I am very pleased to announce that the very first person Lenka has chosen to honor as an early Czech feminist Trailblazer it none other than Tomas Garrique Masaryk, first president of Czechoslovakia (1918-35) and architect of Czech independence. Although the previous communist regime tried to erase Masaryk from the history books and from people's memories, they did not succeed. As we celebrate the memory of the first Czechoslovak President and his commitment to democracy, we should also remember his commitment to equality for women, a part of the feminist spiritual heritage he left to the Czech people.

Tomas Garrique Masaryk (1850 - 1937)

      Born in 1850 in Moravia (then part of Austria) to parents of the servant class, Masaryk studied in Vienna, Austria and Leipsiz, Germany. While in Leipzig, he meet and married his wife, Charlotta Garrique (1850-1923), an American whom they believed to be connected by blood to the French royal family. Masaryk adopted his wife's name as his middle name.

      He knew he had no opportunity to become a diplomat, his first choice of a profession, because of his humble, working-class background. So he became a teacher of philosophy at the new Czech University of Prague and, later, a politician. The first of his many books was Selbstmord als soziale Massenerscheinung der modernen Zivilisation (Suicide as a Mass Phenomenon of Modern Civilization, 1881)

      In 1891 Masaryk entered the Austrian parliament, resigning after only 2 years to devote himself to the political education of the Czech nation. Head of the political party, the Realists, his credo was, "A person can be an optimist or pessimist, but I am more. I am a realist." Reelected in 1907, he fought against Austria's alliance with Germany and its aggressive policy in the Balkans.

      A troublemaker, he was not popular. He became embroiled in a controversy over allegedly old manuscripts (Rukopisy) that he claimed were modern forgeries. He defended a Jew, ostensibly motivated by religious differences, who was accused of killing a man. His students disrupted his lectures. He wanted to leave the country, but his wife was against it, so he stayed. When he was 60, his friends gave him a book for his birthday as an homage, believing that the old man would now go away to live out the final days of his life quietly.

      In 1914 when WW I began, he left the Austrian Empire to fight against it. He was sentenced to death in absentia as a traitor. Living in London and lecturing at King's College, Newcastle upon Tyne, Masaryk organized the Czechoslovak movement of independence. At the 1918 armistice conference, the Czechoslovak National Council, of which he was the head, was recognized by the Allies as the provisional government of Czechoslovakia. After WW I, he returned to Checkoslovakia as its first president. As always, Masaryk supported many controversial causes: commemorating the death in 1415 of the early Czech nationalist hero and martyr Jan Hus over the objection of the Catholic Church, instituting land reforms to the benefit of the peasants, providing a safe haven for intellectuals fleeing from Germany after Hitler's rise to power, and giving women the vote. Loved by many as their President-Liberator, hated by a few, Masaryk was reelected three times (1920, 1927, and 1934). He resigned from office in 1935 because of old age. He died in Lány Castle on September 14, 1937.

      The Czech people are indebted to Masaryk for their liberal, democratic traditions. He was a feminist, in some ways, a radical feminist. As is still unusual in even the most egalitarian societies, he adopted his wife's name. She was an activist for woman's suffrage and he supported her efforts. After he came to power, women received the right to vote in 1919 (American women would wait until 1920 to get the vote) and universities were opened to them. He himself wrote about the women question in About Women (O zene).

      In a postscript, the Masaryks had four children, sons Herbert and Jan and daughters Alice and Olga. During WW I Olga went abroad with her father, Herbert died, Jan was on front as an Austrian solder, and Alice was in prison. Charlotta died shortly after the war. Olga married in Switzerland, moved to England, and had 2 children who died in the battle of Britain. Alice remained single, lived abroad, and died shortly after WW II. Jan became a diplomat, helping to establish the United Nations after WW II. Shortly after the communists came to power, he was found dead under a window. Few believed that it was suicide. Only his son Herbert had children, Anna and Herberta, to pass on the Masaryk legacy. They stayed in Czechoslovakia and were candidates for parliament in 1990 elections. One of them was married and her only daughter left after the end of the Soviet occupation. Her son Thomas, U.S. citizen, returned to study in Prague.

For more information, see:

      Bedrich Belohlavek, Charlotte G. Masaryk and the Czechoslovak Nation, [London] : Czechoslovak Red Cross in London, 1941

      Karl Capek, Masaryk on Thought and Life: A Conversation with Karl Capek, translated from the Czech and published by Weatherall, London 1944

Interesting more for the legend it created than as the true narrative of Masaryk's actual life, Conversation became a cult book of pre-war Czechoslovakia, written and rewritten by Karl Capek, arguably the most important Check writer (even if he has some very unfeminist opinions) of the period. In some ways a hagiography, without this book, prewar Czechoslovakia would have been very different.

Masaryk-Benes Collection at UC Berkeley
"Independent Bohemia" (1915)
Excerpts of Talks With T. G. Masaryk By Karel Capek Translated by Michael Henry Heim