Petr Zenkl (13 June 1884 – 2 November 1975) was an influential Czech politician, government minister,

mayor of Prague The office of Mayor of Prague was established in 1784. In that year, under Joseph II Joseph II (German: Josef Benedikt Anton Michael Adam; English: ''Joseph Benedict Anthony Michael Adam''; 13 March 1741 – 20 February 1790) was Holy Roma ...

, chairman of the

Czechoslovak National Socialist Party Czech National Social Party (Czech: ''Česká strana národně sociální'', ČSNS) is a civic nationalist political party in the Czech Republic, that once played an important role in Czechoslovakia during the interwar period. It was establish ...

(1945-1948), deputy prime minister of Czechoslovakia (1946-1948) and the chairman of exile Council of Free Czechoslovakia (1949-1974).

Biography

Petr Zenkl was born as the eighth son of a small businessman, originally a

tailor A tailor is a person who makes or alters clothing, particularly in men's clothing. The Oxford English Dictionary dates the term to the thirteenth century. History Although clothing construction goes back to prehistory, there is evidence of ...

, in the

South Bohemia The South Bohemian Region ( cs, Jihočeský kraj; , ) is an administrative unit (''kraj'') of the Czech Republic, located mostly in the southern part of its historical land of Bohemia, with a small part in southwestern Moravia. The western part ...

n town of

Tábor Tábor (; german: Tabor) is a town in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 33,000 inhabitants. The town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument reservation. Administrative parts The follow ...

. All of the children helped their father in his business and strived to earn money. The father was Czech patriot, thus the children joined the

Sokol The Sokol movement (, ''falcon'') is an all-age gymnastics organization first founded in Prague in the Czech region of Austria-Hungary in 1862 by Miroslav Tyrš and Jindřich Fügner. It was based upon the principle of " a strong mind in a ...

movement. Zenkl studied at the gymnasium (grammar school) in Tábor and later graduated from the Philosophy Faculty of the

Charles University ) , image_name = Carolinum_Logo.svg , image_size = 200px , established = , type = Public, Ancient , budget = 8.9 billion CZK , rector = Milena Králíčková , faculty = 4,057 , administrative_staff = 4,026 , students = 51,438 , under ...

in Prague and in 1907 gained a doctorate.Biography
at the

University of Nebraska, Lincoln A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

website During his studies in Tábor he met a daughter of his history teacher, 16-year-old Pavla, and married her six years later in 1909. From 1911 Zenkl was active in local politics in Prague, more precisely in

Karlín Karlín (german: Karolinenthal) is a cadastral area of Prague, part of Prague 8 municipal district, formerly an independent town (which became part of Prague in 1922). It is bordered by the river Vltava and Holešovice to the north, Vítkov ...

, which was until 1921 an independent town before its incorporation to Prague. In 1911 he became a member of the Karlín town council, and in 1919 became a mayor of Karlín. He lost his position when Karlín was incorporated into Prague in 1921–1922. As a member of the Prague city council, Zenkl was installed in 1937 to the position of Prague's mayor, replacing his successful predecessor, dr.

Karel Baxa Karel Baxa (24 June 1863 – 5 January 1938) was a Czech politician in Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and then in Czechoslovakia. He is most known for his long term position as mayor of Prague (''Primátor hlavního města Prahy''). Advocacy Baxa, nep ...

Shortly after the

Nazi German 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 ...

occupation of Prague (March 1939) Zenkl was arrested and jailed in the

Pankrác Prison Pankrác Prison, officially Prague Pankrác Remand Prison (''Vazební věznice Praha Pankrác'' in Czech), is a prison in Prague, Czech Republic. A part of the Czech Prison Service, it is located southeast of Prague city centre in Pankrác, not ...

. From there he was transported to the

Dachau concentration camp , , commandant = List of commandants , known for = , location = Upper Bavaria, Southern Germany , built by = Germany , operated by = ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) , original use = Political prison , construction ...

and, after three weeks, to the

Buchenwald concentration camp Buchenwald (; literally 'beech forest') was a Nazi concentration camp established on hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within Germany's 1937 borders. Many actual or su ...

, where he was liberated together with other inmates by the army of U.S. General

George S. Patton George Smith Patton Jr. (November 11, 1885 – December 21, 1945) was a general in the United States Army who commanded the Seventh United States Army in the Mediterranean Theater of World War II, and the Third United States Army in France ...

. Zenkl is mentioned in

Edward R Murrow Edward Roscoe Murrow (born Egbert Roscoe Murrow; April 25, 1908 – April 27, 1965) was an American Broadcast journalism, broadcast journalist and war correspondent. He first gained prominence during World War II with a series of live radio broa ...

's report of Buchenwald on 11 April 1945, when a man turned to him in a barracks and said "You remember me, I am Peter Zenkl, onetime mayor of Prague". The two had indeed met before, but given such harsh treatment as Zenkl had endured, he was unrecognizable.Radio broadcast
by

With American military help, he was able to fly through

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...

and

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. Si ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, where he learned that his place as Mayor of Prague had been taken by the communist

Václav Vacek Václav Vacek (11 September 187718 January 1960) was a Czech writer, and a communist politician. He served as a Senator in the National Assembly of Czechoslovakia and after the Prague Uprising as the Mayor of Prague. He was also a founding mem ...

. He was also informed that he had been elected chairman of his Czechoslovak National Social Party by the Revolutionary Committee of the party. He took over his position as a mayor in August 1945, replacing Vacek, and fulfilled his duties until May 1946, when

elections An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...

took place and Václav Vacek was installed to the office again. After the elections, as a chairman of the second strongest party (after the

Communist Party of Czechoslovakia The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia ( Czech and Slovak: ''Komunistická strana Československa'', KSČ) was a communist and Marxist–Leninist political party in Czechoslovakia that existed between 1921 and 1992. It was a member of the Comint ...

) he became the Deputy Prime Minister of the Czechoslovak government in May 1946. In September 1947 Zenkl, together with minister

Jan Masaryk Jan Garrigue Masaryk (14 September 1886 – 10 March 1948) was a Czech diplomat and politician who served as the Foreign Minister of Czechoslovakia from 1940 to 1948. American journalist John Gunther described Masaryk as "a brave, honest, turbul ...

and fellow National Socialist minister of justice Prokop Drtina, were victims of communist-orchestrated intimidation, when they received boxes containing explosives.LeCaine Agnew 2004, 229. In February 1948 Zenkl resigned, together with other non-communist government ministers, to convince the communist Minister of Interior

Václav Nosek Václav Nosek (26 September 1892 in Velká Dobrá – 22 July 1955 in Prague) was a Czechoslovak Communist politician who served as Minister of the Interior from 4 April 1945 to 14 September 1953. Despite the fact that Nosek never hid his Comm ...

to cancel unconstitutional measures, which Nosek instituted during his ministry.Milena Štráfeldová: Češi v zahraničí
at the

Czech Radio Český rozhlas (ČRo) is the public radio broadcaster of the Czech Republic operating since 1923. It is the oldest radio broadcaster in continental Europe and the second oldest in Europe after the BBC. The service broadcasts throughout the C ...

After the communist coup d'état of 1948 Zenkl was under constant surveillance by the communist State Security apparatus. He managed, however, to escape with his wife to the West in August 1948. In subsequent years he became the head of the Czechoslovak political exile movement. In 1949-1974 he was a chairman of the exile Council of Free Czechoslovakia, based in Washington, D.C. After the

fall of communism The Revolutions of 1989, also known as the Fall of Communism, was a revolutionary wave that resulted in the end of most communist states in the world. Sometimes this revolutionary wave is also called the Fall of Nations or the Autumn of Nat ...

in 1989, his remains were transferred from the United States to the

Vyšehrad Cemetery Vyšehrad ( Czech for "upper castle") is a historic fort in Prague, Czech Republic, just over 3 km southeast of Prague Castle, on the east bank of the Vltava River. It was probably built in the 10th century. Inside the fort are the Basil ...

in Prague. In October 1991 he was awarded, ''in memoriam'', the

Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk The Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk ( cz, Řád Tomáše Garrigua Masaryka) is an order (decoration), Order of the Czech Republic and the former Czechoslovakia. It was established in 1990 after the Velvet Revolution, and re-established in 1994 ( ...

, II class, by President

Václav Havel Václav Havel (; 5 October 193618 December 2011) was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright, and former dissident. Havel served as the last president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1992 and then ...

Works

* ''Tomáš G. Masaryk a idea federalisace Evropy a světa'' (1953) * ''Masarykova Československá republika'' (

Masaryk Masaryk is a Czech surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Alice Masaryk (1879–1966), Czech sociologist and one of the founding members of the Czechoslovak Red Cross, the daughter of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk * Charlotte Garrigue Ma ...

's Czechoslovak Republic) (1955) * ''T. G. Masaryk and the Idea of European and World Federation'' (1955) * ''Communist Seizure of Power and the Press 1945-48'' (1962) * ''A history of the Czechoslovak Republic, 1918-1948'' (1973) * ''Mozaika vzpomínek'' (Mosaic of Memories) (1997)

Footnotes

References

External links

Profile at totalita.cz website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zenkl, Petr 1884 births 1975 deaths People from Tábor People from the Kingdom of Bohemia Czech National Social Party politicians Government ministers of Czechoslovakia Members of the Interim National Assembly of Czechoslovakia Members of the Constituent National Assembly of Czechoslovakia Mayors of Prague Charles University alumni Buchenwald concentration camp survivors Dachau concentration camp survivors Czechoslovak expatriates in the United States Recipients of the Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk Burials at Vyšehrad Cemetery