Edvard Bene?

Edvard Bene? {{Audio|Cs-Edvard Benes.ogg|listen}} (May 28 1884 - September 3 1948) was a leader of the Czechoslovak independence movement and the second President of Czechoslovakia. He was born on May 28 1884, in Ko?lany, Bohemia (province of Austria-Hungary).

Related Topics:
May 28 - 1884 - September 3 - 1948 - Czechoslovak - President of Czechoslovakia - Ko?lany - Bohemia - Austria-Hungary

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In 1912 he taught at the Charles University of Prague, from 1916-1918 Bene? was a Secretary of the Czechoslovak National Council in Paris and Minister of the Interior and of Foreign Affaires within the Provisional Czechoslovak government. From 1918-1935 Bene? was Foreign Minister of Czechoslovakia, and from 1920-1925 and 1929-1935 a member of the parliament. In 1921 he was a professor and also from 1921-1922 Premier Minister. From 1923-1927 he became a member of the League of Nations Council (1927-1928 president of its committee), de jure 1935-1948 President of Czechoslovakia (1938 - 1945 president-in-exile), de facto 1935-1938 and 1940-1948 President of Czechoslovakia (1940-1945 president-in-exile).

Related Topics:
Charles University - Prague - League of Nations

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During World War I he was one of the leading organizers of an independent Czechoslovakia abroad.

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He was a member of the Czechoslovak National Socialist Party (till 1925 called Czechoslovak Socialist Party) and a strong Czechoslovakist - he did not consider Slovaks and Czechs to be separate ethnicities .

Related Topics:
Czechoslovak National Socialist Party - Slovaks - Czechs

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Bene? became first Foreign Minister of Czechoslovakia and in 1935 succeeded Tomá? Garrigue Masaryk to become President. In October 1938, after the Munich Agreement ceded the Sudetenland to Germany, but before the German occupation of the Czech speaking Bohemia and Moravia, he resigned from office and went into exile in Putney, London. Then in 1940 organized the in London led by Jan ?rámek, and Bene? himself became the President of Czechoslovakia in exile. In November 1940 he moved to Aston Abbotts near Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire.

Related Topics:
1935 - Tomá? Garrigue Masaryk - London - Jan ?rámek - Aston Abbotts - Buckinghamshire

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Although oriented to the West, in 1943 he signed the entente between Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union in order to secure Czechoslovakia's political position, as well as his own.

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At the end of World War II, he returned home as the President of Czechoslovakia. He resented the Communist takeover of Czechoslovakia on 25 February 1948 led by Prime Minister Klement Gottwald, and resigned as President on 7 June 1948. Gottwald succeeded him as President. He died at his villa in Sezimovo Ústí, Czechoslovakia on September 3 1948.

Related Topics:
World War II - Communist - 25 February - 1948 - Prime Minister - Klement Gottwald - 7 June - Sezimovo Ústí - Czechoslovakia - September 3

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The so-called Bene? decrees, which, among other things, expropriated the property of ethnic German and Hungarian Czechoslovakians, paved the way for the eventual expulsion of ethnic Germans to Germany and Austria.

Related Topics:
Bene? decrees - Ethnic German - Hungarian

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