Antonín Švehla (15 April 1873, in Hostivař – 12 December 1933 in Prague) was a Czechoslovak politician. He served three terms as the Interior Minister and three terms as the prime minister of Czechoslovakia. He is regarded as one of the most important political figures of the

First Czechoslovak Republic The First Czechoslovak Republic, often colloquially referred to as the First Republic, was the first Czechoslovakia, Czechoslovak state that existed from 1918 to 1938, a union of ethnic Czechs and Slovaks. The country was commonly called Czechosl ...

; he was the leader of the Agrarian Party, which was dominant within the Pětka, which was largely his own invention. Švehla is also credited with the slogan of the Pětka: "We have agreed that we will agree." He supported professor T. G. Masaryk in his fight for Czechoslovak independence. He was member of Sokol gymnastics organization and member of Czechoslovak Masonic Lodge. Švehla was dedicated to the cause of Czech nationalism, going so far as to refuse to run for the Vienna Reichsrat in 1911 because, as he stated: "In Vienna the Czechs are nobody, while in Prague they could be everything". Before his death he was very worried about the growing rise of the German

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...

and how Czech democracy might be altered to meet this danger. The garden of the European Campus of

Sciences Po Sciences Po () or Sciences Po Paris, also known as the Paris Institute of Political Studies (), is a public research university located in Paris, France, that holds the status of ''grande école'' and the legal status of . The university's unde ...

Paris in Dijon, France is named "Garden of the Agrarians of Antonín Švehla (1873–1933)" in memory of Antonín Švehla. There is a monument to Antonín Švehla in

Hradec Králové Hradec Králové (; ) is a city of the Czech Republic. It has about 94,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of the Hradec Králové Region. The historic centre of Hradec Králové is well preserved and is protected as an Cultural monument (Czech R ...

References

* Daniel E Miller, ''Forging Political Compromise: Antonín Švehla and the Czechoslovak Republican Party, 1918–1933'', University or Pittsburgh Press, 1999. 1873 births 1933 deaths Politicians from Prague People from the Kingdom of Bohemia Republican Party of Farmers and Peasants politicians Czech Freemasons Prime ministers of Czechoslovakia Government ministers of Czechoslovakia 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) {{CzechRepublic-politician-stub

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