Václav Klofáč, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Václav Klofáč

Czech member of Czech council, politician and publicist

Date of Birth: 21-Sep-1868

Place of Birth: Havlíčkův Brod, Vysočina Region, Czech Republic

Date of Death: 10-Jul-1942

Profession: writer, politician, journalist

Zodiac Sign: Virgo


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About Václav Klofáč

  • Václav Jaroslav Klofác (September 21, 1868 – July 10, 1942) was a Czech politician and one of the founders of the Czech National Social Party.
  • He was born in 1868 in Nemecký Brod.
  • Klofác became one of the best known radical nationalist Czech politicians in the Habsburg Monarchy. Václav Klofác grew up in humble circumstances, the son of a courtroom messenger, he knew poverty and went through a number of experiences that allowed him to understand and sympathize with the working-class.
  • Klofác’s education began in Nemecký Brod Gymnasium and then at the University of Prague in the late 1880s.
  • He was originally enrolled in the Universities Medical School but transferred into the school of arts and sciences where he studied philosophy.
  • Václav participated in journalism and student politics.
  • His political career began during his years as a student at Charles University in Prague.
  • While attending the University Klofác became co-founder of the Czech students progressive movement.
  • He was also involved in the Young Czech Party, who defeated the Old Czechs in the Reichstrat election of 1891, and frequently wrote for the Casopis Pokrového Studentstva.
  • After graduation, Julius Gregr editor of Národní Listy convinced Klofác to write for the paper where he was quickly promoted to editor.
  • But Klofác became unhappy with what he viewed as the excessive compromising of the Young Czechs with the Habsburg government. His frustrations with the Young Czechs led Klofác to become one of the founders of the National Social party (originally the National Workers party) in 1898.
  • He was elected to the Austrian parliament for the first time in 1901 along with his colleagues Václav Choc and Václav Fresl, where he used his seat in the parliament to attack the government for what he believed were its anti-Czech, militarist and Catholic policies.
  • Unlike many nationalists of his day, Klofác was an ardent supporter of women's right to the vote.
  • The stridency of his anti-Habsburg politics led to his arrest by the Austrian authorities on charges of treason in 1915.
  • Although he was sentenced to death, Klofác was amnestied in 1917 along with many other prominent Czech politicians.
  • In 1939 Klofác escaped a second incarceration, when Bohemia was occupied by the Germans, due to his impending death.
  • From January 1919 to May 1920 Klofác served as Czechoslovakia’s minister of national defense.
  • An avowed pacifist, Klofác became the first Minister of Defense of Czechoslovakia.
  • Klofác transformed the recently defeated Austro-Hungarian army into the new Czechoslovak Army.
  • He persuaded most men participating in the armed forces to accept their new civic responsibilities as citizen soldiers and to try and rid themselves of any negative views they had of the military, caused by their experiences in the Imperial and Royal Army.
  • From 1920-1926 Koflác served as vice-chairman and chairman of the Czechoslovak Senate.
  • During this time he maintained harmony among delegates representing different interest.
  • Václav Klofác also helped organize the September 1926 Brno Congress of the Czechoslovak National Socialist Party.
  • A strong supporter of the first Czechoslovak president Tomáš Masaryk.
  • From 1918 to 1938, Klofác became a publicist for public understanding and support of political democracy and Masaryk’s concept of the Czechoslovak state.
  • Klofác remained politically active until the late 1930s when he withdrew from political life to his country home, where he died in 1942.

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