| Josef Černý | |
|---|---|
| |
| 13th Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia | |
| In office 26 June 1950 – 11 January 1956 | |
| President | Jan Masaryk |
| Preceded by | Václav Majer |
| Succeeded by | Jozef Lettrich |
| Deputy Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia | |
| In office 15 May 1945 – 26 June 1950 | |
| Prime Minister | Václav Majer |
| Member of the Chamber of Deputies | |
| In office 1945–1958 | |
| Constituency | Hradec Králové |
| Chairman of the Republican Party | |
| In office 1939–1956 | |
| Preceded by | Rudolf Beran |
| Succeeded by | Jozef Lettrich |
| Minister of the Interior | |
| In office 14 February 1934 – 22 September 1938 | |
| Prime Minister | Jan Malypetr Milan Hodža |
| Preceded by | Jan Černý |
| Succeeded by | Jan Černý |
| Member of the National Assembly | |
| In office 1920–1938 | |
| Member of the Revolutionary Assembly | |
| In office 1918–1920 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 28 February 1885 Nepolisy, Kingdom ofBohemia, Austria-Hungary |
| Died | 7 December 1971 (aged 86) Hradec Králové, CR, Czechoslovakia
|
| Nationality | Czech |
| Political party | Republican Party |
| Spouse(s) | Helena Černá (nee Švehlová) |
| Children | One |
| Alma mater | University of Vienna Charles University |
| Occupation | Politician |
| Religion | Roman Catholicism |
Josef Černý (28 February 1885 – 7 December 1971) was a Czech politician of the Republican Party (RS). He was the Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia from 1950–1956.
Early life[]
Černý was born on 28 February 1885 in the village of Nepolisy in the Kingdom of Bohemia into an old farming family. He was the first son of Josef Černý's second marriage to Anna Černá (nee Levínská). He attended elementary school in Nepolisy, and continued at the grammar school in Nový Bydžov. After graduating in 1905, Černý began to study law at the Charles University in Prague. Having been interested in public life and politics since his youth, he spent a year at the University of Vienna to improve his language skills and observe the Austro-Hungarian political life of the Imperial Council's House of Deputies. He graduated from university and received his doctorate in 1911 and became a legal intern at the criminal court in Prague and at the district court in Chlumec nad Cidlinou.
Then he worked for six years as a lawyer in Prague. The first three years were spent working for Jan Lhoty, then a year working for Vladimír Srba and then the remaining two years for Eduard Korner, a member of the House of Deputies for the Young Czech Party who was known as Karel Kramář's lawyer and president of the Bar Association.
While attending grammar school he joined joined the Czech Agrarian Society (České agrární společnosti), which was later renamed the Czech Agrarian Party (Českomoravská strana agrární). He participated in the cultural and economic development of the Czech countryside, and especially paid attention to agricultural education. He was also one of the co-founders of the Association of Agrarian Academics.
Early political career[]
Following the independence of Czechoslovakia he founded a law firm in Prague he operated with his brother Jaroslav. However, he could not manage the firm himself because of his increasing involvement in Czechoslovak politics. He was named by the Agrarian Party to serve in the Revolutionary National Assembly from 1918 to 1920, and was elected to the National Assembly in 1920. In 1922, the party merged with the Slovak National Republican and Peasant Party and renamed the Republican Party of Farmers and Peasants (RSZML).
At the beginning of the 1920s, Černý was considered one of the most promising politicians of the party and an expert in economics issues. As a member of the Chamber of Deputies, he held various positions, among the most important of which were the Chairman of the Budget Committee of the Chamber of Deputies and the Chairman of the Budgetary and Control Commission. He was reelected in 1925, 1929 and 1935.
In 1921 he married Helena Švehlová, the daughter of Antonín Švehla, who as one of the leading Czech politicians in the interwar era was Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia between 1922–1926 and 1926–1929 and Republican Party chairman from 1909–1933. Together they had one son named Josef. While his connections to Švehla advanced his political career, Černý was prevented to serve as a cabinet minister during Švehla's lifetime. Švehla was afraid of being accused of nepotism if he had nominated Černý for a cabinet post, as his nomination could be claimed to be based on his family ties and not his personal abilities. Černý therefore concentrated on parliamentary activities, where he was known as an excellent speaker, and in this respect he surpassed Švehla.
From 14 February 1934 to 22 September 1938 he served as the Minister of the Interior in five different cabinets under prime ministers Jan Malypetr and Milan Hodža, until the resignation of Hodža's cabinet during the Sudeten Crisis. During his tenure as minister of the interior, the Sudeten German question and negotiations with representatives the Sudeten German Party (SdP) remained the most pressing issue.
After Švehla's death Černý belonged to the younger generation within the party which rose to prominence. This coincided with the presidential election in 1935, when President Masaryk on 21 November announced his intention to resign from the presidency due to his deteriorating health. While it at first appeared that the election of Edvard Beneš, the Czechoslovak foreign minister since 1918 and Masaryk's protége, would be a mere formality and that Beneš would be elected unopposed. However, the anti-Hrad politicians produced on 7 December an opposing candidate, Bohumil Němec, a respectable but obscure university professor. A real electoral contest then developed, with Beneš endorsed by the socialist parties, the Czech Populists, the German socialists and clericals, and the communists. The Czechoslovak and German agrarians backed Němec, while both candidates refused to solicit the support of the fascist Sudeten German Party, who abstained from the voting. The presidential election also precipitated a showdown between the right and the left wing of the party, with Slovak Milan Hodža leading the left wing and Rudolf Beran emerging as the leader of the right wing. On 19 November, as compensation for Hodža's promotion to the premiership, Beran was appointed to the post of chairman of the party, which had been vacant since Švehla's death in 1933. Černý simultaneously strengthened his position in the party. While Beran committed his party behind Němec, Hodža and the Slovak agrarians threw their support behind Beneš. When the Slovak populists also decided to support Beneš, the opposition to Beneš' election collapsed. While Černý did not consider Beneš to be the most optimal candidate, he did not participate significantly in the electoral contest due to his ministerial duties. Beneš, however, never forgot the opposition of the Republican party to his candidacy, which strained the relationship between Černý and Beneš during and after the war.
As minister of the interior Černý was heavily involved in improving the country's security service, especially in the border regions. He paid the great attention to the organization, arming and reinforcement of police and gendarmerie forces in border regions. During Černý's tenure the gendarmerie was expanded from 7,000 gendarmes in 1934 to 14,000 in 1938. He also implemented Government Decree No. 270 Coll. of 23 October 1936, which established the State Defense Guard (Stráž obrany státu, SOS), a military service tasked with border security, law enforcement and customs enforcement. The SOS under the authority of the Ministry of the Interior and was mobilized Černý's orders during the night of 20-21 May during the May crisis. The SOS were not recalled following the end of the crisis and remained mobilized during the Sudeten Crisis and the outbreak of war. The mobilization of the SOS was carried out despite protests from the Sudeten German Party in the Chamber of Deputies, and while the Interior Minister was subject to numerous interpellations by the SdP, he considered maintaining its strength as his duty to maintain security at all times during the crisis. From 12 September Černý and the forces under the authority of the Ministry of the Interior (police, gendarmerie and the SOS) were heavily involved in curtailing the uprising of the Sudeten German Freiwilliger Schutzdienst and, later, the Sudetendeutsches Freikorps.
On 21 September 1938 he was forced to resign along with the rest of Hodža's government following a governmental crisis precipitated by the public dissatisfaction to the government's acceptance of the British-French plan the previous day.
World War II and Resistance (1938–1945)[]
At the beginning of the German occupation he became involved in the organized resistance, serving as the deputy leader of the now-banned Republican Party of Farmers and Peasants (RSZML) under chairman Rudolf Beran.
Shortly after the outbreak of war he worked together with representatives of other political parties in Hradec Králové, Pardubice and Mladá Boleslav to support the cities' population with food and organized the placement of Czech children in the countryside by contacting farmers, district unions, peasant cooperatives and sugar refineries. He also urged farmers to commit acts of economic sabotage by grinding grain for flour free of charge for the needy population, especially the families of resistance members.
In December 1938 Černý formed the resistance movement Political Center (Politické ústředí, PÚ) together with fellow agrarian Ladislav Karel Feierabend, social democrats Václav Majer and František Němec, socialist Prokop Drtina and diplomat Jan Opočenský. In response to Beneš' urging from Angers to coordinate all underground political activities at home, the organization was enlarged and reorganized, becoming the supreme organ of the political leadership at home. Cooperating closely with the military resistance group Defence of the Nation (Obrana národa, ON), it controlled the communication channels with Beneš and the military leadership in France and later in the United Kingdom.
In May 1939 the Central Leadership of Home Resistance (Ústřední vedení odboje domácího, ÚVOD) was constituted and recognized by President Beneš as the central body of the Czechoslovak Underground State. The ÚVOD, with Černý as its chairman, directed and coordinated the different movements of the resistance, such as military resistance groups, underground press, trade unions and members of political parties. The ÚVOD also acted as the principal clandestine intermediary between the Czechoslovak government-in-exile and the home front, and its long-term purpose was to serve as a shadow government until Czechoslovakia's liberation from Nazi occupation. When Beran was arrested by the Gestapo in May 1941 and sent to the Theresienstadt concentration camp he was appointed the new leader of the RSZML.
Political career (1945–1950)[]
Premiership (1950–1956)[]
Later life and death[]
See also[]
- List of Prime Ministers of Czechoslovakia
- Josef Černý's cabinets
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