28.5. 1884 Edv(u)ard Beneš is born

Edvard Benes was born Eduard. He changed his first name during his studies. His father owned a farm, which he kept expanding. He wanted his youngest son to be a shoemaker, but he chose another path.

Benes was born in Kožlany in Rakovník as the youngest son and tenth child of Matěj Benes, who was born on 20 February 1843 in Třímany. He died on 15 October 1910 in Brandýs nad Labem. He had a small farm, a carriage shop one of four brickworks and a store with mixed goods. Gradually he enlarged the farm with more fields. It seemed that he was well off financially, but the family lived very modestly and Edvard (original name Eduard) was brought up to this.

His mother Anna Petronila Benešová was born on 31 May 1840 in Kožlany, where she also died on 19 January 1909. Her father and mother were cousins. The Benes family descended from a family of free peasants from Šlovice Fortress. The family was divided into the owners of three grounds, which are always standing next to each other. The first ground is called "U Benešů", the second is called "U Vítů" and the third "U Zíků".

Edvard Beneš went to primary school in Kožlany. He was said to be a closed, thoughtful and rather unsociable boy, he was not very friendly with anyone. "His father wanted Edvard, because of his small stature, to become a shoemaker. However, at the insistence of his older sons, he relented and agreed to enrol at an industrial school, where he was not accepted because of the large number of applicants. Gymnasium at Královské Vinohrady, 34 Londýnská Street (then Hálkova Street) in Prague," writes Ivan Kazimour in his book Edvard Beneš without Adoration.

He graduated in 1904 with average grades. His behaviour was satisfactory (2nd grade out of four), he was not excellent in any subject, but he was praiseworthy in religion, geography and history, physics, gymnastics and gymnastics. He got good grades in Latin, Czech, mathematics, science, philosophical propedeutics, German and French. "No one would look for a future foreign minister in him. He played football for the junior team of Slavia Prague," says Kazimour.

After grammar school, Beneš enrolled at the Faculty of Philosophy in Prague, where he studied Romance and Germanic languages and philosophy. Among his professors was T. G. Masaryk, who also played an important role in Beneš's political career. He became close to Masaryk between 1904 and 1905, when Beneš translated Émile Zola's novel The Assassin from the French. Benes also turned definitively away from the Catholic Church at this time.

On Masaryk's recommendation, he continued his studies at the Sorbonne in Paris, and received a scholarship. He devoted himself to the study of Italian and Russian language and literature. However, he soon changed his mind and went on to study political science and sociology at the Free School of Political and Social Sciences in Paris. He wrote for the social democratic newspapers Právo lidu and Rovnost, to which he sent sixty articles in 1906. He practically remained in France until 1907, when he moved to Berlin. He also stayed in London for four months.

In 1906, moreover, he contracted a serious stomach ailment and was treated for several weeks at the spa at Le Treport on the Alabaster Coast in Upper Normandy. At this time he changed his first name from Eduard to Edward. During the First World War, he organised the internal resistance. After the establishment of Czechoslovakia, he became Minister of Foreign Affairs. Masaryk, to whom he owed the fact that he later chose him as his successor as president," writes Vladimír Liška in his book Jan Masaryk - The Secret of Life and Death.

Ivan Kazimour: Edvard Beneš without Adoration, Vladimír LiškaJan Masaryk - The Secret of Life and Death, www.britannica.com