Josef Kalfus

Josef Kalfus before 1940

Josef Kalfus (born June 25, 1880 in Eisenbrod , Austria-Hungary , † June 12, 1955 in Železný Brod , Czechoslovakia ) was a Czechoslovak economist, politician and finance minister.

Life, political career

From 1920 Josef Kalfus worked as an official in the Ministry of Finance. As early as March 1936 he became finance minister for the first time in the second government of Milan Hodža and retained this role in the following years (with a brief interruption). Kalfus was finance minister during the Munich crisis, the Sudeten crisis and in the protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia until the end of the war in 1945. In the period before the Munich Agreement , Kalfus, as finance minister, had to provide enormous budgetary resources for the armaments industry in view of the threat from the German Reich .

Kalfus was - the whole time independent - Minister of Finance in the following governments of Czechoslovakia:

March 28, 1936– July 21, 1937	Milan Hodža II government
October 2, 1937– September 22, 1938	Government of Milan Hodža III
September 22, 1938 - October 4, 1938	Government of Jan Syrový I
October 4, 1938– December 1, 1938	Government of Jan Syrový II
1.12.1938-15.3.1939	Government of Rudolf Beran I
March 16, 1939-27 April 1939	Rudolf Beran II government
April 27, 1939– January 19, 1942	Alois Eliáš government
January 19, 1942– January 19, 1945	Jaroslav Krejčí government
19.1.1945–5.5.1945	Richard Bienert Government

After the end of the war, Josef Kalfus was indicted along with other cabinet members of the Protectorate governments in 1946. The trial took place in front of the Národní soud (National Court ) , which was specially set up for collaboration cases during the Protectorate . The prosecutor called for 20 years to life imprisonment. After Kalfus was able to prove that he had campaigned for Czechoslovak economic interests and, above all, had important and useful contacts with the Czechoslovak Resistance 1939–1945 both in the Protectorate itself and with the resistance in exile, he was found guilty but released without penalty. After the communist seizure of power in 1948, his property was confiscated by the regime.

Web links

• Newspaper article about Josef Kalfus in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .

Remarks

1. ↑ The year of death can also be found in 1956.
2. ^ Due to disagreements, Kalfus did not join this government, which was appointed on July 21, 1937, until October 2, 1937, after his budget was accepted; in the meantime the department was provisionally led by Emil Franke .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Životopisy ministrů 1918–2004 (part 5), in: Author collective: Historie Ministerstva financí 1918–2004. Compilation by the Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic, online at: mfcr.cz (PDF)
2. ↑ Události v třetí republice (1945-48) se vztahem k válce. In: CS-magazín. May 2007, online at: cs-magazin.com/