Czechoslovak government in exile

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The Czechoslovak government-in-exile was the executive branch of Czechoslovakia during the occupation of the country in World War II in London , appointed by President Edvard Beneš and headed by Prime Minister Jan Šrámek for two terms from July 21, 1940 to April 5, 1945 : the Jan Šrámek government I from July 21, 1940 to November 12, 1942 and the Jan Šrámek II government from December 12th / 14th. November 1942 to April 5, 1945. The government coordinated and directed both the resistance against the occupation in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and the fighting of the Czechoslovak army in exile in western countries. As was later determined under international law, it was an official government of Czechoslovakia.

Designations

The “Czechoslovak government in exile ” or the “government in exile of Czechoslovakia” is often referred to in Czech as Prozatímní státní zřízení and in English mostly as “Czechoslovak government-in-exile”. The Czech term Prozatímní státní zřízení (roughly "Provisional State System") refers not only to the government in exile itself, but to the entire system including the office of the President, which was later added to the State Council, Legal Council and other organs, and it refers also on the Czechoslovak National Committee (Československý národní výbor) founded in Paris in 1939, which was considered a forerunner of the government.

The form “Beneš government”, which is also used in many languages, is incorrect insofar as the nominal head of the government was Prime Minister Jan Šrámek and the two insignificantly different governments are also officially referred to as Jan Šrámek I and Jan Šrámek II. Because of Beneš 'commitment, role and because of his international fame, the term "Beneš government" has also established itself.

History, origin

After the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the German Wehrmacht, most of the political representatives fled and immediately began to form resistance in exile . On November 17, 1939, the Czechoslovak National Committee was officially established in Paris, which was moved to London after the occupation of France. After the British government was finally willing to recognize a Czechoslovak government in exile, Beneš appointed Jan Šrámek Prime Minister on July 21, 1940, and the other members of the government the following day, in accordance with the 1920 constitution. This government was formally the continuation of the Czechoslovak National Committee.

Gradually, Beneš achieved the recognition of his exile organizations by the allies:

  • limited recognition of the Czechoslovak National Committee by France on November 14, 1939, by Great Britain on December 20, 1939 and by Australia, New Zealand and the Union of South Africa during 1940;
  • Great Britain recognizes the Provisional Government of Czechoslovakia on July 21, 1940;
  • full recognition of the government in exile and of Beneš as President de jure by the Soviet Union on July 18, 1941, Great Britain on July 18, 1941 and the USA on October 26, 1942.

At the end of 1942 a crisis broke out over the financing of the resistance in the Protectorate, which culminated in the resignation of eleven ministers. On November 12, 1942, the entire government resigned and had to be reappointed on November 14, 1942.

The end of the London government in exile was decided during the negotiations in Moscow from March 22-29, 1945 between Beneš's government and the leadership of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia . As a result, a new government of the National Front was to be formed, which, however, would not meet until the liberated territory of pre-war Czechoslovakia, until that point Beneš's government would remain in office. On April 3, 1945, Beneš came to the liberated city of Košice in eastern Slovakia, on April 4, 1945 the new ministers took the oath, so that the new government of Zdeněk Fierlinger I could meet on April 5, 1945 and the old one was dismissed.

Priorities of government work

The activities of the government-in-exile were primarily geared towards their own recognition as the basis for further work, and subsequently towards the liberation of the country and securing future development.

On October 2, 1939, the Czechoslovak National Committee signed a contract with the French Prime Minister Daladier for the establishment of a Czechoslovak army in France, which was already involved in a battle with German troops on June 11, 1940. Other similar treaties were later concluded by the government in exile, in particular the treaty with the government of the United Kingdom of October 25, 1940 and December 16, 1941, which resulted in the formation of the Czechoslovak Air Force formations within the Royal Air Force .

Of the international treaties that influenced the future orientation of the country, the friendship treaty with the Soviet Union of December 12, 1943, in which the Soviet Union assured Czechoslovakia to respect independence, sovereignty and non-interference in internal affairs , played a particularly important role.

The decisions were issued in the form of so-called Presidential Decrees , also known as the Benes Decrees . Between 1940 and 1945 a total of 143 such decrees were issued in exile, including 11 so-called constitutional decrees, which were later ratified retrospectively by the national constitution.

International legal basis and significance

"The uninterrupted continuity of the Czechoslovak state after the March events of 1939 was represented by the organs of the Czechoslovak political exile under the leadership of E. Beneš," states the government of the Czech Republic on one of its official websites. This opinion is controversial in terms of international law and is peculiar in that at the time there was no territory that could have been governed: a part was annexed after the destruction of the rest of Czech Republic by the Third Reich and was called the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia , the The rest of the original state was already a satellite state dependent on Germany : the Slovak Republic . President Beneš also resigned on October 5, 1938, five days after the Munich Agreement was passed . The status of this government, particularly with regard to state continuity, does not fit into the otherwise common schemes due to the accompanying circumstances. The concept of the uninterrupted rule of law is also often questioned.

For this purpose, Beneš developed a so-called "theory of legal continuity", which he presented on a radio broadcast in London on June 26, 1940 and which was also recognized by all the major allied powers of the anti-Hitler coalition. The theory was that all legal acts carried out on the territory of Czechoslovakia after September 30, 1938, were invalid, including his abdication. His theory was substantiated in the late summer of 1942, when even the British and French governments declared the Munich Agreement null and void. As early as July 1940, Beneš had his provisional government and office recognized by Great Britain. He and his government enjoyed the same position in Great Britain as the legal governments of the Netherlands, Norway and Greece, who had also fled. His term of office as president is indicated in many biographies with the year 1935–1948.

This fact, underpinned by the deployment of the Czechoslovak army units (in the French, later British and the Red Army) and the Slovak National Uprising of 1944, as well as the resistance in the protectorate itself, contributed to Czechoslovakia as an Allied victorious power after the end of the war recognized and treated.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Československý národní výbor a prozatímní stání zřízení ČSR v emigraci , a publication by the Czech government, online at: www.vlada.cz (PDF; 73 kB), Czech, accessed on December 2, 2010.
  2. ↑ O příčinách vítězství komunistů v únoru 1948 , Part 1, online at: www.totalita.cz , Czech, accessed on December 2, 2010.
  3. ↑ Doba poválečná 1945–1948 , a publication by the Czech government, online at: www.vlada.cz (PDF; 85 kB), Czech, accessed on December 2, 2010.
  4. ↑ a b F. Čapka: Dějiny zemí Koruny české v datech (tabular history), online at: www.libri.cz , Czech, accessed on December 5, 2010.
  5. ↑ Both contracts online at: ceskoslovenstiletci.wz.cz , Czech, accessed on December 5, 2010.
  6. ↑ All decrees published in 1947 in the collection of laws, printed from official sources in the Czech Wikisource , online at: cs.wikisource.org/ (index)
  7. ↑ Veronika Bauerová: Kontinuita prostřednictvím exilových orgánů a dekretální normotvorby , portal of the Institute Ústav práva a právní vědy (Institute for Law and Jurisprudence) in Prague, online at: ustavprava.cz / ...
  8. ↑ Edvard Beneš , Portal Informační centrum vlády (Information Service of the Government of the Czech Republic), online at: vlada.cz / ...
  9. ↑ Karel Kaplan, The Fatal Alliance. Infiltration, conformity and annihilation of the Czechoslovak social democracy 1944–1954 , Pol-Verlag, Wuppertal 1984, ISBN 3-9800905-0-7 (author's introduction, p. 15 ff.)