In case you were wondering who we were named after...
Tomáš Masaryk was born on 7th March 1850 in the city of Hodonín, in Moravia. His mother was Moravian, and his father Slovak. At the time, Bohemia and Moravia were in the Austrian part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Slovakia in the Hungarian Part.
After working as a blacksmith, he studied philosophy at Brno, Vienna and Leipzig, and in 1882 he was named Professor of Philosophy in the Czech part of Charles University in Prague. He challenged the validity of the supposidly middle-age epic poems "Rukopisy královedvorský a zelenohorský", and also angered Czech nationalists by arguing against Jewish blood libel in the Hilsner trials of 1899.
He served in the Reichsrat from 1891 to 1893 for the Young Czech Party and from 1907 to 1914 for the Realist Party, but didn't campaign for Czech independance.
With the outbreak of the war, he had to flee for fear of being arrested for treason, and fled to Geneva, Italy, the England were he taught. After the October Revolution, he went to Russia to help organise the Czechoslovak legions and carry on fighting the Austrians. He then went to America, allied with the Slovaks and the Ruthenes, and convinced Wilson to agree to the idea of Czechoslovak independance. On 18th October 1918, he proclaimed the first Czechoslovak state.
He was an outspoken humanist and rationalist, an opponant of German idealisst philosophy and Marxism, a pragmatist. He became a protestant, partly under the influence of his American wife, Charlotte, whose maiden name he took as his middle name ("Garrigue). Often referred to as simply TGM, many statues exist of him in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, there is also a Masaryktown in Florida, a Kibbutz Kfar Masaryk near Haifa, Israel, and streets named after him in the U.S., Mexico and of course in Central Europe. He wrote on many problems, from suicide to "The problems of Small Nations in the European Crisis".
But most important for us, he inaugurated SSEES in 1915.
After working as a blacksmith, he studied philosophy at Brno, Vienna and Leipzig, and in 1882 he was named Professor of Philosophy in the Czech part of Charles University in Prague. He challenged the validity of the supposidly middle-age epic poems "Rukopisy královedvorský a zelenohorský", and also angered Czech nationalists by arguing against Jewish blood libel in the Hilsner trials of 1899.
He served in the Reichsrat from 1891 to 1893 for the Young Czech Party and from 1907 to 1914 for the Realist Party, but didn't campaign for Czech independance.
With the outbreak of the war, he had to flee for fear of being arrested for treason, and fled to Geneva, Italy, the England were he taught. After the October Revolution, he went to Russia to help organise the Czechoslovak legions and carry on fighting the Austrians. He then went to America, allied with the Slovaks and the Ruthenes, and convinced Wilson to agree to the idea of Czechoslovak independance. On 18th October 1918, he proclaimed the first Czechoslovak state.
He was an outspoken humanist and rationalist, an opponant of German idealisst philosophy and Marxism, a pragmatist. He became a protestant, partly under the influence of his American wife, Charlotte, whose maiden name he took as his middle name ("Garrigue). Often referred to as simply TGM, many statues exist of him in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, there is also a Masaryktown in Florida, a Kibbutz Kfar Masaryk near Haifa, Israel, and streets named after him in the U.S., Mexico and of course in Central Europe. He wrote on many problems, from suicide to "The problems of Small Nations in the European Crisis".
But most important for us, he inaugurated SSEES in 1915.