Tomáš Masaryk
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Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (IPA: [ˈtoma:ʃ ˈɡarɪk ˈmasarɪk]), sometimes called Thomas Masaryk in English, (March 7, 1850 - September 14, 1937) was a Czech statesman, sociologist and philosopher, who as the keenest advocate of Czechoslovak independence during World War I became the first President and founder of Czechoslovakia.
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[edit] Biography
Masaryk was born to a working-class family in the predominantly Catholic city of Hodonín, Moravia. This was then in the Austrian part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and is now in the Czech Republic. His father Jozef Masaryk, a carter, was a Slovak from the Hungarian part of Austria-Hungary (nowadays Slovakia), and his mother Terezie Masaryková (née Kropáčková) was from Moravia.
As a youth he worked as a blacksmith. He studied in Brno, Vienna (1872-1876 philosophy with Franz Brentano) and Leipzig (with Wilhelm Wundt). In 1882, he was appointed Professor of Philosophy in the Czech part of the University of Prague. The following year he founded Athenaeum, a magazine devoted to Czech culture and science. He challenged the validity of the epic poems Rukopisy královedvorský a zelenohorský, supposedly dating from the early Middle Ages, and providing a false nationalistic basis of Czech chauvinism to which he was continuously opposed. Further enraging Czech sentiment, he fought against the old superstition of Jewish blood libel during the Hilsner Trial of 1899.
Masaryk served in the Reichsrat (Austrian Parliament) from 1891 to 1893 in the Young Czech Party and again from 1907 to 1914 in the Realist Party, but he did not campaign for Czech independence from Austria-Hungary. When the First World War broke out, he had to flee the country to avoid arrest for treason, going to Geneva, to Italy, and then to England, where he started to agitate for Czech independence. He became Professor of Slav Research at King's College in London lecturing on "The problem of small peoples". In 1916 he went to France to convince the French government of the necessity of disintegrating Austria-Hungary. After the February Revolution in 1917 he proceeded to Russia to help organize Slavic resistance to the Austrians, so-called Czechoslovak Legions. In 1918 he travelled to the United States, where he convinced President Woodrow Wilson of the rightness of his cause. On October 18, 1918, Masaryk, standing on the steps of Independence Hall in Philadelphia, proclaimed Czechoslovakia's independence.
With the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918, the Allies recognized Masaryk as head of the Provisional Czech government, and in 1920 he was elected the first President of Czechoslovakia. He won re-election twice subsequently, and held office until December 14, 1935, when he resigned owing to bad health and Edvard Beneš succeeded him. Masaryk enjoyed almost legendary authority among the Czech people.
Masaryk married Charlotte Garrigue, a Protestant American, from whom he took his middle name, who died near Prague in 1923 from an unspecified illness. His son, Jan Masaryk, served as Foreign Minister in the Czechoslovak government-in-exile (1940-1945) and in the governments of 1945 to 1948. Charlotte gave birth to four other children, Herbert, Alice, Anna and Olga.
Masaryk died from natural causes in 1937 at the age of 87, in Lány, Czechoslovakia, now Czech Republic.
[edit] Philosophy and religion
Masaryk as a philosopher was an outspoken rationalist and humanist. He emphasised practical ethics, reflecting the influence of Anglo-Saxon philosophers, French philsophy, and especially the work of 18th Century German philsopher, Herder, the so-called founder of nationalism. He was critical of German idealistic philosophy and Marxism. Although born Catholic, he eventually became a non-practicing Protestant, influenced in part by the declaration of Papal Infallibiliy in 1870 and his wife, Charlotte.
[edit] Other facts of interest
- Masaryk gained the nickname of the President-Liberator. Many referred to him by his initials: TGM.
- He wrote several books, including The Problems of Small Nations in the European Crisis (1915)
- Topic of his doctoral thesis was the phenomenon of suicide.
- He rode a horse until his 80s.
- Name Tomáš (Thomas in English) has a place in the Czech calendar on March 7, as a tribute to TGM (it was Masaryk's date of birth).
- Karel Čapek, a famous Czech writer, wrote a series of books called 'Hovory s TGM'(=Conversations with TGM).
- His life motto was: "Nebát se a nekrást" (= Not to fear and not to steal).
- Avenida Presidente Masaryk ("President Masaryk Avenue"), Mexico City's equivalent of Fifth Avenue in New York City, takes its name from him.
- Masaryktown, Florida is named after him.
- Kibbutz Kfar Masaryk in Israel (near Haifa) is named after him (http://www.kfar-masaryk.org.il). The kibbutz was founded largely by Czech immigrants.
- There is a statue of him in Washington, DC on Massachusetts Avenue as well as in Chicago on the Midway.
- His funeral is pictured in the art sleeve for the American band Faith No More's final LP, Album of the Year, to portray the end of a golden age; namely, the band's.
- In Joe Haldeman's Sci-Fi novel The Forever War, the ship transporting major William Mandella is called the Masaryk, after TGM.
[edit] External links
- Who's Who: Tomas Masaryk
- Oskar Krejčí: Geopolitics of the Central European Region. The view from Prague and Bratislava Bratislava: Veda, 2005. 494 pp. (Free download, in English)
| Preceded by – |
President of Czechoslovakia 1918–1935 |
Succeeded by Edvard Beneš (1935-1948) |
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|---|---|
| First Republic | Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (1918-1935) • Edvard Beneš (1935-1938) |
| Second Republic | Emil Hácha (1938-1939) |
| Government in exile | Edvard Beneš (1940-1945) |
| Transition to Communism | Edvard Beneš (1945-1948) |
| Communist | Klement Gottwald (1948-1953) • Antonín Zápotocký (1953-1957) • Antonín Novotný (1957-1968) • Ludvík Svoboda (1968-1975) • Gustáv Husák (1975-1989) |
| after the Velvet Revolution | Václav Havel (1989-1992) |
