Rudolf Beran (28 December 1887, in Pracejovice,

Strakonice District Strakonice District ( cs, okres Strakonice) is a district (''okres'') within South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. Its capital is the town of Strakonice. List of municipalities Bavorov - Bělčice - Bezdědovice - Bílsko - Blatná - B ...

– 23 April 1954, in

Leopoldov Prison Leopoldov Prison ( sk, Ústav na výkon trestu odňatia slobody a Ústav na výkon väzby Leopoldov) is a 17th-century fortress built against Ottoman Turks that was converted into a high-security prison in the 19th century in the town of Leopoldov ...

) was a Czechoslovak

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, ...

who served as

prime minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

of the country before its occupation by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

and shortly thereafter, before it was declared a

protectorate A protectorate, in the context of international relations, is a state that is under protection by another state for defence against aggression and other violations of law. It is a dependent territory that enjoys autonomy over most of its in ...

. A leader of the Agrarian Party from 1933, he was appointed prime minister by President

Emil Hácha Emil Dominik Josef Hácha (12 July 1872 – 27 June 1945) was a Czech lawyer, the president of Czechoslovakia from November 1938 to March 1939. In March 1939, after the breakup of Czechoslovakia, Hácha was the nominal president of the newly pro ...

on 1 December 1938. Beran was somewhat ambivalent toward democracy. In the hope of appeasing the Germans after the

Munich Agreement The Munich Agreement ( cs, Mnichovská dohoda; sk, Mníchovská dohoda; german: Münchner Abkommen) was an agreement concluded at Munich on 30 September 1938, by Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy. It provided "cession to Germany ...

, he gathered most of the nonsocialist parties in the Czech lands into the Party of National Unity, with himself as its leader. He also subjected the press to tough censorship, but he presided over granting the Slovaks and Ruthenians' longstanding demands for autonomy. None of the measures was enough to prevent

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the ...

from seceding on 14 March, or Germany from occupying the remainder of the country a day later. He then served as the first prime minister of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia until his retirement on 27 April 1939. After he retired, he settled on his farm. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, he had contacts with members of the

Czech resistance Resistance to the German occupation of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia during World War II began after the occupation of the rest of Czechoslovakia and the formation of the protectorate on 15 March 1939. German policy deterred acts ...

. He was arrested in May 1941 by the Germans and spent years in various concentration camps. While he was in custody of the Gestapo in Prague, he had to answer several written questions submitted to him by K.H. Frank, Hitler's ''Staatsminister'' of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. After the war, Beran was arrested as a collaborator by the

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...

authorities, and in a manipulated political trial was sentenced to twenty years in prison. He died in

in 1954.

References

External links

* * * Literature: KULÍŠEK, Vítězslav, Politika druhé republiky (1938–1939): aneb první kolaps československé demokracie, Brno 2020, * https://kulisek-spisovatel.webnode.cz/politikadruherepubliky/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Beran, Rudolf 1887 births 1954 deaths People from Strakonice District People from the Kingdom of Bohemia Republican Party of Farmers and Peasants politicians Party of National Unity (Czechoslovakia) politicians Prime Ministers of Czechoslovakia Prime Ministers of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia Members of the Revolutionary National Assembly of Czechoslovakia Members of the Chamber of Deputies of Czechoslovakia (1920–1925) Members of the Chamber of Deputies of Czechoslovakia (1925–1929) Members of the Chamber of Deputies of Czechoslovakia (1929–1935) Members of the Chamber of Deputies of Czechoslovakia (1935–1939) Czech anti-communists Czech people of World War II Prisoners who died in Czechoslovak detention Czechoslovak people who died in prison custody