Marija Hladnik Berden

Marija Hladnik Berden, also known as Mimi Hladnik (30 March 1892 – 10 May 1924), was a Slovenian teacher, organist, and composer. She was regarded as one of the most musically gifted women of her generation in Lower Carniola, where she worked as a teacher, church organist, soprano, and pianist. She composed mainly church music, appeared as a soloist, and in addition to her regular employment also taught piano. Her life ended tragically when she was poisoned at the age of thirty-two.

Childhood and education She was born on 30 March 1892 into a Slovenian family in Novo Mesto, where she was baptised on 2 April in the Novo Mesto Cathedral. At the time of her birth, her father held the poorly paid post of chapter organist. Because of this, he had the right to use a small plot of church-owned farmland, which he cultivated together with her mother, whose parents were farmers. Of her surviving sisters, one devoted herself to teaching, another, Štefanija Hladnik Hanak, was employed as a piano teacher and founded the Ignacij Hladnik Music School in Novo Mesto, while another was a milliner. Of all the children, she was the most musically gifted and therefore her father's favourite. Her classmate was also the future doctor of philosophy and painter Frančiška Pija Garantini. After graduating, she obtained a job as a teacher in Kostanjevica na Krki, where she worked until 1923.

She was an excellent soprano and frequently appeared as a soloist. Her church composition Hrepenenje po Jezusu (Longing for Jesus) was published in 1916 in the newspaper Cerkveni glasbenik (Church Musician). On 2 February 1923, she married the teacher Franc Berden (1895–1971) from Filovci. The couple moved to Stopiče, where she obtained a job of a teacher, which she held until her death. In November 1923, she gave birth to her only child, a son, Vasilij Berden (1923–2009), who later became a lawyer.

Death On 2 April 1924, her maid, the thirty-two-year-old Marija Golobič from Plemberk, made pancakes with jam for supper.

Trial The doctors at the Novo Mesto hospital concluded that Marija Hladnik Berden died of phosphorus poisoning. Her maid said that an entire box of matches had accidentally fallen into the milk and boiled in it. For this short story, in its radio adaptation, the author received the 2025 Lastovka Award of Ars program of Radiotelevizija Slovenija for best short story. The entire book was among the ten nominees for the Grand Prize of the Slovene book fair in 2025.