The Death of Masaryk

JAN 01 1937 · 12:00

From the memorial volume Památce presidenta Osvoboditele, published on the death of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, 14 September 1937. Place: Lány Castle, Central Bohemia · Vladislav Hall, Prague Castle Figures: Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, 87 · Edvard Beneš, his successor · Alice Masaryková · Jan Masaryk Masaryk has lived at Lány, the country residence west of Prague, since his stroke in May 1934. He resigned the presidency in December 1935 and named Beneš his successor in a public letter: he knows the world, and the world knows him. Through 1936 he reads, dictates to his daughter Alice, receives a small circle (Čapek, Beneš, the Slovak philosopher Štefan Osuský). He is 87 and frail and clear. On the night of September 13–14, 1937, he develops pneumonia. He dies at 3:29 a.m. on September 14, with Alice and Jan at the bedside. The news goes out at 5 a.m. The radio announcers cannot finish reading it.