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Francis Prince Schwarzenberg (1913-1992). "Masaryk" aristocrat in a duel with totalitarian regimes of the 20th century.

Publication at Faculty of Arts |
2011

Abstract

František Schwarzenberg began to engage in public life in the second half of the 1930s when pressure from Nazi Germany on the Czechoslovak state was growing. He first expressed his own opinion during a graduation speech during the May mobilization of 1938 (the same year as "Munich") and soon afterwards took part in a pro-Czech declaration by aristocrats.

He spent the war years in the protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. At one point Schwarzenberg served in the office of President Emil Hácha, although he only lasted there until the start of April the following year.

He left at his own request because he refused to sign an oath of allegiance to Hitler. In public he kept a low profile, while in reality playing an active role in the resistance.

In peace time he returned to diplomacy. However, only three years after the war the Communist totalitarian system was initiated in February 1948 and Schwarzenberg elected to go into exile.

He was a professor of political science at Chicago's Loyola University and was a member of numerous exile organisations. He spent the final years of his life in Unzmarkt, Austria, where he passed away in 1992.