Komitat Neutra
Šulek was a Slovak by birth. He was born in Sobotište (Hungarian: Ószombat, (till 1899) Szobotist), in the Nyitra County of the Kingdom of Hungary (present-day Slovakia) where he attended primary school. He studied at the evangelical lyceum in Bratislava. He decided not to become a pastor, but was unable to continue his studies in Jena, so he came to his brother in the Croatian town of Brod na Savi in November 1838. Soon he made contact with Ljudevit Gaj, the central figure of the Croatian Illyrian movement, and in autumn 1839 started working as a printer for Franjo Župan in Zagreb.