Thomas Masaryk
| Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| 1st President of Czechoslovakia | |
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In office 14 November 1918 – 14 December 1935 |
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| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Edvard Beneš |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
7 March 1850 Hodonín, Austrian Empire (now Czech Republic) |
| Died | 14 September 1937 (aged 87) Lány, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic) |
| Political party |
Young Czech Party (1890–1893) Realist Party (1900–1918) |
| Spouse(s) | Charlotte Garrigue |
| Children |
Alice (1879–1966) Herbert (1880–1915) Jan (1886–1948) Olga (1891–1978) |
| Alma mater | University of Vienna |
| Profession | Philosopher |
| Signature |  |
Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (Czech: [ˈtomaːʃ ˈɡarɪk ˈmasarɪk]), sometimes anglicised to Thomas Masaryk (7 March 1850 – 14 September 1937), was a Czech politician, sociologist and philosopher.
After trying to reform the Austro-Hungarian monarchy into a federal state, with the help of the Allied Powers, he eventually succeeded in gaining Czechoslovak independence as a republic after World War I. He both founded and was the first President of Czechoslovakia and so is called the "President Liberator".
Masaryk was born to a poor working-class family in the predominantly Catholic city of Hodonín, Moravia (in the region of Moravian Slovakia, today in the Czech Republic but then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Another tradition claims the nearby Slovak village of Kopčany, the home of his father, as his birthplace. He subsequently grew up in the village of Čejkovice, in South Moravia, before he moved to Brno to study.
His father Jozef Masárik, born in Kopčany in Slovakia (then the Hungarian part of Austria-Hungary), was a carter and later the steward and coachman at the Imperial Estate of nearby Hodonín. Tomáš's mother, Teresie Masaryková (née Kropáčková), was a Moravian of Slavic origin but German education. She worked as a cook at the Estate where she met Masárik, and they married on 15 August 1849.
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