Antonín Baudyš (9 September 1946 – 24 August 2010) was a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

academic and politician who served as defense minister from 1993 to 1994. He was the first defense minister of the Czech Republic.

Early life and education

Baudyš was born in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

on 9 September 1946. He studied mechanical engineering and graduated from the Czech Technical University (CVUT).

Career

Baudyš worked as a university professor at his alma mater, CVUT, until 1989. He became a member of the Czechoslovak People's Party (CSL) in 1970. He was named deputy prime minister in 1989 shortly after the fall of communist regime and held the post until July 1992. He was appointed defense minister to the coalition cabinet led by Prime Minister

Václav Klaus Václav Klaus (; born 19 June 1941) is a Czech economist and politician who served as the second president of the Czech Republic from 2003 to 2013. From July 1992 until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in January 1993, he served as the second ...

in January 1993. The ministry was formed with his appointment. He was a member of the Christian Democratic Union-Czechoslovak People's Party (KDU-CSL). On 22 September 1994, Vilém Holáň of KDU-CSL replaced Baudyš in the post. Following his removal from office, he worked as a businessman and a popular astrologist.

Activities

One of his first activities as defense minister was to initiate the cleansing of the society from hard-liner communists and informers. He stated his aim as defense minister to transform the ministry into "an integrated civilian-military institution". During his tenure Baudyš was informed that the Czech army had had

pathogens In biology, a pathogen (, "suffering", "passion" and , "producer of"), in the oldest and broadest sense, is any organism or agent that can produce disease. A pathogen may also be referred to as an infectious agent, or simply a germ. The term ...

. He ordered the destruction of them due to the fact that they were no longer necessary.

Personal life and death

Baudyš married twice. He had two sons from his first marriage. In May 2010, he divorced his first wife and married a woman who was 23 years younger than him. He died at age 63 on 24 August 2010.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baudys, Antonin 1946 births 2010 deaths Businesspeople from Prague Czech Technical University in Prague alumni Academic staff of Czech Technical University in Prague Defence ministers of the Czech Republic KDU-ČSL Government ministers Engineers from Prague Politicians from Prague