Andrija Štampar

In memoriam

Andrija Štampar was a distinguished scholar in the field of social medicine from Croatia. On 1 January 1912, Dr. Štampar started working at the town hospital at Karlovac and remained at this post till 8 August 1913. He enrolled in the Croatian Medical Association, an organization of physicians, and published a few articles in their journal. By a decree of the Župan, (Prefect) of the Požega District, he was appointed district health officer of Nova Gradiška in 1913. In 1919, he attended the Congress of Inter-Allied Countries for Social Hygiene in Paris giving a lecture on children's health. It showed at that time that he had a clear concept of organizing the public health service. Andrija Štampar is universally known as "the man of action". At age 31 he was named principal of the Department of Public Health in Belgrade. Thanks to Štampar's endeavours, a special Institute of Social Medicine was founded affiliated with the University of Zagreb School of Medicine. From 1924 he was the member of several international expert committees, which through his efforts received grants from the Rockefeller Foundation. King Alexander's dictatorship suddenly put a stop to his work at the Ministry of Public Health in 1930 and, in 1931, he was put on the retired list by the King's decree and came into personal conflict with King Alexander due to his refusal to enter the government. He was offered the portfolio of the Minister of the Interior, but he refused and asked for free elections as a condition. By the decree of 5 March 1939, eight years after his election as full professor of Hygiene and Social Medicine in Zagreb, he finally became a professor at Zagreb University. Elected by the Council of the Medical School in Zagreb, Štampar became the Dean of the School for the academic year 1940/41. With the energy so characteristic of him, he set to work on the reform of medical training. On the third day of the occupation of Zagreb, Štampar was arrested by the Ustaša police. Released, he was arrested again by the German police and sent to Graz, where he was imprisoned and interned until the arrival of the Soviet Red Army. On his return in May 1945, he resumed his duty as Professor of Hygiene and Social Medicine at the Medical School and became head of the School of Public Health in Zagreb. Štampar was the Rector of Zagreb University for the academic year 1945/46. In 1952, he was again elected the Dean of the Medical School, for 5 years consecutively. He also had an important role in founding of the Medical School at Rijeka in 1955.

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