| Jan Masaryk |
Article Index for Jan |
Website Links For Jan |
Information AboutJan Masaryk |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT JAN MASARYK | |
| 1886 births | |
| masaryk, jan | |
| 1948 deaths | |
| czechoslovak politicians | |
| czech diplomats | |
| world war ii political leaders | |
|
Born in Prague , he was the son of professor Tomáš Masaryk who became the first President of Czechoslovakia (1919), and the American born Charlotte Garrigue. Masaryk was educated in Prague and also in the USA . He returned home in 1913 and served in the Austro-Hungarian army during the First World War . He then joined the diplomatic service and became chargé d'affaires to the USA in 1919 , a post he held until 1922 . In 1925 he was created Ambassador to Britain. His father resigned as President in 1935 and died two years later. He was succeeded by Edvard Beneš . In September 1938 the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia was occupied by German forces and Masaryk resigned as Ambassador in protest, although he remained in London. Other government members including Beneš also resigned. In March 1939 Germany occupied the remaining Czech provinces of Bohemia and Moravia , and a puppet Slovak state was established in Slovakia . When a Czechoslovak Government In Exile was established in Britain in 1940 , Masaryk was appointed Foreign Minister. During the war he regularly made broadcasts over the BBC to occupied Czechoslovakia. He had a flat at 58 Westminster Gardens in London but often stayed at the Czechoslovak Chancellery building at Wingrave or with President Beneš at Aston Abbotts near Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire . Masaryk remained Foreign Minister following the liberation of Czechoslovakia as part of the multi-party National Front government. The Communists under Klement Gottwald saw their position strengthened after the 1946 elections but Masaryk stayed on as Foreign Minister. He was concerned with retaining the friendship of the Soviet Union , but was dismayed by the veto they put on Czechoslovak participation in the Marshall Plan . In 1942 Masaryk received a LL.D. from Bates College . In February 1948 the majority of the non-communist cabinet members resigned hoping to force new elections, but instead a communist government under Gottwald was formed. Masaryk remained Foreign Minister, although he was apparently uncertain about his decision. On . Regardless, the circumstances of Masaryk's death are still rather obscure. |
|
|