Přemysl Šámal

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Přemysl Šámal, around 1927

Přemysl Šámal (born October 4, 1867 in Prague , † March 9, 1941 in Berlin ) was a Czechoslovak lawyer and politician. He was actively involved in the preparations for gaining independence in 1918 as well as a participant in the Czechoslovak resistance against National Socialism . Šámal was mayor ("primátor") of Prague for a short time after 1918 and then headed the president's office.

Life

Šámal came from a well-to-do Prague family. His father Jan Šámal was a senior civil servant in the Prague magistrate , his mother Marie Šámalová was the daughter of the former mayor of the city, Tomáš Černý. Přemysl Šámal studied law at Charles University in Prague, where he met the later President Masaryk , who was a professor at the university at the time, and has been closely associated with him ever since. After completing his studies, he first worked as an intern in his grandfather's law firm, later he set up his own law firm in Prague's New Town and represented, among other things, many politically persecuted patriots. He also worked in the National Museum and in its Matice česká facility . In 1899 Šámal married Anna Nekvasilová, with whom he had the son Jaromír Šámal , who was executed by the Gestapo in 1942 , and their daughter Jarmila Šámalová, born in 1906, married Grundová.

Political activity

Šámal was involved in the Česká strana pokroková (Czech Progressive Party) founded by Masaryk , of which he became chairman in 1914. After the outbreak of World War I , he founded and organized the so-called Maffie , a secret anti-Austrian organization that maintained contacts with politicians working abroad and, among other things, acted as an intelligence service for the Triple Entente ; after Beneš went into exile, he directed it. From February 1918 he supported the party Česká státoprávní demokracie (Czech constitutional democracy), which was merged into the successor party Československá národní demokracie (Czechoslovak national democratic democracy). After the founding of Czechoslovakia , he worked for this party from 1918 to 1920 as a member of the National Assembly (and there in some committees); at the same time he was also Lord Mayor ("primátor") of the city of Prague. Šámal resigned from this post after Masaryk hired him in mid-1919 to head the President's office; in this office he remained under President Beneš, he resigned from this post shortly after Emil Hácha was appointed president in autumn 1938.

After the outbreak of World War II and the proclamation of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia , Přemysl Šámal took part in the resistance. He was involved in the founding of one of the most important illegal groups of the resistance, the Politické ústředí , and belonged to their leadership duo together with the secretary Vladimír Klecanda ; he was in contact with the Obrana národa resistance group . During a wave of arrests, however, he was arrested on January 26, 1940, interrogated for a few months and finally transferred to Berlin. There he was first held in the Moabit remand prison , and due to his critical health condition, he was then placed in the private clinic St. Joseph Hospital Berlin-Tempelhof, where he died on March 9, 1941 at the age of 74.

His son Jaromír Šámal , professor of entomology , was arrested and executed during the wave of arrests following the assassination attempt on Heydrich , his wife was deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp and their two children were sent to Germany for re-education.

Honors

Stumbling block for Přemysl Šámal in Prague

In 1992 Přemysl Šámal was honored in memoriam with the Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk Order, 1st class.

On July 17, 2013, a stumbling block was laid by Gunter Demnig at his last place of residence, Karmelitská 382/14, in Prague .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Václav Ledvinka: JUDr. Přemysl Šámal , curriculum vitae, online on the portal of the capital of Prague: praha.eu / ... ( Memento from March 1, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ a b c d e Michal M. Musil: JUDr. Přemysl Šámal - první primátor hlavního města Československé republiky , report ČTK / České noviny, online at: www.ceskenoviny.cz / ...
  3. ↑ a b c Jakub Šiška: Přemysl Šámal - gray eminence and resistance fighter , report from Radio Praha, online at radio.cz / ...
  4. ↑ a b c d JUDr. Přemysl Šámal , short résumé of the Association for Military Memorials, online at: vets.estranky.cz/
  5. ↑ See Jarmila Samalova , Ancestry.com database, online at: ancestry.com / ... , and also the tombstone at billiongraves.com / ...
  6. ↑ Šámalova chata na Nové louce - historie , online at: samalova-chata.cz / ... ( Memento of March 7, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ↑ Šámal, Přemysl, 1867-1941 , short biography of the “Provenio” project of the National Museum Library, Prague, online at: opac.nm.cz/authorities/ ( Memento from March 1, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
  8. ↑ JUDr. Přemysl Šámal , Biographical Notes of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, online at: psp.cz / ...
  9. ↑ Politické ústředí , keyword from the online encyclopedia CoJeCo, online at: cojeco.cz / ...
  10. ↑ Bývalý kancléř Šámal zemřel , short note in Národní listy 72/1941 of March 13, 1941, online (digitized) at: digitalniknihovna.cz / ... (2nd column in the middle)
personal data
SURNAME Šámal, Přemysl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Czechoslovak lawyer and politician
DATE OF BIRTH October 4, 1867
PLACE OF BIRTH Prague
DATE OF DEATH March 9, 1941
Place of death Berlin