Beneš, Eduard << BEHN ehsh, EH du `ahrt` >> (1884-1948), was cofounder of Czechoslovakia with Tomáš Masaryk in 1918. During World War I (1914-1918), while his country was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, Beneš helped set up a Czechoslovak government in Paris. After the war, he served as foreign minister of Czechoslovakia from 1918 to 1935. He then succeeded Masaryk as president. In 1938, under pressure from the British and French, he gave in to German demands to hand over German-speaking parts of Czechoslovakia, known as Sudetenland. During World War II (1939-1945), Beneš headed the Czechoslovak government-in-exile in London. After the war, Sudetenland was returned to Czechoslovakia, and Beneš issued decrees that led to the expulsion of over 3 million Germans from the region. After the Communist Party provoked a government crisis in February 1948, Beneš accepted the resignation of the democratic ministers from his government, which allowed the Communists to establish a dictatorship.
Beneš was born on May 28, 1884, in Kožlany, near Rakovník, in what is now the Czech Republic. He died on Sept. 3, 1948.
See also Czechoslovakia; Masaryk, Tomáš Garrigue.
