Antonín Němec

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Antonín Němec

Antonín Němec (born February 17, 1858 in Brno , † May 25, 1926 in Prague ) was a leading Czech social democrat at the time of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy and during the first Czechoslovak Republic . Before 1914 he also played an important role in the Second International .

Life

He was a typesetter by trade and joined the relevant trade union in 1876. He was promoted to head of the Moravian printers' union. In 1894 Němec became the editor of a Czech-language workers' newspaper in Vienna , where numerous Czechs lived. He ran in the elections to the House of Representatives in 1897 against the Mayor of Vienna Karl Lueger and was narrowly defeated with 18,000 to 22,000 votes.

In 1897 he took over the Prague newspaper Právo lidu as editor-in-chief. Since then he has been the de facto leading figure in the Czech Social Democrats, who officially still belonged to the Austrian party . With regard to the relationship between the nations he formulated at the party congress of the entire party in Vienna in 1897. It was not justifiable “that the congresses of the German comrades are at the same time all-party congresses of the Austrian social democracy. (...) One does not want "a common Austrian party as a whole, but a united party made up of different nationalities." He also represented the Czech Social Democrats in the Second International . In 1905 he called for participation together with the Austrian Social Democrats on the suffrage battle.

He was officially chairman of the Czech Social Democrats from 1904 to 1915 and again from 1915 to 1925. Between 1907 and 1914 he was one of the leading figures of the Second International. He was a member of the International Socialist Bureau, that is to say, the executive committee of the International. In 1907 and again in 1911 he was elected to the House of Representatives for a Prague constituency. In October 1918 he became a member of the Czech National Assembly and remained a member of parliament until 1925 . As party chairman, he was a member of the Executive Committee of the Czech Social Democratic Party and fought the left wing between 1919 and 1920. He was involved in the takeover of the Volkshaus in September 1920, which contributed to the general strike in December of that year. In 1926 he was elected honorary chairman of the party after the election of Antonín Hampl as chairman.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Monika Glettler: The Viennese Czechs around 1900: structural analysis of a national minority. Munich, 1972 p. 164
  2. ↑ Martin K. Bachstein: The social democracy in the Bohemian countries up to 1938 In: The first Czechoslovak Republic as a multinational party state. Munich, 1979 p. 84
  3. ↑ Monika Glettler: The Viennese Czechs around 1900: structural analysis of a national minority. Munich, 1972 p. 386f.

literature

  • Kevin McDermott: Antonín Němec. In: Biographical Dictionary of European Labor Leaders. Vol. MZ. Westport, 1995 p. 690
personal data
SURNAME Němec, Antonín
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Czech social democrat
DATE OF BIRTH February 17, 1858
PLACE OF BIRTH Brno
DATE OF DEATH May 25, 1926
Place of death Prague