The newly opened exhibition ‘Border, Language and School’ highlights the importance of the Slovenian language and the various linguistic communities within education
Ljubljana, 7 October 2025; We have opened a temporary exhibition entitled ‘Border, Language and School: State Frameworks and Language Policy in Slovenian Education of the First Half of the Twentieth Century’, which highlights the significance of the Slovenian language and various linguistic communities in education within the territory of present-day Slovenia and the neighbouring countries during the turbulent first half of the 20th century. Devised by Dr Simon Malmenvall, the exhibition will be on view from 2 October to 5 November 2025 at the Krakovo Embankment, Ljubljana.
The exhibition consists of twenty-two panels containing sixty-one images, with accompanying texts in Slovenian and English. It is indirectly linked to the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, after which the majority of the Slovenian-speaking population found itself in a single state unit once again. It highlights the conceptual and social pressures resulting from the rapidly changing state frameworks of the time. The exhibition panels feature excerpts from textbooks, manuals and archival documents, accompanied by photographs and postcards from the period. An exhibition catalogue has been published to accompany the exhibition.
The opening began with an address by Mag Stane Okoliš, Director of the Slovenian School Museum, who emphasised the importance of this year’s theme. This was followed by the first public guided tour of the exhibition. The author, Dr Simon Malmenvall, outlined in detail the efforts of Slovenian teachers and other educators in preserving and developing the Slovenian language, emphasising:
It is no exaggeration to say that the Slovenian language is one of the key building blocks of cultural and civic identity in the current Republic of Slovenia. Hence, its preservation and development are considered a priorities at all levels of education. However, the position that the Slovenian language has acquired has not come about by itself or through a predetermined course of history but owing to the long perseverance and personal sacrifices – including both defeats and triumphs – of many educators and other intellectuals. Although they were mostly shaped by the broader Central European culture under the dominant influence of the German language, they recognised an important social value in Slovenian and the Slovenian national consciousness in the area between the eastern Alps, the western Pannonian Plain, and the northern Adriatic Sea.
The exhibition clearly illustrates the multilayered interplay between state frameworks, public values, language policy and education. In addition, the author of the exhibition, Dr Malmenvall, pointed out:
It was the language of instruction and the worldview conveyed by one school system or another to young people that in this area most clearly reflected, in relation to all segments of the population, the rapid changes in national boundaries, official languages and socio-political arrangements in the eventful and extremely complex first half of the 20th century. In simplified terms, it can be concluded that the authorities of the time concentrated all their essential intentions through education, as did the Slovenian-oriented intelligentsia in favour of preserving or expanding the Slovenian language. Equally, if not more, important today is the awareness that the area in question was historically multilingual and generally socially diverse. This diversity is still evident in today, with a Slovenian-speaking population still present outside the Republic of Slovenia in Venezia Giulia, Carinthia and the Raba Valley, while within the Slovenian state there are Italian and Hungarian minorities.
The exhibition also features the poem ‘Vseučilišče v Ljubljani!’ by the poet Josip Stritar. It was recited by Svit Podgornik at the exhibition’s opening.
The exhibition is a collaboration between the Slovenian School Museum and Ljubljana Tourism, supported financially by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Slovenia.
On Border, Language and School
This year’s highlighted topic, Border, Language and School, curated by Dr Simon Malmenvall, was the subject of in-depth research at the museum, with activities taking place from spring to autumn. On 10 April 2025, we organised a scientific symposium at which ten papers were presented, discussing the western, northern and eastern peripheries of Slovenian territory, as well as its centre. The role of the Slovenian language in education in the first half of the 20th century was thus comprehensively linked to the position of the neighbouring and historically present languages, i.e. German, Italian and Hungarian.
All of the papers presented will be published in the School Chronicle scientific journal, due to be published at the end of 2025.
