Thomas Garrigue Masaryk Masaryk, Thomas Garrigue (gərēgˈ) [key],
1850–1937, Czechoslovak political leader and philosopher, first
president and chief founder of Czechoslovakia. He is revered by
most Czechs and was internationally recognized as a great
democratic leader. Born in Moravia, Masaryk received (1876) his
doctorate from the Univ. of Vienna and married an American,
Charlotte Garrigue. His first important work, Der Selbstmord als
sociale Massenerscheinung der modernen Civilisation [suicide as
a mass phenomenon of modern civilization], was published in
1881, and in 1882 he became professor of philosophy at the new
Czech Univ. of Prague. He launched (1883) a monthly review, The
Atheneum; became associated temporarily with the liberal
nationalist Young Czech party; assumed the editorship (1889) of
Čas [time], a political journal; and was elected (1891) to the
Austrian parliament and the Bohemian diet. In 1893, he turned
away from parliamentary activity to devote himself to the
political education of his pe