page_title: Dimitrije Matić
section_title: Early life and Education
hierarchical_section_title: Dimitrije Matić / Early life and Education
caption_attribution_description: English: Dimitri Matić’s diary entry written between 1844 and 1848
context_page_description: Dimitrije Matić; was a Serbian philosopher, jurist, professor, and politician who served as Minister of Education, Minister of Justice and Minister of Foreign Affairs. He was President of the National Assembly, which ratified the 1878 Treaty of Berlin proclaiming Serbia's independence.
  He was a liberal-minded philosopher and politician who believed that the rule of force was unacceptable and that governments should promote and support popular education. A prominent lawyer, writer and translator, he helped organized the college's law school; a prominent statesman, he secured major reforms in education. Matić was a tireless worker who dedicated his life to the creation of modern Serbia.
context_section_description: Dimitrije Matić was born in 1821 in Ruma, Kingdom of Slavonia, a province of the Habsburg Monarchy within the Austrian Empire. His father, Iliya Matić, is said to have participated in the wars against Napoleon. His mother Spasenija was the aunt of Vladimir Jovanović. Dimitrije Matić had three brothers Matej, Miloje, and Djordje.Matić completed elementary school in Ruma, secondary school in Sremski Karlovci before moving to the Principality of Serbia.
  He first attended Military School then after being offered a scholarship entered the newly-founded Lyceum. The teachers had been trained abroad in Austria, Switzerland, and France and the classes were taught in Latin and German.
  In the summer of 1840, Matić completed his cursus of Philosophy then a year later his Legal Studies. The same year he moved to Belgrade joining his older brother Matej, who works as a clerk in the office of Prince Mihailo Obrenović, and entered the civil service. After the Skupština elected Alexander Karađorđević there is a shift of dynasty and Mihailo Obrenović is deposed, Matić left the country with the Prince; during that time Matić lived in the Vrdnik Monastery on Fruška Gora mountain returning in 1843. On his return, he starts working as a lawyer and becomes secretary of Captain Miša Anastasijević.
  Matić received a post-graduate scholarship from the government to study Philosophy in Berlin and Law in Heidelberg. In 1847 he received his Ph.D. degree in Philosophy at the University of Leipzig. His doctoral thesis was called: Dissertatio de via qua Fichtii, Schellingii, Hegeliique philosophia e speculativa investigatione Kantiana exculta sit; it addressed the question of how the philosophy of Fichte, Schelling and Hegel developed from Immanuel Kant's speculative thought. Among his professors in Berlin were Hegel's successor Georg Andreas Gabler (1786-1853), Otto Friedrich Gruppe and Johann Karl Wilhelm Vatke. He was mostly influenced by his Berlin professor Karl Ludwig Michelet, with whom he established a lifelong correspondence. While getting his Law degree in Heidelberg he also studied Political Economy under Karl Heinrich Rau. After obtaining the approval of the Ministry of Education, he left Heidelberg for Paris to extend his law studies.
  During the uprising of the Serbs against the force of Hungary, Matić was a member of the People's Committee in Karlovci and participated in organizing the army as deputy secretary of the Military Council, as an elected member of the Main Board at the May Assembly of 1848 he oversaw the proclamation of Serbian Vojvodina. His younger brother Stevan was severely wounded and later died of his wounds in Belgrade.
caption: An entry from Dimitri Matić's diary written while he was studying in Germany
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