Krofta, Kamil

Krofta, Kamil 

Born July 17, 1876, in Plzefň (Pilsen); died Aug. 16, 1945, in Vraz, near Pisek. Czechoslovak statesman and historian; member of the Czech Academy of Science and Art (1916). Studied in Vienna.

Krofta was appointed professor of Austrian history (1911) and Czech history (1918) at Charles University. He was in the diplomatic service from 1920 to 1927. He was deputy foreign minister (1927–36) and foreign minister (1936–38) of the bourgeois Czechoslovak Republic. In 1940 he was imprisoned in a concentration camp by the fascist German invaders; he was freed in 1945.

Krofta was the author of many general works, as well as monographs on various periods of the history of Bohemia, including the Hussite revolutionary movement; he also participated in the publication of historical sources. He belonged to the positivist trend in Czech historiography and was a student of J. Goll.

WORKS

Déjiny selského stavu … , 2nd ed. Prague, 1949.
žižka a husitská revoluce. Prague, 1937.
Naše staré legendy a začátky našeho duchovniho života. Prague, 1947.
Déjiny československé. Prague, 1947.