Jiří Stříbrný

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Jiří Stříbrný (1880–1955)

Jiří Stříbrný (born January 14, 1880 in Rokycany , † January 21, 1955 in Valdice ) was a Czechoslovak politician and journalist. During the First World War he was involved in the anti-Austrian resistance. In the government of the First Czechoslovak Republic he held several ministerial posts. He was one of the leading representatives of the Česká strana národně sociální (Czech National Social Party) party, after breaking with this party he founded the radical nationalist Národní liga (National League) . After the war, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. He died in the detention center.

In Austria-Hungary

Jiří Stříbrný was born in the West Bohemian town of Rokycany. His father, Jaroslav Stříbrný, ran a law firm there, his mother's name was Marie, née Velkoborská. He was baptized in the name of Ferdinand, the name Jiří he took on later. The family soon moved to Prague, where Jiří graduated from the Technical University. He was already politically active during his studies. In 1897 he took part in the founding congress of the Česká strana národně sociální (Czech National Social Party) . He worked in their youth organization and as editor of the party magazines. From 1911 he was editor of České slovo , the party's daily newspaper.

In 1911 Jiří Stříbrný was elected to the Imperial Council and, at the age of 31, was one of the youngest MPs. He stayed in the Reichsrat until the monarchy was dissolved. After the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, despite his anti-Austrian stance, he was not arrested, like some of his party comrades, but drafted into the army. Because of his political unreliability, the army did not use him at the front, but in a work column. Finally he ended up in the Thalerhof internment camp . In April 1917 he was released.

After his release he joined the Czech resistance organization Maffie . In the summer of 1918 he became a member of the Czechoslovak National Committee and represented the Socialist Party there.

In Czechoslovakia

Leading politician and minister

Jiří Stříbrný was one of the five so-called men of October 28 (muži 28. října) . This is how the five leading members of the National Committee were later named (Antonín Švehla, Alois Rašín, Jiří Stříbrný, Vavro Šrobár, František Soukup), who on October 28, 1918, after the surrender of Austria-Hungary, controlled the Austrian offices in Prague and signed the Czechoslovak Declaration of Independence . It was thanks to Jiří Stříbrný that this change of power happened without any bloodshed. Stříbrný negotiated with General Kestřanek, commander of the Austrian military garrison in Prague. Together with Josef Scheiner , the head of the Turnerbund Sokol , he convinced the general that the garrison had to lay down their arms and accept the overthrow without resistance.

During the First Czechoslovak Republic, Stříbrný made a quick political career. He was a member of the Socialist Party (it was renamed the National Social Party in 1918 ) and held several ministerial posts in the various coalition governments. From 1918–1919 he was Minister of Post and Telegraph , from 1919–1920 and 1922–1925 Minister of Railways , and 1925–1926 Minister of National Defense .

From 1920 to 1926 he was deputy chairman of the Socialist Party and represented the party in the so-called Pětka (The Five) , an informal extra-parliamentary group of leaders of five major political parties.

In the Socialist Party he came increasingly into opposition to party chairman Václav Klofáč and Foreign Minister Edvard Beneš (party member since 1922). Stříbrný led the radical nationalist wing of the party, while Klofáč and Beneš advocated a democratic course. At the party congress in 1926, Klofáč and Beneš prevailed and Stříbrný was expelled from the party. In the same year Stříbrný also resigned from the office of Defense Minister. The reason for his resignation was involvement in one of the largest corruption scandals in the First Republic. He was charged with corruption but was finally acquitted after a process that lasted several years.

National League Leader

After being expelled from the Socialist Party, he did not withdraw from politics. Together with other former party members, he founded a new party in 1927, which existed under various names - most recently as Národní liga (National League ) - until 1938. The league increasingly took radical nationalist positions. In the 1929 elections she formed an electoral alliance with Národní obec fašistická (National Fascist Community) . The alliance later disintegrated. Jiří Stříbrný founded the Tempo publishing company together with his brother František in 1926 , which mainly published high-circulation tabloids. The Tempo press sharply criticized the policies of President Masaryk and later that of President Beneš.

After the Czechoslovak government surrendered to the demands of the Munich Agreement, Stříbrný intensified his criticism of President Beneš's policies.

In the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia

In the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia , Stříbrný withdrew completely from political life and lived in seclusion in his villa in the village of Káraný (Central Bohemia). He did not change his rejection of Beneš, but he resisted the National Socialists' call to take a public stand against Beneš.

After the war

After the end of the war, Stříbrný was charged with crimes against the republic in the retribution trials in 1947 and sentenced to life imprisonment. The amount of the punishment was disproportionate because Stříbrný was not one of the collaborators with the National Socialists. Historians see this judgment as a revenge by President Beneš on his political adversary. Stříbrný died on January 21, 1955 in the prison in Valdice.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Jiří Stříbrný: Český fašista , portal ŽivotopisyOnline.cz, accessed on April 20, 2020 (Czech).
  2. ↑ a b Libor Vykoupil: Jiří Stříbrný: portrét politika . Masarykova univerzita, Brno 2003, ISBN 80-86488-11-X , p. 16-17, 30-32 (Czech, 317 pp., Online ).
  3. ↑ a b Libor Vykoupil: Jiří Stříbrný: portrét politika . Masarykova univerzita, Brno 2003, ISBN 80-86488-11-X , p. 40-41 (Czech, 317 pp., Online ).
  4. ↑ Libor Vykoupil: Jiří Stříbrný: portrét politika . Masarykova univerzita, Brno 2003, ISBN 80-86488-11-X , p. 67 (Czech, 317 pp., Online ).
  5. ↑ Dne 30. října 1918 , Jaroslav Rošický: Rakouský orel padá (1933) on wikisource.
  6. ↑ Libor Vykoupil: Jiří Stříbrný: portrét politika . Masarykova univerzita, Brno 2003, ISBN 80-86488-11-X , p. 77-78 (Czech, 317 pp., Online ).
  7. ↑ a b c Od Masarykova oblíbence po doživotního vězně , Kateřina Špičáková on October 22, 2018 in Česká televize. Retrieved April 20, 2020 (Czech).
  8. ↑ Jiří Stříbrný , at Česká televize, accessed on April 20, 2020 (Czech).
  9. ↑ Jiří Stříbrný - Životopis , Osobnosti.cz portal, accessed on April 20, 2020 (Czech).
  10. ↑ Libor Vykoupil: Jiří Stříbrný: portrét politika . Masarykova univerzita, Brno 2003, ISBN 80-86488-11-X , p. 301-303 (317 pp., Abstract [PDF]).

Web links

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