Emanuel Moravec

Emanuel Moravec
portrait of Emanuel Moravec in uniform
Minister of Education
of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
In office
January 1942 – May 1945
PresidentEmil Hácha
Prime MinisterJaroslav Krejčí (1942–1945)
Richard Bienert (1945)
Preceded byJan Kapras
Succeeded byposition abolished
Personal details
Born(1893-04-17)17 April 1893
Prague, Austria-Hungary
Died5 May 1945(1945-05-05) (aged 52)
Prague, Bohemia and Moravia
Cause of deathSuicide by gunshot
NationalityCzech
Alma materWar School
Occupationpolitician, soldier, author
Military service
Allegiance Austria-Hungary (1914)
 Russian Empire (1915–1917)
 Czechoslovakia (1917–1938)
Branch/serviceCzechoslovak Army
Years of service1914–1938
RankColonel
Commands1st Field Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment

Emanuel Moravec (Czech pronunciation: [ˈmoravɛts]; 17 April 1893 – 5 May 1945) was a Czech army officer and writer who served as the collaborationist Minister of Education of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia between 1942 and 1945. He was also chair of the Board of Trustees for the Education of Youth, a fascist youth organisation in the protectorate.

In World War I, Moravec served in the Austro-Hungarian Army, but following capture by the Russians he changed sides to join Russian-backed Serbian forces and then the Czechoslovak Legion, which went on to fight on the side of the White Army in the Russian Civil War. During the interwar period he commanded an infantry battalion in the Czechoslovak Army. As a proponent of democracy during the 1930s, Moravec was outspoken in his warnings about the expansionist plans of Germany under Adolf Hitler and appealed for armed action rather than capitulation to German demands for the Sudetenland. In the aftermath of the German occupation of the rump Czechoslovakia, he became an enthusiastic collaborator, realigning his political worldview towards fascism. He committed suicide in the final days of World War II.

Unlike some officials of the short-lived protectorate government, whose reputations were rehabilitated in whole or in part after the war, Moravec's good reputation did not survive his tenure in office and he has been widely derided as a "Czech Quisling".