»Konkurzi, samomor, žalosten je pogled na trgovsko polje.« Gospodarski polom kot vzrok za samomor na Slovenskem pod Avstro-Ogrsko in prvo Jugoslavijo
“Bankruptcies, Suicide – The Situation in The Commercial Sector is Dire.” Economic Failure as aReason for Suicide in The Slovenian Territory Under Austria-Hungary and During The First Yugoslavia

Summary/Abstract: Material security is one of the basic conditions of human existence. Its absence can lead to many problems and is accompanied by a social stigma that used to be stronger in the past than today. A difficult situation can lead to suicide. In the Slovenian territory, suicides of merchants and entrepreneurs were a well-known phenomenon as early as the 19th century, while people who merely found themselves in financial difficulties or lived in poverty committed suicide even more frequently. Accurate statistics regarding the number of suicides due to economic reasons are not available for the Slovenian territory, which is why newspapers represent the primary source for researching this issue. However, the press was inaccurate, sensationalistic, and amateurish in its suicide reports and psychological descriptions of the deceased. Over time, the descriptions of suicides and injuries also became more graphic. During the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Kingdom of SCS, and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, several economic scandals broke out that resulted in suicides, which were widely reported in the press. Suicides for economic reasons increased especially during times of economic adversity, such as the crisis during the Vienna stock market crash in 1873, the monetary crisis before World War I, the deflationary crisis of the mid-1920s, and the Great Depression of the 1930s.

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