Modernism: The Creation of Nation-States

Tomáš G. Masaryk: The Czech question

TOMÁŠ G. MASARYK: THE CZECH QUESTION Title: Česká otázka: snahy a tužby národního obrození (The Czech question: The endeavors and yearnings of the national revival) Originally published: Prague, Čas, 1895 Language: Czech The excerpts used are from: G. J. Kovtun ed. The Spirit of Thomas G. Masaryk (1850–1937). An Anthology, (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1990), pp. 61–66, 79–84. About the author Tomáš G. Masaryk [1850, Hodonín (Ger. Göding, south Moravia) – 1937, Lány (near Prague)]: the founder and first president of Czechoslovakia, sociologist, philosopher and politician. He was born into a family with a mixed ethnic and linguistic background. He attended the German gymnasium in Brno (Ger. Brünn) and later the Academic Gymnasium in Vienna, earning his living as a tutor. In 1876, he graduated from the departments of philosophy and classical philology at the University of Vienna . He spent a year in Leipzig, where he met his future wife Charlotte Garrigue, the daughter of a rich American entrepreneur. They married a year later in the USA and shortly afterwards Masaryk defended his Habilitation thesis about suicide as a modern phenomenon. He was appointed professor of philosophy at Prague in 1882, when the university was split into Czech and German parts. He taught history of philosophy , logic, ethics and an introduction to psychology and sociology. His Weltanschauung was formed by Protestantism, a strong adherence to scientific principles, a concern about the crisis of modernity and the emphasis on the ethical-psychological aspects of social processes. He played an important role in the campaign against the Forged Manuscripts in the 1880s, and later against antisemitic prejudices during the notorious trial of Leopold Hilsner for a blood-libel in 1899–1900, when he achieved a reversal of the indictment. He edited the journals Athenaeum (first published in 1883) and later Čas (Time). He was elected to the Reichsrat as a deputy of the liberal nationalist Young Czech Party in 1891, though he resigned in 1893. In 1900, Masaryk established a new political organization, the Czech Popular Party (known as the ‘Realist Party’), which never attracted mass support but had important influence among the intelligentsia. In 1907, he re-entered the Reichsrat as a deputy for the party with considerable support from the Czech social democrats. Masaryk was highly critical of Austrian foreign policy, especially the alliance with Germany and 200 “NATIONAL PROJECTS” AND THEIR REGIONAL FRAMEWORK the annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, and defended the Southern Slavs, who were accused of high treason in the ‘Trial of Zagreb’ in 1909 (see Heinrich Friedjung, The struggle for supremacy in Germany, 1859–1866). After the outbreak of the First World War, Masaryk, together with a young Edvard Beneš and Milan R. Štefánik, a Slovak, established in Paris the National Council of Czechs and Slovaks and helped to form the Czechoslovak military units in Russia and France. Finally, through the efforts of the exile resistance movement under his leadership, the idea of an independent Czechoslovak state was endorsed first by the American President, Woodrow Wilson, and later by the other Allies. Masaryk served as the first president of Czechoslovakia, from 1918 to 1935, and became a symbol of the democratic republican ideals, which were suppressed during the German occupation of Bohemia and Moravia and by the Communist dictatorship. Masaryk is considered the founding father of Czechoslovak democracy and is the most appreciated modern Czech political figure. Main works: Der Selbsmord als soziale Massenerscheinung der modernen Zivilisation [Suicide as a mass social phenomenon of modern civilization] (1881); Základov é konrétní logiky [The foundations of concrete logic] (1885); Česká otázka [The Czech question] (1895); Naše nynější krize [Our present crisis] (1895); Jan Hus (1896); Karel Havlíček (1896); Moderní člověk a náboženství [The modern man and religion] (1898); Otázka sociální [The social question] (1898); Problém malého národa [The problem of a small nation] (1905); Palackého idea národa českého [Palacký’s idea of the Czech nation] (1913); Russland und Europa [Russia and Europe] (1913); Nová Evropa. Stanovisko slovanské [New Europe. The Slav standpoint ] (1918); Světová revoluce [The world revolution] (1925); Hovory s T. G. Masarykem [published in English as President Masaryk tells his story] (an interview with Masaryk done by Karel Čapek, 1928). Context The last quarter of the nineteenth century was a time of great social and economic upheaval and consequently of political turmoil in the entire Habsburg Empire...