Maffie

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Lettering of the name of the Maffie organization, as used in places at the time

The Maffie was an illegal, conspiratorial secret organization and the main component of the internal Czech resistance 1914–1918 against the rule of the Habsburgs . She campaigned for the establishment of an independent Czechoslovakia and worked closely with other groups and institutions abroad.

designation

As Maffie , especially after the Second World War retroactively Mafie written already before the First World War in what was then Bohemia often referred to a group that turned against a foreign government in terms of a conspiracy (as in Italy, 1848) - this was the only Point of reference to the Italian mafia . After all, this term was used to describe the so-called “realistic” political movement of the later President Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk , which, due to the repression, was increasingly conspiratorial against the Austrian monarchy.

backgrounds

The situation in Bohemia, especially in Prague , worsened at the beginning of the 20th century, after the state parliament in Prague was de facto suspended by the imperial decree of July 1913 and was no longer allowed to sit. The political currents, i.e. the political parties, were by no means unanimous in their assessment of the monarchy at the beginning of the First World War: Their ideas ranged - as hope for a new policy of tolerance by Charles I - from a federal order within the old monarchy on the collapse of this and the independence of the countries that so desired, which also included the hope of the triple entente victory .

With the outbreak of war, the political persecution of anti-Austrian circles intensified: Newspapers were banned and in September 1914 the MP Václav Klofáč was arrested. Masaryk, who went abroad in December 1914, decided to remain in exile in January 1915 because of the threat of arrest; shortly afterwards, on August 4, 1915, the highest command of the Austrian army issued an arrest warrant against Masaryk for high treason, espionage and crimes against state power.

Abroad, Masaryk, later supported by Edvard Beneš and Milan Rastislav Štefánik , developed, among other things, intensive diplomatic negotiations with representatives of the Triple Entente and American President Woodrow Wilson , which led to the founding of Czechoslovakia in 1918. However, diplomacy abroad threatened to fail in the first few months due to the lack of accompanying activities in Bohemia itself. Therefore, great importance was attached to the formation of an illegal, independence-striving movement in Bohemia. This emerged from 1915 and its most important component was the maffie.

history

Members of the Maffie in 1918

Informal contacts between opposition intellectuals and politicians already existed at the end of 1914. After Beneš met with Masaryk in Zurich at the end of January / beginning of February 1915, he urged the formation of a secret committee to coordinate intelligence and underground work. Beneš intensified his contacts with anti-Austrian politicians, so that in March 1915 the organization was considered to have been founded when the Presidium was established. The presidium consisted of Beneš (who led the group first), Karel Kramář , Alois Rašín , Josef Scheiner and Přemysl Šámal ; after Beneš also had to emigrate in September 1915, Šámal took over the leading function of the organization, which was soon generally called Maffie.

It was mainly thanks to Šámal that Maffie became a well-functioning conspiratorial and intelligence organization. Several arrests were made, including the leadership: Kramář and Scheiner were arrested in May 1915, and Rašín in July 1915. Nevertheless, the Austrian secret police never succeeded in discovering and destroying the entire network. Some death sentences were passed during the subsequent trials, but these were turned into prison terms.

In the ranks of the Maffie one could find representatives of most of the political currents of the time. An exception were the Christian and Catholic parties, which mainly concentrated on alleviating the hardship resulting from the war with petitions and deputations. The Social Democrats, who at first relied on a federal order within the framework of the monarchy, changed their attitude and later took part in the work of the Maffie, with their Reichsrat members František Soukup , Rudolf Bechyně and Luděk Pik , among others . While many sources speak of a little more than 200 active people, the Czech historian Jan Hálek claims in his study of the Maffie that there were just under 250 active people from mainly middle and higher social classes. Among the members, who came from different parties or were partly non-party, were among others the later ministers František Soukup and Gustav Habrman , the politicians Antonín Kalina and Richard Bienert , the lawyer and later general inspector of the Czechoslovak army Josef Scheiner, the writer Josef Svatopluk Machar (Scheiner's successor as inspector general of the army), the neurologist Zdeněk Mysliveček , etc.

Tasks, activity

Maffie, who clearly took anti-Austrian positions, saw it as her job, among other things, to prevent Czech politicians from declaring loyalty. In particular, however, she coordinated the conspiratorial and intelligence work during the war and, in this regard, kept close contacts with the resistance in exile . In particular, spying on important messages in Viennese ministries and handing them over abroad, after which they were sent to the relevant offices of the Triple Entente, was regarded as very valuable. The connection between the Maffie and Julius Kovanda, the valet of the Austrian Interior Minister Heinold von Udynski , who used to take secret files, including reports from the front, home with him, copied them and then made them available to the Maffie , is seen as particularly successful in terms of intelligence also the allies of the Triple Entente.

In addition to a system of internal messengers, Maffie also maintained a messenger network for liaison with the organs of resistance located abroad; One of the messengers, as is popularly popularized, included the then world-famous opera singer Ema Destinová .

meaning

The Maffie worked with the Czechoslovak National Council , which was established in Paris in 1916 as a representative of the foreign resistance, and worked closely with the Czechoslovak National Committee of 1918 in Prague. The Czechoslovak National Council, recognized by several governments, formed a provisional government in Paris in October 1918 , which consisted of Masaryk, Beneš and Štefánik. In Prague, the Czechoslovak National Committee with Karel Kramář, Alois Rašín, František Soukup and others was also ready to prepare for independence.

However, after the note from Austrian Foreign Minister Andrássy to President Woodrow Wilson became known in Prague and the population flocked to the streets, the leadership of the Maffie immediately stepped out of illegality. Alois Rašín, František Soukup, Jiří Stříbrný , Vavro Šrobár and Antonín Švehla , later known as the " men of October 28 " ( "muži 28. října") received, formed a National Committee that the independent Czechoslovakia on October 28, 1918 proclaimed .

About half of the Maffie's activists were awarded the Czechoslovak Revolution Medal in 1918 and in the following years for their resistance work.

Individual evidence

  1. a b Jan Čurda: Česká Mafie , in: 100 + 1 zahraniční zajímavosti from October 19, 2015, online at: historie.stoplusjednicka.cz / ...
  2. a b c Jaroslav Kojzar: Vznik Mafie , in: Haló noviny of March 18, 2013, online at: halonoviny.cz / ...
  3. Imperial patent of July 26, 1913 regarding the dissolution of the state parliament of the Kingdom of Bohemia , in: Reichsgesetzblatt for the kingdoms and states represented in the Reichsrat from July 27, 1913, year 1913, p. 425, online at: alex.onb.ac. at / ... (digitized by the Austrian National Library)
  4. a b c d e K činnosti českých poslanců během první světové války , Article of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, online at: psp.cz / ...
  5. a b c d e Iva-Hedvika Zýková, Maffie je základ státu , report by the Český rozhlas broadcaster of March 27, 2015, online at: rozhlas.cz/.../1471515
  6. Iva-Hedvika Zykova: Po stopách Masarykových zimních cest , report the transmitter Český rozhlas of 15 January 1915 online at rozhlas.cz/.../1444301
  7. a b c Daniel Rovný: Náš svátek - 28.říjen , in: Britské listy of October 26, 2006, online at: blisty.cz / ...
  8. a b Jan Hálek: Maffisté v politickém životě prvorepublikového Československa - role Přemysla Šámala , in: History - Otázky - Problémy 1/2014, journal of the Philosophical Faculty of Charles University in Prague, online at: ucd.ff.cuni.cz / ... , Page 149f. and note 9 ibid
  9. Ema má zprávu, Maffie má Emu. Operní pěvkyně ve službách odboje , report by the station Český rozhlas of March 6, 1915, online at: rozhlas.cz/.../1463372
  10. Období první republiky 1918 - 1938 , published by the Office of the Czechoslovak Government, online at: vlada.cz/assets / ...
  11. ^ Austria-Hungary's special peace readiness - Reply note from Andrassy to Wilson , German version of the note, online at: stahlgewitter.com / ...