Essays on Liberty and Human Rights!
Human Rights Essays - V
Was Masaryk The Mastermind of Wilson's Fourteen Points,
Maneuvering The United States Into World War I?
The Profile of a Humanist, Philosopher, Revolutionary, Traitor,
                    Statesman, or Opportunist!!!
                                          By Karl Hausner

                INTRODUCTION

In this review, we will ask many questions and have some answers.  Ho did a person
of poor parents attain the success of becoming a professor of philosophy and later
president of a nation?  In addition,  how could a person, who was brought up
speaking the German language and enjoying German culture, a man who obtained
all his education in German, become a nationalistic Czech and the first president of
Czechoslovakia?

We shall also ask how Masaryk could get access to the American political and
financial elite.  We will ask whether he influenced President Wilson, as Wilson
contemplated entering World War I, or whether Wilson and his political and
industrial elite used Masaryk as an instrument to destroy the two largest
monarchies in Europe, Austria/Hungary and Germany.

Thomas Garrigue Masaryk
March 7, 1850 - September 14, 1937

In 2000, the Czech Republic celebrated the birth
of Thomas G. Masaryk, its first president.  In 1948,
when the Communists took over the country
under Klement Gottwald, he was brought into
discredit.  His monuments were removed because
Masaryk was not a Marxist.

However, in the year 2000, a new statue to him was
erected in Prague.  During the dedication, the
American Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright,
who was born in Prague, was the guest of honor.
A great deal  is known about Masaryk, though
much more is kept secret.  Both the Encyclopedia
Britannica and the German Brockhaus say very
little about his ancestry, upbringing, his frequent changes of religion, political
outlook, jobs and his activity in the United States.

Who actually was this man who is claimed to be a great humanist, philosopher and
statesman?

Most know that between 1918 and 1935 he was the first president of
Czechoslovakia, when his long time associate, Eduard Benes, succeeded him.
Masaryk died as a very wealthy person in the prominent castle LANY in Bohemia.

During the celebrations in Prague and, of course, during the entire era of post-
war Czechoslovakia, the truth about Czech politicians active during World War I and
II, was distorted and this continues to be the case even today.  Although the Czech
Republic is now part of NATO and wants to join the European Union, the truth and
even  justic are far from being implemented.  Yet, it was Masaryk who claimed that
truth alone was the foundation of his newly created country.

The average Czech, and for that matter most Americans, know that Prague was the
capital of Czechoslovakia and now the Czech Republic.  Very few know that this city
was really not a Czech, but a Bohemian city.  Seven hundred years ago it was even
the capital of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation under Emmperor Karl IV,
a Frankonian.   Czech Nationalism and Communism have kept such information away
from the Czech people and the world.  For example, the fact that the oldest German
University, the Karl's University, was founded in Prague 700 years ago.  Up to the
beginning of World War I, most cities in the present Czech Republic were heavily
populated by German people, and in many instances they were the majority.  All
these cities except Tabor was founded not by the Czechs but by the Germans.  
These two nations were living together for almost 1500 years, generally in harmony.  
The exceptions were the Hussite Wars, the time of the first Czechoslovak Republic
between 1919 and 1938 and, of course, after World War II, when practically all
Sudeten Germans - 3.5 Million of the them - were brutally expelled from their
homeland.  More than 240 thousand Sudeten Germans were killed during the
process.

     Masaryk, The Person

His mother was the daughter of a German innkeeper in the old German Town of
Auspitz, Moravia.  She went to Vienna for a short time and then  became the cook for
a very wealthy family - the Redlichs - a Jewish family whose language was German.  
His legal father was an illiterate Hungarian Slovak by the name of Joseph Masaryk.  
It was generally accepted, that his biological father was Mr.Nathan Redlich.  It was
rather common, not just in wealthy Jewish families, that young women, who kept the
household, also served as mistresses or concubines.  After she was pregnant for a
few months, she married the much younger illiterate coachman at the Redlich
estate, to establish a legitimate family.  They married on August 15, 1849;  however,
Thomas was born on  March 7, 1850.  It was a little kept secret that the biological
father was Nathan Redlich, who from his own marriage had three sons, all of whom
became well to do.  Since Masaryk's mother was German and the Redlich family
spoke German, Thomas grew up with the German language.  He, in  his later years,
spoke very highly of his mother, who gave him everything, but he rarely mentioned
his legal father or his half brothers.

Nathan Redlich was generous to Thomas Masaryk and it is well known, that his
attorney, Dr. Alois Prazak, of Bruenn (Brno) paid frequent amounts to the Masaryk
family for the education of Thomas.  As late as 1879, Masaryk's colleague Penicek
had to translate his positions into Czech.  He spoke Czech with a strong German
accent until his death.  Yet, he became a fanatical Czech nationalist, hating the
Habsburgs and perhaps due to that, everything German, especially the Catholic
Church.

Later, whe n Masaryk created Czechoslovakia, many Sudeten Germans hoped and
believed he would be friendly to them because of his heritage.  It is true, that
Masaryhk recognized that the sBohemian Germans or the Sudeten Germans were
economically and culturally more advanced than  the Czechs.

 His American Connections

While Masaryk was studying in Leipzig, he met a wealthy American music student,
Charlotte Garrigue and married her.  Through this connection, he was exposed to
the American financial, industrial and political elite, especially to the extremely
wealthy and influential industrialist, Charles Crane who engaged Thomas as a
consultant.  It was through Crane, that Masaryk got to know Woodrow Wilson.  Crane
financed Wilson's election  and Masaryk's son Jan was an intern at the Crane
industrial empire and late in the secretary of state's office under Wilson.  Jan even
married Crane's daughter.

Although the United States had intensively engaged in the "melting pot" ideology,
eliminating the ethnic grouping in this country,  Wilson came up with the Fourteen
Points of self-determination for Europe.  In the Habsburg Empire, fourteen
nationalities, including Czechs and Slovaks, harmonized relatively well, but Masaryk,
as an extreme nationalist, wanted the opposite.  His self-determining ideology
appealed to many different Slavic American ethnic groups and the Wilson
administration.  Thus, the United States entered the conflict, proposing a
self-determination concept for Austria - Ottoman Empire - the enemy states, in other
words Wilson's Fourteen Points, which big business considered good business.

Without the American involvement in World War I, the nationas involved in this
conflict would have to agree to a less dramatic change.  Hitler would have not won
power later, and World War II could have been avoided, as serious historians point
out.  Most likely, the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia would have not succeeded and
Palestine would have remained  under Turkish rule.

Historic Review of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic

Much has already been written about Thomas Garrigue Masaryk.  After a dispute,
stretching over several years to find a suitable location for a new Masaryk
monument, the American Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, finally unvailed
his new statue at his 150th birthday at the Hradschin
Plaza in Prague.  Who actually was this man, portrayed
as a great humanist, philosopher and politician?  The
world knows that he was the First President of the
1918/19 newly founded, multinational State of
Czechoslovakia, created at the expense of the
Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy and the various ethnic
groups,  especially the 3.5 million Sudeten Germans
and the close to one million Magyrs.

On the presidential banner he had embroidered in
Czech on one side, in Latin on the other, his motto:
"The Truth is Victorious!"

The entire history of Bohemia, Moravia and Sudeten-Silesia (in the following only
Bohemia), for centuries settled by Germans and Czechs, some Jews, who were
mostly German speaking, was woven by the Czechs in mysticism and poetry,
purposive fairy tales and stories, beginning with forefathers, Czech and Libusche.  
In this version, Karl IV is only spoken of as the King of the Czechs (incorrectly),
crowned in Zaachy.  The fact that he was the Emperor of the Roman Empire of the
German Nation, and Zaachy, mentioned as the old imperial city Aix-la-Chapelle, is
conveniently withheld.  The Czech Hussites, who ravaged innumerable, mostly
German villages, towns and monasteries, mudering thousands of people, warded off
five crusades  to the Holy Land, until they destroyed themselves in 1434 at Lipany.  
With that, the reign of terror of over 15 years, ended.  From 1620 until 1920, the
Czechs allegedly had to endure 300 years of darkness, although during the same
time, Bohemia became economically highest developed province of the monarchy
and perhaps Europe.  It should be stated, that Bohemia is incorrectly translated as
Chesky by Czech nationalists.  Bohemia = Czech is wrong, but is maintained to this
day.  The assertion, that formerly many Czechs only spoke German is untrue!
Further contortions and portrayals could be added.

Similarly, Masaryk was given a halo until 1948.  When the Communists took over, he
was considered a traitor by the Czech Communists.  So was and is history being
bent accordingly.  

         Masaryk's Autobiography

He wrote of himself that he was a Slovak, later a Moravian, finally a Czech.  Was he
not rather of German nationality and Austrian citizenship.  He declared his mother
Theresia to be a German from Auspitz (Hustopece).  She was the daughter of a
German innkeeper and butcher, who later was the Mayor Auspitz.  After several
years in Vienna, she came to Goeding in 1849 to well-to-do-Jewish family by the
name of Redlichs to be their personal chef.  She only spoke German, as the Redlich
family also conversed in German.  On August 15, 1849, she married the Hungarian
Slovak by the name of Josef Masaryk who worked for the Redlichs as coachman.  He
could not read nor write and was a full 10 years younger than Theresia,  When
Thomas was born     on March 7, 1850, it was an open secret in the Redlich family,
that Nathan Redlich was the biological father.  He already had three sons with his
wife:  Alois, Ignaz and Adolf.  All three of them became  very successful.  The son of
Adolf, Josef Redlich, was for many years Secretary of the Treasury in Vienna.  When
Masaryk became President, he offered him the position of Minister of Trade -
respectively Finance in Czechoslovakia.  It is known,  that the lawyer of the Redlich
family, who later became the Minister in Bruenn, Dr. Alois Prazak, paid significant
subsidies to the mother of Masaryk for his education.   Masaryk himself and the
Redlich family were good friends all their lives, especially with Josef Redlich and his
wife Alice.  A Redlich was also mayor of Goeding.  Masaryk hardly mentioned either
his father, Josef Masaryk, or his brother Martin and Ludwig, always emphasizing his
mother, to whom he felt he was indebted for everything, even though, she was
German and he was a "Czech".  He pursued his study in Auspitz, Bruenn, Vienna and
Leipzig, studying exclusively in the German language.  It is understandable that
many German-Bohemians saw in Masaryk a person to be trusted.  He in turn felt a
certain respect for the Germans, especiallly because of their economic
achievement and culture.

When he stood for the truth about the Koeniginhofer and Gruenberger manuscripts
(Czech language writings, centuries before), which was unmasked to have been
forged, Czech hostility almost caused him to emigrate to the U.S.A.  His lectures at
the Czech University were in the Czech language, even though, he had a strong
accent.

The life of Masaryk was rich in dramatic events, which apparently shaped his work
and his personality.  One of those, for example, was his defense of the Jew, Leopold
Hilson, fro  Kuttenberg, falsely accused of ritual murder and sentenced to death,
whom he was able to save before the man was executed.  This was widely discussed
in American Jewish circles.  Therefore, in 1907, Justice Louis D. Brandeis of the U.S.
Supreme Court, a good friend of Woodrow Wilson, organized a "large reception" for
Masaryk with the Jewish community in New York.  Large financial donations were
collected for him.  Many other financial contributions were made to him and in 1918
he received for the not yet existing Czechoslovakia, a loan of $10,000,000 from Wall
Street.

Masaryk noted:  "Especially in America, the Leopold Hilson case proved to be a
great success."

Politically, Masaryk made a name for himself through his writings, among others The
Czech Question and Russia and Europe.  He further became known through his
intervention in the Agram (Zagreb) trial of 190 9 against Serbian rioters, insofar as
he proved the documentary evidence to be falsified.

A stroke of luck for him was his marriage to Charlotte Garrigue on the 15th of March
in 18 78 in New York.  The father of Charlotte (whose parents had emigrated to
Denmark via Germany as French Hugenotts) was at the time in  training with the
publisher Brockhaus in Leipzig, from where he emigrated to America.  He became
wealthy and in the end owned the largest fire insurance company in the U.S.A.  The
family had eleven children, eight daughters and three sons.  In 1870 he visited
Leipzig with part of his family.  Charlotte remained there for three years, studying
music.  In June of 1876, Charlotte returned for another visit.  At that time, Masaryk
resided with the Goering family, and so luck took its course.  After the wedding, the
newly-weds lived in Vienna in a financially modest situation.  Here, on March 3, 1879,
their daughter Alice was born, and on the first of May in 188 0, their son Herbert.  
Later in Prague, on the 14th of mber in 1886, another son Jan entered the world, and
on the 25th of May in 1891, their daughter Olga.  The older son Herbert died at the
early age of 35 on March 15, 1915.

A positive financial turn for Masaryk did not come until 18  84.  A rich student, who
died in Berlin, willed him his fortune.  With that, the Masaryks were able to move
into a villa according to his status and to pay off his debts in Vienna.  Shortly
thereafter, Charlotte's parents died, so they also received a large inheritance from
that side of the family.

(Continued on Human Rights Essays VI)

How Masaryk Influenced Historic Events

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