Přemysl Šámal: The first Czechoslovak mayor of Prague. He was tortured by the Nazis
By far it is not an unknown name. Let us recall the names of the streets in Úvale u Prahy, Mladá Boleslav or Brno; near Bedřichov in Liberecko, the tourist can also discover the Šámal monument. During the decades he was Shamal the right, and often the left hand of President Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (†87). Not as a mayor, nor as a minister or chairman of a party – but as anything at all the first Chancellor of the President of the Republicwhose services were also used by Masaryk’s successor Edvard Beneš (†64).
By Masaryk’s side
“Přemysl Šámal was already at the university devoted student of Professor TG Masaryk their lasting friendship until Masaryk’s death,” writes historian Táňa Jelínková in her study The Mayors of Prague (1784–1993). Masaryk died in 1937 – that is, two years after his abdication, which was forced mainly by health reasons.
Šámal became close to Masaryk during the years of the monarchy and when “it was formed in March 1915” Czech mafiasecret association for organizing anti-Austrian resistance, Dr. Šamal was one of the most important pillars.” The meetings of the members, which included Karel Kramář (†76), Alois Rašín (†55) and the mentioned Beneš, were held directly in Šámal’s apartment in Vodičková streetwhere the trained lawyer also had his office.
“After Masaryk’s death, he asked him and President Beneš for further cooperation, Šámal remained despite his advanced age (in 1937 he was 70 years old – note Red.). he retired only after Emil Hácha (†72) took office as president,” states Jelínková. At that time, he already “walked with a cane and his eyesight was failing.” His however, an indomitable spirit was stronger than a sick body.”
Tomáš G. Masaryk with his wife Charlotte.
Author: lightning archive
Under the microscope
While Edvard Beneš and some other prominent politicians traveled the country on the eve of the Second World War, when Czechoslovakia was already occupied by the Germans, who had established the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, Šámal – he proved that he was in these democratic circles recognized personalityand therefore from the point of view of the Nazis and collaborators presona non grata, he remained. “He began to reorganize the domestic resistance with the determination that »they can’t do more than kill me.«” The future showed that he wasn’t quite right.
“26. January 1940 was arrested by the Gestapo, underwent four months of harsh interrogations, and then Berlin’s Moabit prison awaited her,” says the website of the Prague municipality of the emeritus director of the Archive, Mr. m Prague Václav Ledvinka. Jelínková values the former chancellor and mayor that despite his frail health and old age he resisted brutal abuse and did not betray his comrades in the resistance. “He also comforted his fellow prisoners so that they would not lose courage. He suffered from severe kidney disease.’
Before he was arrested by the Gestapo, he was watched and observed for many years, as were his activities. He had just paid for it when the Gestapo came for him in the center of Prague. Specifically, to the house at the address Karmelitská 382/14 – not far from Malostranské náměstí, where he moved from Vodičkova.
“It has been held in Přemysl Šámal’s apartment since 1939 a series of preparatory meetings of the Political Headquarters. Here Přemysl Šámal was arrested by the Gestapo,” recounts researcher and director of the Academia publishing house Jiří Padevět, according to whom Šámal was once before the Gestapo hid to the church of St. Cyril and Methodius in Resslova street. Exactly in the same place where the assassins of Reinhard Heydrich (†38) made a brave last stand.
Šámal was also supposed to hide from the Nazis in the church of St. Cyril and Methodius in Resslova street. (illustrative photo)
Author: Matěj Smlsal
Destroyed by the Nazis
The Nazis finally agreed to a bail for his release so that Šamal could go to a private sanatorium in Berlin for treatment. Unfortunately, it was too late. “Dr. Šamal died there on March 9, 1941“, states Jelínková. Unfortunately, however he was not the only one on whom the Nazis took revenge. Their depraved thinking made a mess of those who were closest to him.
“Shamal’s entire family paid for the resistance activity. Jaromír’s son, a professor of entomology at the College of Agricultural and Forestry Engineering of the Czech Technical University, was shot during the Heydrich periodhis the woman was sent to Auschwitz and the two grandchildren, after anabasis by international camps in Poland, were handed over to German families for re-education“, says Ledvinka. Fortunately, the children were found after the war and returned to their parents. Even the remains of the first republican “mayor” rest today at the Vyšehrad Cemetery. And what did Šámal manage to accomplish during his short tenure at the head of Prague?
Predestined?
The mayor baptized by the waters of Prague’s Vltava, he was born on October 4, 1867. From childhood, his parents painted a bright future for him. “His father Jan was a municipal councilor and director of the census office, his mother Marie, née Černá, was daughter of former Prague mayor Tomáš Černý (†68),” recounts Jelínková. Černý was the mayor of Prague from 1882 to 1885, and he initiated, for example, the extensive sanitation of the Old Town and Josefov.
“After studying law and practicing in his grandfather’s law office, Šámal became a lawyer in Nové Město (1898). In the years 1908-1911 he was a member of the council of municipal elders. However, he gained public fame mainly as long-time deputy mayor of the Central School Matrix and a fighter for Czech minority education in border areas,” says Ledvinka. In 1899, he married Anna Nekvasilová – together they had an only son, the aforementioned Jaromír, who was murdered by the Nazis.
In the leading position
During the First World War, Šámal maintained numerous contacts with the foreign anti-Austrian resistance. It occurs prominently in the independence of Czechoslovakia. However, “in the events of October 28, 1918, Prague City Hall did not play an initiative role. The Presidium of the National Committee (A. Švehla, A. Rašín, J. Stříbrný, F. Soukup) did indeed meet in the Municipal House and it was here that Act No. 1 on the establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic was adopted (…), however, it happened without the representatives of the municipality“, says Ledvinka. Moreover, Šámal was abroad at the time.
Přemysl Šámal was the first Czechoslovak mayor of Prague.
Author: City Hall m of Prague
He was elected mayor of Prague “until” November 13, 1918, two days after the end of the war, when previously the body of municipal elders was disbanded on the basis of a mass strike and demonstration, and this led to the resignation of Šámal’s predecessor Karel Groš (†73). In its place, the administrative body of the capital city was established.
That’s how Šamal “became after the independence of the republic the first mayor of liberated Prague. On behalf of the people of Prague on December 21, 1918, he welcomed the President of the Liberator in front of the Old Town Hall.” But he was in office for just over half a year. “Šámal’s tenure at the Prague City Hall lasted only until the municipal elections, which were called for June 15, 1919. After its president appointed Masaryk as his chancellor, he gave up further work in the municipal administration“, Ledvinka explains. Eight months at the head of the city is not a long time. Nevertheless, Šámal managed to write himself into the history of Prague.
The capital of the republic
Immediately after the declaration of the republic, Šámal’s Prague became hcapital city of the new state. “There was absolutely no doubt about her leadership rolebecause it continued the old and famous tradition of the residences of Czech monarchs and corresponded to Prague’s current superiority in population, economic, cultural and political importance over other cities,” says historian Josef Janáček in Little History of Prague.
“The development of Prague took place after 1918 to a large extent a question of state prestige,” says Janáček. “Prague represented a republic, but on a European scale it was still considered a minor provincial citystriking for their ancient beauty, but for now they remain on the fringes of major European politics.” Přemysl Šámal initiated the first steps in the transformation in a real big city of European style.
At the time when he became mayor of the capital, Přemysl Šámal was still in office from the Old Town Hall. (illustrative photo)
Author: Prague City Tourism
“They originated in the city the central office of the state office and the ministry, foreign diplomatic and trade missions settled here, a variety of state and private institutions with nationwide scope were created here,” continues Janáček. Prague – at that time consisting of the Old and New Towns of Prague, Hradčany, Malá Strana, Josefov, Holešovice, Bubnů, Vyšehrad and Libna in 1922, by the Act on Greater Prague, it grew by other large suburbs – Dejvice, Vysočany, Smíchov, Žižkov, Ořechovka, Strašnice and Vinohrady, and many others. There were 37 of them in total. By that time, however, Šámal was already looking at the development of Prague from the windows of the office of the President of the Czechoslovak Republic. Another very well-known and respected politician, the longest-serving mayor Karel Baxa, holds the post of mayor (†75).
At the time when he became mayor of the capital, Přemysl Šámal was still in office from the Old Town Hall. (illustrative photo)
Author: Prague City Tourism