Jan Masaryk - Prague, Czech Republic
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N 50° 04.271 E 014° 26.261
33U E 459759 N 5546696
Jan Garrigue Masaryk (14 September 1886 – 10 March 1948) was a Czech diplomat and politician and Foreign Minister of Czechoslovakia from 1940 to 1948.
Waymark Code: WMH5H0
Location: Hlavní město Praha, Czechia
Date Posted: 05/26/2013
Views: 57
Jan Garrigue Masaryk was born in Prague, he was a son of professor and politician Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (who became the first President of Czechoslovakia in 1918) and Charlotte Garrigue, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk's American wife.
Masaryk was educated in Prague and also in the USA. After WWI he joined the diplomatic service and became chargé d'affaires to the USA in 1919, a post he held until 1922. In 1925 he was made ambassador to Britain.
When a Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile was established in Britain in 1940, Masaryk was appointed Foreign Minister. During the war he regularly made broadcasts over the BBC to occupied Czechoslovakia.
Masaryk remained Foreign Minister following the liberation of Czechoslovakia as part of the multi-party, communist-dominated National Front government. After Czech coup (
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On March 10, 1948 Masaryk was found dead, dressed only in his pajamas, in the courtyard of the Foreign Ministry below his bathroom window.
The initial investigation stated that he had committed suicide by jumping out of the window, although for a long time it has been believed by some that he was murdered by the nascent Communist government. In a second investigation taken in 1968 during the Prague Spring, Masaryk's death was ruled an accident, not excluding a murder and a third investigation in the early 1990s after the Velvet Revolution concluded that it had been a murder.
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Description of the statue
Live size bronze bust situated placed above the entrance to the villa where his father T.G. Masaryk lived.
Plaque Inscription:
CZ: „Pravda vítezí, ale dá to fušku – Jan Masaryk diplomat, státník, humanista 14.9.1886-10.3.1948“.
EN: Truth prevails, but it takes some elbow grease. Jan Masaryk, diplomat – statesman – humanist, 14.9.1886– 10.3.1948