Anton Cermak

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Anton Cermak (1933)

Anton Joseph Cermak (born May 9, 1873 in Kladno , † March 6, 1933 in Miami , Florida ) was an American politician and mayor of Chicago from 1931 to 1933. He was assassinated .

Life

Anton Cermak was born as Antonín Josef Čermák in Kladno near Prague in what is now the Czech Republic . In 1874 he emigrated to the USA with his parents . After attending school for only three years, he had to help his father, who was a miner in Braidwood . In 1890 he went to Chicago, where he found work on the railroad before setting up in the transportation business.

In Chicago he became a trade unionist and politically active with the Democrats . In 1902 he became a member of the city parliament, seven years later a councilor. In April 1931 he was elected Mayor of Chicago. He had campaigned against his predecessor in office, William Hale Thompson, of the Republicans, arguing that he was under the control of Al Capone and other Chicago gangsters. Cermak also campaigned for social reforms and an end to alcohol prohibition . He drew opposition to the Chicago Outfit when he protected his ally, labor leader Roger Touhy . In December 1932, he sent two police officers to arrest the mobster Frank Nitti . One of the officers shot himself in the hand, claiming that Nitti shot first, and he was tried. Cermak then left Chicago.

attack

On February 15, 1933, Anton Cermak was shot by the Italian-American Giuseppe Zangara in Bayfront Park in Miami during a spontaneous speech by the newly elected US President Franklin D. Roosevelt . Cermak told Roosevelt on the way to the hospital that he was glad he was met and not the president. He died three weeks later as a result of the attack.

Assumptions were made that Cermak was the real target of the attack. Zangara was used by the Chicago outfit around Nitti to take revenge on Cermak, who had previously tried to eliminate Nitti by the police without success. On the deathbed, Cermak is said to have stated that he expected to be the victim of an outfit attack.

Cermak was buried in the Bohemian National Cemetery in Chicago.

literature

Web links

Commons : Anton Cermak  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "Footnote With a Gun" ( Memento of May 3, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) by John Hood at www.miamisunpost.com (English)
  2. ↑ Ronald D. Humble: Frank Nitti. The True Story Of Chicago's Notorious "Enforcer". Barricade Books 2007, pp. 169-186
personal data
SURNAME Cermak, Anton
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cermak, Anton Joseph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Mayor of Chicago (1931–1933) and victim of an assassination attempt
DATE OF BIRTH May 9, 1873
PLACE OF BIRTH Kladno near Prague
DATE OF DEATH March 6, 1933
Place of death Miami , Florida