Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk , sometimes called
Thomas Masaryk in English (7 March 1850 – 14 September 1937), was a
Czechoslovak politician,
sociologist and
philosopher, who as an eager advocate of Czechoslovak independence during
World War I became the founder and first
President of
Czechoslovakia, therefore is he called
President liberator. He originally wished to reform the Austro-Hungarian monarchy into a democratic
federal state, but during the First World War he began to favour the abolition of the monarchy and, with the help of the
Allied Powers, eventually succeeded.