Ernest Denis (January 3, 1849 – January 4, 1921) was a French historian. Denis became known as a specialist of

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

and Bohemia, and played a major role in the establishment of the

Czechoslovak Czechoslovak may refer to: *A demonym or adjective pertaining to Czechoslovakia (1918–93) **First Czechoslovak Republic (1918–38) **Second Czechoslovak Republic (1938–39) **Third Czechoslovak Republic (1948–60) **Fourth Czechoslovak Repub ...

state in 1918. Along with Louis Léger, he is considered to be one of the most highly regarded 20th-century historians of the

Slav Slavs are the largest European ethnolinguistic group. They speak the various Slavic languages, belonging to the larger Balto-Slavic language, Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout ...

world in France. In 1916, Thomas Garrique Masaryk and

Edvard Beneš Edvard Beneš (; 28 May 1884 – 3 September 1948) was a Czech politician and statesman who served as the president of Czechoslovakia from 1935 to 1938, and again from 1945 to 1948. He also led the Czechoslovak government-in-exile 1939 to 194 ...

founded the ''Comité national tchèque'' in Paris, and almost at the same time Louis Eisenmann, Louis Léger, and Ernest Denis founded the ''Comité national d'études'' , which also advocated for the independence of a Czech state. In 1918, the French government created Czechoslovak legions. On 28 October 1918, the Republic of Czechoslovakia was proclaimed in Prague.Finis Austriae
radio.cz, 24/10/2007, accessed 29 July 2021 Upon the death of Denis, the Czechoslovak state bought his house in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

in order to create an institute for

Slavic studies Slavic (American English) or Slavonic (British English) studies, also known as Slavistics is the academic field of area studies concerned with Slavic areas, languages, literature, history, and culture. Originally, a Slavist or Slavicist was prim ...

Notes

20th-century French historians French politicians 1849 births 1921 deaths French male non-fiction writers Historians of the Czech lands 19th-century French historians {{France-historian-stub