Masaryk, Tomáš

Masaryk, Tomáš (Garrigue)

(born March 7, 1850, near Gölding, Moravia, Austrian Empire—died Sept. 14, 1937, Lány, Czech.) First president of Czechoslovakia (1918–35). After receiving a doctorate from the University of Vienna, he taught philosophy at the Czech University of Prague (1882) and wrote on the Czech Reformation; his most important works were a study of Marxism (1898) and Russia and Europe (1913). In the Austrian Reichsrat (1891–93, 1907–14), he supported democratic policies and criticized Austria-Hungary's alliance with Germany. In 1915 he went to western Europe, where he organized the Czech national council, which in 1918 gained recognition as the de facto government of the future Czechoslovakia. He negotiated its liberation as one of the Fourteen Points in the projected post-World War I peace settlement. Elected president of the new country (1918–35), he was occupied with settling conflicts between the Czech and Slovak parties.