Prince George Karađorđević | Origin of Street Names

Prince George Karađorđević (1887 - 1972) was a Serbian nobleman and the eldest son of King Peter I, the Liberator. He was a celebrated warrior, heir to the throne, an unfulfilled king, and one of the most controversial figures of the Kingdom of Serbia and Yugoslavia in the first half of the 20th century.

During the time when the rival Obrenović dynasty ruled Serbia, the Karađorđević family was considered an undesirable elite. George and his younger brother and sister were born in Cetinje, at the court of Montenegrin King Nikola (their maternal grandfather). After the early death of their mother in 1894, they spent several years in Geneva. Following the family tradition, George was then sent to a military school in imperial Russia.

After the May Coup, when there was a change in the ruling dynasty, Peter Karađorđević returned to Serbia and was crowned king in 1904. By this act, George, as the eldest son, automatically acquired the status of a prince and the first heir to the throne.

However, he enjoyed this status only until the age of 22 when, under great public pressure, he was forced to abdicate and renounce his claim to the throne in favor of his younger brother, Alexander.

Prince George Karađorđević was always considered a headstrong child, and he grew up to be a spirited young man. Quick-tempered, unpredictable, unrestrained, and prone to conflicts, he irresistibly resembled his illustrious great-grandfather Karađorđe, who himself was not known as a great diplomat.

The "unroyal" behavior of the young prince, along with several other unacceptable scandals for a throne heir (including an unintentional murder), led the Serbian public and diplomacy to deem him unsuitable for the role of future King of Serbia. Forced to abdicate, George officially renounced the throne in 1909 in favor of his younger brother, who was far more tactful and would become the future regent and King Alexander.

However, despite being problematic in political and official circles, Đorđe Karađorđević was quite respected and loved by the people, perhaps precisely because of his straightforwardness. Finding much-needed peace in fishing on the rivers of Belgrade, he became friends with many "ordinary" people and fishermen, including the brilliant mathematician Mihailo Petrović Alas. He gained particularly great admiration during the First World War when he personally participated in the Battle of Mačkov Kamen, where he himself was wounded.

After the war, Prince George continued with his outbursts and scandals, never missing an opportunity to publicly criticize and insult King Alexander and Queen Maria. As a result, by the order of the king, he was literally removed from the public scene and placed in a psychiatric hospital in Toponica, where he spent a full 16 years.

Paradoxically, he was liberated from his institutional confinement by the German occupiers in the hope of establishing the desired form of occupation rule using the prince's reputation. However controversial he may have been, Prince George never questioned his patriotism.

Despite refusing to participate in the government of the Quisling regime, Prince George Karađorđević spent the war in Belgrade, relatively speaking, as a free man, and he continued to live that way after the war, following the collapse of the Kingdom.

In the new circumstances and a completely different state structure, the former prince and crown prince lost all prerogatives. Probably considered harmless to the newly established order, he remained the only Karađorđević who was not declared a public enemy by the communists.

Đorđe Karađorđević lived modestly in Belgrade until the end of his life. He died at the age of 86 and was buried in the crypt of the Church of St. George in Oplenac, the family mausoleum of the Karađorđević dynasty.

Today, the name of Prince Đorđe is symbolically carried by streets in Kraljevo, Valjevo, and Novi Sad.