Everything about Tom Garrigue Masaryk totally explained
Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, sometimes called
Thomas Masaryk in English, (
March 7,
1850 –
September 14,
1937) was an
Austro-Hungarian and Czechoslovak
statesman,
sociologist and
philosopher, who as the keenest advocate of Czechoslovak independence during
World War I became the first
President and founder of
Czechoslovakia.
Biography
Masaryk was born to a working-class family in the predominantly
Catholic city of
Hodonín,
Moravia. His father Jozef Masaryk, a
carter, was a
Slovak from the Hungarian part of Austria-Hungary (later became the eastern province of
Slovakia in Czechoslovakia), and his mother Teresie Masaryková (née Kropáčková) was from
Moravia. They married on
15 August 1849, Teresie Kropáčková being two and half months pregnant.
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. The topic of his doctoral thesis was the phenomenon of
suicide.
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 didn't campaign for the independence of Czechs and Slovaks from Austria-Hungary. When the
First World War broke out, he'd to flee the country, with a
Serbian passport, to avoid arrest for treason, going to
Geneva, to
Italy, and then to
England, where he started to agitate for Czechoslovak independence. In 1915 he was one of the first members of staff of the newly formed
School of Slavonic and East European Studies, which was initially a department of King's College London, and is now a part of University College London, and where the Student Society and Junior Common Room are named after him. He became Professor of Slav Research at King's College in
London lecturing on "The problem of small nations".
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 counter-espionage 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 others, the intelligence from these networks were critical in uncovering the
Hindu-German Conspiracy in
San Francisco. In 1916, Masaryk 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 26,
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 Czechoslovak 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 and Slovak 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. 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.
Masaryk wrote several books, including
The Problems of Small Nations in the European Crisis (1915). The writer
Karel Čapek wrote a series of articles entitled 'Hovory s TGM'(=Conversations with TGM) which were later collected as a form of
autobiography.
Philosophy and religion
Masaryk's life motto was: "Nebát se a nekrást" (= Not to fear and not to steal). Masaryk as a philosopher was 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. Although born Catholic, he eventually became a non-practicing Protestant, influenced in part by the declaration of
Papal Infallibility in 1870 and his wife, Charlotte.
Order of Masaryk
The
Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, a
state decoration of the
Czech Republic and in
Czechoslovakia (established in 1990), is awarded to to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to humanity, democracy and human rights.
About how was T. G. Masaryk recognized witness this sentence:
"As long as Masaryk will live, Hitler won't start war."
Memorials
Avenida Presidente Masaryk ("President Masaryk Avenue"),
Mexico City's equivalent of
Fifth Avenue in
New York City, takes its name from him, as do
Masaryktown, Florida and
Kibbutz Kfar Masaryk
] in
Israel (near
Haifa) This
kibbutz was founded largely by Czechoslovak immigrants.
There is a statue of Masaryk in
Washington, DC on
Massachusetts Avenue as well as in
Chicago on the
Midway.
Bibliography
- Základové konkretné logiky ("The foundations of concrete logic") Prague, 1885 (German translation, Versuch einer concreten Logik, Vienna, 1887)
- Otázka sociální ("The social question") Prague, 1898 (German translation, Die philosophischen und sociologischen Grundlagen des Marxismus, Vienna, 1899)
- Russland und Europa Jena, Germany, 1913 (English translation by Eden and Cedar Paul, The Spirit of Russia, London, 1919)
- Světová revoluce ("The world revolution") Prague, 1925 (English translation edited by H. W. Steed, The Making of a State, London, 1927)
- Hovory s T. G. Masarykem ("Conversations with T. G. Masaryk") Prague, 1931–1935) by Karel Capek (English translations by M. and R. Weatherall, President Masaryk Tells His Story, London, 1934, and Masaryk on Thought and Life, London, 1938)
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