The Republic is Declared

JAN 01 1918 · 12:00

Prague, 28 October 1918. The news of Habsburg collapse reaches the streets and the Czechoslovak state enters into life by acclamation. Place: Municipal House (Obecní dům), náměstí Republiky Figures: Antonín Švehla · Alois Rašín · František Soukup · Jiří Stříbrný · Vavro Šrobár (the Men of October) · Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, in absentia The Municipal House has been open since 1912, an Art Nouveau confection wedged against the Powder Gate where the royal route once began. On the morning of October 28, 1918, news reaches Prague that Vienna has accepted the Fourteen Points; the Habsburg monarchy is, in writing, prepared to grant autonomy to its peoples. The crowd reads acceptance as collapse and acts accordingly. By afternoon, the five members of the National Committee available in Prague (Švehla, Rašín, Soukup, Stříbrný, and the Slovak Šrobár, who happens to be in town) draft and sign the first law of the new state. It begins: Samostatný stát československý vstoupil v život. The independent Czechoslovak state has entered into life. They sign on Municipal House letterhead. There is, as yet, no other.