Masaryk

Masaryk, name of 2 Czechoslovakian politicians. Thomas Garrigue Masaryk (1850–1937), was chief founder and first president of Czechoslovakia (1918–35). Professor of philosophy at the Univ. of Prague from 1882, he was a fervent nationalist. During World War I he lobbied Western statesmen for Czech independence. His son Jan Garrigue Masaryk (1886–1948) was foreign minister of the Czech government-in-exile in London in World War II, broadcasting to his German-occupied country. He continued as foreign minister in the restored government (1945). Soon after the Communist coup (1948) he was said to have committed suicide.