Who wrote the poem that forms Slovenia’s national anthem, “Zdravljica”?

France Prešeren wrote the poem that forms Slovenia’s national anthem, “Zdravljica.”

Prešeren wrote the poem in 1844 during the period of Slovenian national revival. It is a poetic toast to freedom, friendship, and peaceful coexistence. The poem contains eight stanzas, but Slovenia’s official anthem uses only its seventh stanza.

That seventh stanza became especially important because it presents a universal vision of liberty and equality among nations. The music for the anthem was composed by Stanko Premrl. Slovenia adopted the anthem after declaring independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, giving Prešeren’s nineteenth-century poem a formal place in the new state’s national symbolism.

Prešeren is commemorated throughout Slovenia, including on the country’s cultural holiday, Prešeren Day. A frequent mix-up is naming Premrl as the poet: Premrl wrote the music, while Prešeren wrote the words. Another is assuming the full poem is sung officially; only the seventh stanza has that status.