-year-old Slovenian Mountaineering Society (SPD) in Ljubljana.

Except for the war years, when it was published very abridged or even ceased, the Vestnik has in the existing more than 1300 issues delighted, educated, and culturally enlightened entire generations of our mountaineers. Today, it is issued by the successor of the former SPD, the Mountaineering Association of Slovenia (PZS).

Membership in SPD in the early period, that is, still in the time of Austria-Hungary and until the beginning of the First World War, meant more a conscious attitude towards Sloveneness and the homeland than towards the natural beauties of the mountain world. It was a time of awakening national consciousness, when Germans were reaching for our mountains, and precisely because of that, SPD was founded. It was mainly about gathering and socializing people with national-conscious goals.

Later, the mission of the mountaineering organization changed, as did Planinski vestnik, which nevertheless retained some common points through all periods. It always represented the official bulletin of its mountaineering organization, advocated for generally accepted and established social values, tried to be content-diverse, and despite emphasizing national interests, remained politically neutral. This is probably also one of the more important reasons for the attachment of part of the subscribers, who remain loyal to it for entire decades. It is also the most complete archive of Slovenian mountaineering that we have. Planinski vestnik was in its first years partially tied to membership in SPD.

Its editor became the renowned linguist and professor Anton Mikuš, who in the first editorial revealed the purpose with which SPD began publishing its official bulletin: "So that the society also achieves its purpose in this regard, the board of 'Sl. pl. dr.' decided to start publishing a monthly dedicated to gentle mountaineering from 1895, which will publish interesting lectures and various mountaineering writings and images. The newspaper will also pay attention to traffic and bring various club news and domestic and foreign tourist and mountaineering news and also report on the activities of the 'Slovenian Mountaineering Society' and similar societies in other countries. We will also publish biographies of famous Slovenian hill climbers from previous times, such as about the leader of Slovenian tourists Valentin Stanič. Among us Slovenians, tourism has been cultivated too little until recently, and the beauties of our lands were better known to foreigners than to locals. Foreigners were enthusiastic about the natural beauties of our regions, but locals did not know the pearls that adorn Slovenian land."

As we can see, at the beginning of publication, the national element was actually very present in Planinski vestnik, but what certainly catches our eye the most is the archaic Slovenian, whose understanding we have to try quite hard. Of course, the magazine in the first years was far from as extensive as we know it today, it was published in a smaller format and on only sixteen pages, so it hardly deserves its name. The financial situation was bad all the time, so the publishers immediately resorted to advertising marketing.

In 1908, the editorial position was taken over by Dr. Josip Tominšek, the younger brother of the then president of SPD Fran Tominšek. Tominšek's era of editing lasted as long as 32 years, but due to the First War storm, he edited "only" 26 volumes. The era of his editing can be divided into two parts, between which was the war, when publication was temporarily interrupted. There were delays in printing and despite good intentions, the last issue was published with the month of August.

After the end of the war and the collapse of the monarchy, many things changed. Slovenians finally became recognized in the Kingdom of SHS or the later Kingdom of Yugoslavia, but unfortunately, a third of our territory and inhabitants remained behind the new Italian border. On the other hand, Germanization disappeared, so the mission of SPD and Planinski vestnik changed.

In the post-war period, Planinski vestnik was no longer included in the club membership fee, but became entirely dependent on subscribers. The new beginning was difficult, in the first year there were barely a quarter of SPD members as subscribers.

In 1933, there was a change in SPD. This was also noticeable in editing, where their demands for more attractive (mainly alpinistic) contents and greater emphasis on photography were implemented.

In 1941, Slovenia, as well as most of Europe, was occupied. The position of editor in those ungrateful and dangerous times was taken by the lawyer and publicist Dr. Arnošt Brilej. The magazine was published irregularly during the war and in a very reduced scope. The publications were completely neutral and the war was practically not even mentioned in the articles, so they did not disturb the Italian nor later German occupation authorities. The last year was the hardest, as for the whole year 1945 only a relatively extensive Planinski zbornik was published, which dedicated space mainly to the memory of mountaineers who perished in the war storm.

After the war, there were attempts at changes in the organization itself, the name of the magazine was also changed. Thus, in volume 1946, it was published with a new name: Gore in ljudje. The new name did not catch on with readers, there was also quite a bit of dissatisfaction, and after two years, the old name, Planinski vestnik, appeared on the cover again.

After nine volumes, Brilej handed over the position to the Slavist, professor Tine Orel, who marked the next three decades (1950–1979) and in that time also edited a record thirty volumes. His era covered the time from the years of post-war reconstruction to the year when our Himalayans achieved a world-resounding ascent to Everest.

Those years we connect mainly with the growth of PZS membership (it experienced its peak in 1989, when it counted as many as 114 thousand members) and massiveness, and in alpinism progress on a world scale. In 1979, Planinski vestnik was awarded by the order of the then Marshal Tito on the 80th anniversary of publication with the Order of Merit for the People with Silver Rays (as we can read in the explanation, Planinski vestnik 1979, p. 441) - for a special contribution to the development of mountaineering in Slovenia.

The next six volumes (1980–1985) were signed by professor Marijan Krišelj, he was succeeded by Milan Cilenšek, who performed the work of editor for only one year (1986), which is the shortest period among only eight editors who have succeeded in these one hundred and twenty years.

Marjan Raztresen edited the magazine for the next fifteen volumes (1986–2001). During his editing, times of great changes came again. Slovenia dreamed its dreams and became an independent state.

Mountaineering and the attitude towards mountaineering irrevocably changed with the new arrangement, as did the values towards which we consumers now strived. Massiveness began to drastically decline, individuals came to the forefront, extremism and record hunting appeared to a greater extent, which also reached the mountains.

From then on, more was written about the ethics of mountaineering and nature conservation, the commercialization of alpinistic expeditions and also mountain huts appeared. At the end of Raztresen's period, Planinski vestnik still represented the bulletin of the mountaineering organization, whose membership slipped below the number of 75 thousand at the turn of the millennium.

In September 2001, the current editor Vladimir Habjan took the editorial scissors. He was aware that the time had come for bigger changes, so he gathered a completely new editorial board around him, which gradually undertook the biggest renovation of the magazine since the beginning. Upon his appointment, Habjan wrote that PV will be a magazine "that informs the reader about mountaineering, alpinism and related activities at home and abroad, educates him, teaches, culturally enriches and informs about the activities of the Mountaineering Association of Slovenia". Such content diversity is also the generally established practice of most mountaineering magazines in the world. The thorough renovation brought graphic (it began to be published in color print only that year), design, content, and also marketing transformation of the magazine. From 2010 onwards, Planinski vestnik was printed in a larger format and thus became comparable to the most prestigious mountaineering magazines abroad. Two years later, digitization was also completed.

Planinski vestnik thus became a magazine in the true sense of the word. Today, it could be defined as having the characteristics of a professional-informative magazine, which in its essence remains the bulletin of the publisher. It tries to educate the reader with professional-educational articles, culturally educate with literature and excellent photography, raise awareness in an environmental spirit, and with historical articles significantly contribute to the knowledge of Slovenian mountaineering and its role in the turbulent past. With descriptions of excursions in the center of the magazine, it safely directs him on mountaineering paths, which is actually the most important for every visitor to the mountain world.

As one of the most important achievements, we must again mention the digitization of all old volumes, which are now freely accessible on the world wide web. The leader of the digitization project was editorial member Andrej Stritar, it was completed in a few years. The result is an online index, where the magazine became accessible at the address www.pvkazalo.si. Thus, all issues of Planinski vestnik are now accessible except for each last printed volume. With the search engine and filter, it is thus possible to search by individual words from titles and subtitles of articles and by names of appearing people or mountains.