"Paul Wolf"
Philosophical and pedagogical activity
Not enough known to the public, Pavao Vuk - Pavlović is one of the greatest Croatian philosophers and pedagogues, to whom we can thank the development of the philosophy of education in Croatia, which was founded at the same time as the philosophy of education in the world - and all because of hard work and Pavlović's investments.
Born in Koprivnica in 1894. Pavlović, originally named Pavao Wolf, was the grandson of the Jewish industrialist Ignjat Granitz, the founder of Tipografija d.d. – printing and publishing company based in Zagreb, founded in 1920.
Pavao Vuk spent a large part of his childhood playing to classical works of world heritage under the piano in the Granitz family's home in the company of Dora Pejačević and Milka Trnina, who were family friends of the Granitz family. At the age of 24, he decided to change his last name, which until then served as a pseudonym under which he wrote many articles and translations, and became a Croat and a Catholic.
Under the circumstances of anti-Semitism, Vuk was carried away by the Slavic spirit and many times found himself in the displeasure of the system, from which he was even retired three times, twice of which was forced. Resisting ideologies with all his might, Vuk-Pavlović still managed to get a position as a university teacher until, during what we now call his last lecture, he was boycotted by one of the students demanding that Vuk speak about Marx.
This last lecture, although he spends time in Macedonia for recovery and later ends up in a disability pension, Vuk was very affected and not because of the pressure of his university colleagues, but because of the supporters of the aforementioned student on the subject of Marxism.
The impossibility of ideological adaptability of Vuk-Pavlović, looking through today's prism - even though it ended painfully - made him a big name in the philosophy of education.
