Tine Hribar

Who is Tine Hribar?

Tine Hribar is a Slovenian philosopher and public intellectual, notable for his interpretations of Heidegger and his role in the democratization of Slovenia between 1988 and 1990, known as the Slovenian Spring. He is the husband of author, essayist and political commentator Spomenka Hribar.

He was born in the small village of Goričica near Ihan in central Slovenia. He studied philosophy and sociology at the University of Ljubljana. He continued his studies at the University of Zagreb under the supervision of Croatian phenomenologist philosopher Vanja Sutlić. In 1971 he started teaching philosophy and sociology at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Ljubljana. In 1975 he was fired from the University, together with fellow sociologist Veljko Rus, because of his non-Marxist attitudes. In 1981 he co-founded the alternative journal Nova revija.

In 1987 Hribar was among the editors of the famous "Contributions to the Slovenian National Program", published in a special number of the journal Nova revija, in which sixteen authors demanded a democratic and sovereign Slovenia. Between 1989 and 1991 he was an active member of the Slovenian Democratic Union, one of the central parties within the DEMOS coalition that won the first free elections in Slovenia in April 1990. Hribar and Peter Jambrek and France Bučar were the party's main strategists. After the party broke up in 1991, Hribar joined the left liberal Democratic Party, but withdrew from active engagement in politics.