Dr Ivan Lorković, the editor of "Narodna obrana" in Osijek from 1902 until 1905: enclosure to the biography

Dr Ivan Lorković (Zagreb, 17.6.1876 - Zagreb, 1926) is a link that we need to connect the activities of his father Blaž Lorković with Mladen Lorković who was murdured by Ustashas on account of an attempted rescue to get Croatia out of Hitler\u27s grip in 1944. At the same time Lorković is important to us to know how the Croatian-Serbian coalition functioned and how unhomogeneous its activities were. He came to Osijek for similar task as Frano Šupilo came to Rijeka: to bring the town its national soul back. Germanization and hungarization were in full swing in Osijek and Croatian language was seldom heard among the middle class. Leaning on youth and capabilities offered by phone, he started informing the Osijek community about events in Croatian lands taking it as a prime task. At the same time he emphasized the economy, contemplating on returning the financial independence to Croatia or at least ousting the exploitation policy. He demanded such conduct from all economic subjects, which put him in conflict with a group of Osijek business people who tried to monopolize their power in the town by uniting in a guild called "Slarafija". With the help of Lorkovic\u27s forewords in "Narodna obrana" we get to know all problems in Osijek and the surrounding areas. There was not one economic segment that he hadn\u27t mentioned in his paper so in order to be better acquainted with Osijek, one has to peruse this oppositional paper more thoroughly. Dr. Ivan Lorkovic was a well-educated man and a polyglot, therefore he could explain processes that other people weren\u27t able to comprehend. In this way he gave Osijek back its national consciousness, pride and importance in the context of the Croatian policy, especially in 1903 when his activity in Osijek as the editor of "Narodna obrana" was the most vivid