!!!Wellcome!!!

Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk He was born on 7th March, 1850 in Hodonín. He studied in Brno and Vienna, where he was a lecturer of philosophy at university.

T.G.Masaryk and his family His wife´s name was Charlotte Garrigue, American by birth. Unfortunately, she died in 1923. They had two sons - Herbert and Jan, and three daughters - Alice, Eleanora and Olga. Eleanora died when she was still a baby and Herbert died at the age of 35.

Masaryk and his books Masaryk became well-known when he showed that two old Czech poems are in fact not old but were written in 19th century. He was also the chief editor of two journals and published numerous books, e.g. Rusko a Evropa (=Russia and Europe) and Nová Evropa (= New Europe).

Formation of the Czech Republic The Czech lands became part of Austria-Hungary in 1620. This lasted till 1918 when Austria-Hungary fell apart and its oppressed nations gained independence. Two of them, the Czechs and the neighbouring Slovaks, wished to live in one country. As a result, Czechoslovakia came into existence. Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk was the leading figure in this process, helped by Edvard Beneš and a Slovak, Milan Rastislav Štefánik.

Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk Because of this, he became the first president of Czechoslovakia (he was in office between the years 1918 and 1935).

Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk He died in Lány on 14 September 1937.

Czech Republic In 1993 Czechoslovakia split up and two independent countries were formed, the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. Now the Czech Republic consists only of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia, with a population of about ten million inhabitants.