Ferdinand Budicki

Ferdinand Budicki II (; 11 April 1871 – 25 June 1951) was a Croatian pioneer of car, bicycle and airplane culture. A resident of Zagreb, Croatia, Budicki was reportedly the first to drive a car in his home city, and the first to open a car dealership and repair shop in Croatia. In April 1901, he drove from Vienna, Austria to Zagreb in an 1899 Opel, stirring up a commotion, as people and horses that drove carriages at the time were not used to motor vehicles, even though the car's top speed was, according to Budicki, a mere . in Zagreb to Marija (née Panian) and Ferdinand Budicki (Sr.). His parents were renowned craftspeople.

Having completed two grades of Realschule, Budicki first trained for a locksmith, then studied mechanics abroad. He assembled his own bicycle while living in Vienna. He subsequently used it in 1897 to travel throughout Europe and northern Africa, reportedly traversing .

Family He married twice, first to Josephine Axmann (1877–1965) of Vienna, with whom he had five children. They divorced in 1912. In his later years he remarried, to his former maid Pepica Bocivaušek, who cared little for his sporting legacy. Their children include dressage athlete Ulla Håkansson.

Their surviving son, Dr. Viktor Budicki (1905–1944) was a bacteriologist, trained in the US and served in the military in 1927 in Varaždin. In WWII, he was interned in the Stara Gradiška concentration camp by the Ustaše, accused of hiding foreign citizens. He died in a 1944 camp typhoid epidemic, and was honourably buried in a marked grave for his medical service to camp detainees and Ustaše alike. He operated a children's hospital in the camp, and disinfected the camp's wells with the help of Julij Hrženjak. His Austrian-American wife, Margaret Juers Budicki, settled in Eugene, Oregon and worked as a field counselor for the Lane County Juvenile Department, where she authored poetry in a book titled "Splinters" and contributed articles to the feminist magazine The Women's Press.

Their youngest daughter Jelena studied teaching and English at Newbold College, then worked as the Adventist Church secretary and treasurer for the Sava Conference until 1930. She married Pastor Fred Edwards, an English missionary to Ghana and teacher at the Adventist school in Agona, Ashanti. Their three children are dentist and missionary to the Caribbean Thomas Siegfried Ferdinand Edwards (1931–2013), youth pastor and author Ronald Valerius Edwards (1932–2022) and Margaret Anthony.

Ferdinand speculated in family letters that the "unique" surname Budicki is a corruption of the Polish "Budiczky".

Career alt=Ferdinand Budicki, automobile pioneer, seated in his car, ca. 1920s Ferdinand Budicki, automobile pioneer, seated in his car, ca. 1920s? (Photo courtesy of Croatian Technical Encyclopedia)

In 1901, Budicki purchased a used car from in Vienna for 4,000 Austro-Hungarian crowns. The car had single-cylinder motor and could reach a speed of . Its fuel consumption was .

alt=F. Budicki's car, two-wheeler and sewing machine shop at 2 Gundulićeva Street, Zagreb, 1910 F. Budicki's car, two-wheeler and sewing machine shop at 2 Gundulićeva Street, Zagreb, 1910. (Photo courtesy of Croatian Technical Encyclopedia) On 28 August 1901, Budicki received his driving licence in Vienna. He subsequently opened Zagreb's first driving school. In 1905 he flew a hot air balloon from Zagreb to nearby Gornja Stubica and Mraclin, taking the first aerial photos of Zagreb, while the next year he completed a successful flight from Zagreb to the Adriatic island of Krk. He was born a Roman Catholic and became a Seventh-Day Adventist in his later years.

Legacy On 4 July 2013, the Ferdinand Budicki Automobile Museum was opened in Zagreb, honouring Budicki's pioneering legacy in its name. In 2018 the museum moved to Westgate Shopping City, Zaprešić, due to a lack of public funding and disagreements between mayor Milan Bandić and manager Valentino Valjak. The hosts Budicki's cycling medals.

In Zagreb, there is a Ferdinand Budicki Street in the neighbourhood of Staglišće.

Budicki is also remembered as the founder of Zagreb Fair and .

His descendants live in the United Kingdom, United States, Sweden, Croatia, and Spain.