Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk

Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk
Masaryk in 1925
1st President of Czechoslovakia
In office 14 November 1918 – 14 December 1935
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Edvard Beneš
Personal details
Born	(1850-03-07)7 March 1850 Hodonín, Austrian Empire (now Czech Republic)
Died	Lány, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic)
Political party	Young Czech Party (1890–1893) Realist Party (1900–1918)
Spouse(s)	Charlotte Garrigue
Children	Alice (1879–1966) Herbert (1880–1915) Jan (1886–1948) Olga (1891–1978)
Alma mater	University of Vienna
Profession	Philosopher
Religion	Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren
Signature

Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (Czech: [ˈtomaːʃ ˈɡarɪk ˈmasarɪk]), sometimes anglicised to Thomas Masaryk (7 March 1850 – 14 September 1937), was a Czech politician, statesman, sociologist and philosopher.

After trying to reform the Austro-Hungarian monarchy into a federal state, with the help of the Allied Powers, he eventually succeeded in gaining Czechoslovak independence as a republic after World War I. He both founded and was the first President of Czechoslovakia and so is called the "President Liberator".

Early life

Masaryk was born to a poor working-class family in the predominantly Catholic city of Hodonín, Moravia (in the region of Moravian Slovakia, today in the Czech Republic but then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.) Another tradition claims the nearby Slovak village of Kopčany, the home of his father, as his birthplace. He subsequently grew up in the village of Čejkovice, in South Moravia, before he moved to Brno to study.

His father Jozef Masárik, born in Kopčany in Slovakia (then the Hungarian part of Austria-Hungary), was a carter and later the steward and coachman at the Imperial Estate of nearby Hodonín. Tomáš's mother, Teresie Masaryková (née Kropáčková), was a Moravian of Slavic origin but German education. She worked as a cook at the Estate where she met Masárik, and they married on 15 August 1849.

Education

After grammar school in Brno and Vienna, from 1872 to 1876, Masaryk attended the University of Vienna, where he was a student of Franz Brentano. He received his Ph.D. at the University of Vienna in 1876 and completed his habilitation thesis at the same university in 1879, entitled Der Selbstmord als sociale Massenerscheinung der modernen Civilisation ("Suicide as a Social Mass Phenomenon of Modern Civilization"). Between 1876 and 1879, he studied in Leipzig with Wilhelm Wundt and Edmund Husserl.

On 15 March 1878, he married Charlotte Garrigue in Brooklyn, whom he had met at Leipzig. They lived in Vienna until 1881, when they moved to Prague.

In 1882, he was appointed Professor of Philosophy in the Czech part of Charles University of Prague. The following year he founded Athenaeum, a magazine devoted to Czech culture and science. Athenaeum issued in October 15, 1883 (editor was Jan Otto).

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.

Early career

Masaryk served in the Reichsrat from 1891 to 1893 in the Young Czech Party and again from 1907 to 1914 in the Realist Party, which he had founded in 1900, but he did not yet campaign for the independence of Czechs and Slovaks from Austria-Hungary. In 1909, he helped Hinko Hinković in Vienna in the defense during the fabricated trial against members of the Croato-Serb Coalition (such as Frano Supilo and Svetozar Pribićević) and others, who were sentenced to more than 150 years, with a number of death penalties.

When the First World War broke out in 1914, Masaryk concluded that the best course was to seek an independent country for Czechs and Slovaks, outside Austria-Hungary. He went into exile with his daughter, Olga, in December 1914, to Rome, then to Geneva and then to London via Paris in 1915, the Russian Empire in May 1917 and the United States via Vladivostok and Tokyo in April 1918. From Geneva onwards, he started organizing Czechs and Slovaks living outside Austria-Hungary, primarily in Switzerland, France, England, Russia and the United States, establishing the contacts that would prove crucial for Czechoslovak independence. He also gave lectures and wrote numerous articles and official memoranda supporting the Czechoslovak cause. In Russia, he was pivotal in establishing Czechoslovak Legions as an effective fighting force on the side of the Allies in World War I. During the war, he held a Serbian passport.

Masaryk

In 1915, he was one of the first members of staff of the new School of Slavonic and East European Studies, now part of University College London, where the Student Society and Senior Common Room are named after him. He became Professor of Slavic Research at King's College in London, lecturing on "the problem of small nations".

Creation of Czech Legion

During the war, Masaryk's intelligence network of Czech revolutionaries provided important and critical intelligence to the Allies. Masaryk's European network worked with an American counterespionage network of nearly 80 members, headed by E.V. Voska, who, as Habsburg subjects were presumed to be German supporters but were involved in spying on German and Austrian diplomats. Among other things, the intelligence from these networks was critical in uncovering the Hindu-German Conspiracy in San Francisco. T.G. Masaryk started teaching at London University in October 1915. There, he published "Racial Problems in Hungary" in which he also expressed thoughts on Czechoslovak's independence. In 1916, Masaryk went to France to convince the French government of the necessity of dismantling Austria-Hungary. After the February Revolution in 1917, he proceeded to Russia (he left London for St. Petersburg in May) to help organize Slavic resistance to the Austrians, the Czechoslovak Legion.

On 5 August 1914, the Russian High Command authorized the formation of a battalion, recruited from Czechs and Slovaks in Russia. The unit went to the front in October 1914 and was attached to the Russian Third Army.

From its start, Masaryk desired to grow the Družina from a battalion into a formidable military formation. To do so, however, he recognized that they would need to recruit from Czech and Slovak prisoners of war (POWs) in Russian camps. In late 1914, Russian military authorities permitted the Družina to enlist Czech and Slovak POWs from the Austro-Hungarian Army, but the order was rescinded after a few weeks because of opposition in other areas of the Russian government. Despite continuous efforts to persuade the Russian authorities to change their mind, the Czechs and the Slovaks were officially barred from recruiting POWs until the summer of 1917.

Under such conditions the Czechoslovak armed unit in Russia grew very slowly from 1914 and 1917. In early 1916, the Družina was reorganized as the First Czecho-Slovak Rifle Regiment. Following the Czechoslovak soldiers' stellar performance in July 1917 at the Battle of Zborov, when the Czecho-Slovak troops overran Austrian trenches, the Russian Provisional Government finally granted to Masaryk and the Czechoslovak National Council permission to recruit and mobilize Czech and Slovak volunteers from the POW camps. Later that summer, a fourth regiment was added to the brigade, which was renamed the First Division of the Czechoslovak Corps in Russia (Československý sbor na Rusi), also known as the Czechoslovak Legion (Československá legie) in Russia. A second division consisting of four regiments was added to the legion in October 1917, raising its strength to about 40,000 troops by 1918.

In 1918, he traveled to the United States (starting from Moscow 7 March to Vladivostok, Fusan and Tokyo and then to Vancouver by steamliner, and from Canada to Chicago), where he convinced President Woodrow Wilson of the righteousness of his cause. Speaking on 26 October 1918 from the steps of Independence Hall in Philadelphia, as head of the Mid-European Union, Masaryk called for the independence of the Czechoslovaks and the other oppressed peoples of Central Europe. On May 5, 1918, more than 150,000 Chicagoans filled the streets to give a triumphant welcome to the future President of Czechoslovakia. Chicago was then the center of Czechoslovak immigration to the United States and the city gave Masaryk an enthusiastic reception, which echoed Masaryk's earlier visits to the city and his visiting professorship at the University of Chicago in 1902. Masaryk had lectured at the University of Chicago in 1902 and 1907. He also had strong personal links with the US since 1878 by his marriage with an American citizen and his friendship with Charles R. Crane. a Chicago industrialist. Crane got Masaryk invited to the University of Chicago and introduced into the highest political circles, including to Wilson.

Leader of Czechoslovakia

Masaryk in 1918

With the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918, the Allies recognized Masaryk as head of the Provisional Czechoslovak government (on October 14), and on November 14, 1918, he was elected President of the Czechoslovak Republic by the National Assembly in Prague while he was in New York. He came back to Prague Castle on December 21, 1918.

Masaryk was re-elected as president three times: in May 1920, 1927, and 1934. A provision in the Czechoslovak Constitution of 1920 exempted him from the two-term limit. He visited many countries like France, Belgium, England, Egypt and the Mandate for Palestine in 1923 and 1927. With Herbert Clark Hoover, he guaranteed the 1. PIMCO – First Prague International Management Congress, organized Masaryks Academy of Labour and 120 experts around the world in Prague in July 1924. In March 1930, the National Assembly approved the law: "T.G. Masaryk, he deserved on the State" (law No.22/1930 Sb., from March 6, Czech: "T.G. Masaryk, zasloužil se o stát"). After the rise of Hitler, he was one of the first political figures in Europe to voice concern. He resigned from office on December 14, 1935 on the grounds of old age and poor health, and Edvard Beneš succeeded him.

On paper, Masaryk's powers as president were limited; the framers of the constitution intended for the Prime Minister and Cabinet to hold the real power. However, he provided a considerable measure of stability in the face of frequent changes of government (there were ten cabinets headed by nine Prime Ministers during his tenure). The stability that he ensured, as well as his great prestige both inside and outside the country, made Masaryk enjoy almost-legendary authority by the people. He used his authority to create an extensive informal political network called Hrad (the Castle). Under his watch, Czechoslovakia became the strongest democracy in central Europe.

Death and legacy

Masaryk in 1932

Masaryk died less than two years after leaving office, at the age of 87, in Lány, Czechoslovakia, now the Czech Republic. He died before the Munich Agreement and the Nazi occupation of his country. He was known as "The Great Old Man of Europe". Commemorations of Masaryk, state institutions and democratic societies have taken place annually in Lány cemetery on March 7 and September 14, since 1989.

Masaryk wrote several books, including The Czech Question (1895), The Problems of Small Nations in the European Crisis (1915), The New Europe (1917) and The World Revolution (1925), in Czech, published in English as The Making of a State (1927), and the two following Volumes). The writer Karel Čapek wrote a series of articles entitled 'Hovory s T.G.M.' (Conversations with T.G.M.) which were later collected as a form of autobiography.

Philosophy

Masaryk's life motto was "Do not fear and do not steal" (Czech: Nebát se a nekrást). He was a philosopher and an outspoken rationalist and humanist, he emphasised practical ethics, reflecting the influence of Anglo-Saxon philosophers, French philosophy, and especially the work of 18th Century German philosopher, Johann Gottfried Herder, who is considered the founder of nationalism. He was critical of German idealistic philosophy and Marxism.

Personal life

Masaryk married Charlotte Garrigue in 1878 and took her family name as his middle name. They had met in Leipzig, Germany, and were engaged in 1877. She was born in Brooklyn in a Protestant family with French Huguenots among their ancestors. She came to learn Czech perfectly and published studies in Bedřich Smetana, a Czech magazine. Hardships during the war took their toll on her, and she died in 1923 from an unspecified illness. Their 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, Eleanor (Anna, or Hana), and Olga.

Although born a Catholic, Masaryk eventually became a non-practising Protestant, influenced in part by both the declaration of papal Infallibility in 1870 and his wife, who was raised as a Unitarian.

Recognition

Statue of Masaryk in Prague.

As the principal founding father of Czechoslovakia, Masaryk was regarded in a way as George Washington is regarded in the United States. Czechs and Slovaks alike still regard him as a symbol of democracy.

The Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk is a state decoration established in 1990 that is awarded to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to humanity, democracy and human rights.

Masaryk University in Brno, founded in 1919 as the second university of Czechoslovakia, is named after him, first when it was founded and again since 1990, after it had carried the name Univerzita Jana Evangelisty Purkyně v Brně for 30 years

Numerous statues, busts and plaques commemorate Masaryk. Most are located in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, but some are in other countries; notably the Masaryk Statue on Embassy Row in Washington, D.C., as well as in Chicago on the Midway, and in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park rose garden. A plaque with a portrait of Masaryk is set on a wall of Rachiv, Ukraine, on the site of a hotel where he reportedly resided for a time (1917 to 1918). There is also a bust of Masaryk, erected in 2002, at Druzhba Narodiv Square (Friendship of Nations Square) in Uzhhorod, in the far-western corner of Ukraine.

Avenida Presidente Masaryk (President Masaryk Avenue), a main avenue in Mexico City, where are located some of the most exclusive garment retailers takes its name from him, as does Masaryktown, Florida. So too does the Kfar Masaryk kibbutz near Haifa, Israel, founded largely by Czechoslovak immigrants. Also Tel Aviv has a Masaryk Square - Masaryk had visited Tel Aviv in 1927. There is a street in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, named Masarykova ulica, as well in many other Croatian towns such as Dubrovnik, Daruvar, Varaždin and Split. Masarikova ulica in Belgrade, Serbia, although one of the smallest in the city, has the address of the tallest building in Belgrade, the Beograđanka palace. One of the streets in the centre of Novi Sad, Serbia is named Masarikova ulica. One of the biggest streets in the capital of Slovenia, Ljubljana, is also named after Masaryk. There is "Rue Thomas Masaryk" in Geneva as well, as well as in downtown Bucharest, Romania.

A United Nations Expeditionary Force starship in Joe Haldeman's 1974 science fiction novel The Forever War is named Masaryk.

A photograph of Masaryk leaning out of a train window, waving to and shaking hands with supporters, is the front cover for Alternative Metal band, Faith No More's 1997 album, "Album Of The Year". The liner notes for the album jacket depicts the funeral of an old man, with the words "pravda vítězí" (truth prevails) adorning the coffin. The statement is the motto of the Czech Republic and is seen as a symbol of democracy.

Bibliography

• (1885) Základové konkretné logiky [Foundations of concrete logic]. Prague. (German translation: Versuch einer concreten Logik, Vienna, 1887)
• (1898) Otázka sociální [The social question]. Prague. (German translation: Die philosophischen und sociologischen Grundlagen des Marxismus, Vienna, 1899)
• (1913) Russland und Europa [Russia and Europe]. Jena, Germany. (English translation: The Spirit of Russia, tr. Eden and Cedar Paul, London, 1919)
• (1918) The New Europe, London 1918
• (1922) The Slaws after the War, London 1922
• (1925) Světová revoluce [World revolution]. Prague. (English translations: The Making of a State, tr. H. W. Steed, London, 1927; Making of a State, tr. Howard Fertig, 1970.)

See also

• School of Brentano
• 1841 Masaryk
• Charlotte Garrigue
• Jan Masaryk

Sources

• Čapek, Karel. (1931–35). Hovory s T. G. Masarykem [Conversations with T. G. Masaryk]. Prague. (English translations: President Masaryk Tells His Story, tr. M. and R. Weatherall, London, 1934; and Masaryk on Thought and Life, London, 1938)
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External links

• Works by Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk available online and for download from the catalogue of the Municipal Library in Prague (in Czech).
• Thomas G. Masaryk Papers
• Who's Who: Tomas Masaryk
• Works by or about Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk in libraries (WorldCat catalog)