Edvard Beneš

A president between Munich, exile and return

1884–1948

Edvard Beneš was a Czechoslovak diplomat and president. He faced the Munich crisis in 1938, led the wartime government-in-exile and returned home as president after liberation. His career connects the destruction of prewar Czechoslovakia with the struggle to restore it.

Diplomacy and Munich

Foreign minister from 1918 to 1935, Beneš became president in 1935. In the 1938 crisis, he feared that surrendering the Sudetenland would also surrender much of the country’s defences.

The Chamberlain government’s concessions therefore concerned the security of the whole state. After the Munich settlement, Beneš resigned on 5 October 1938.

A state represented from exile

During the war, Beneš led the Czechoslovak government-in-exile. Britain recognised it in July 1940, with Beneš as president and Jan Šrámek as prime minister. The country’s political representation abroad and life under occupation were different parts of the same wartime history.

Return and another loss of democracy

Beneš returned home as president in 1945. Liberation did not settle the country’s political future. In February 1948 he accepted a Communist-dominated government during the takeover of power. He refused to sign the new constitution and resigned on 7 June. He died on 3 September 1948.

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  British prime minister during the Munich crisis.