Vojta Beneš

Who was Vojta Beneš?

Vojta Beneš was a Czechoslovak educator and political leader and brother of Edvard Beneš.

Vojta Beneš was born in Kožlany, Bohemia, then a province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Beneš began his professional life as an educator at various institutions, and from 1913 to 1914 visited the United States to study its school systems. Returning to the United States with his wife, Emilie, and their children in 1915, he criss-crossed North America agitating for Czechoslovak independence from Austria. For this and similar activities in the US during World War II, he became known as "the Czech Paul Revere."

After freedom from Austrian rule and the establishment of the Czechoslovak republic in 1918, Vojta Beneš was active as both an educator and public servant. He worked as a provincial school inspector, and, from 1937, as the chief inspector of the national school system. A member of the Czech social democracy, he served as a deputy in the Czechoslovak parliament from 1925 to 1935, and as senator in 1935, resigning the latter post upon his brother's election to the presidency the following year. Beneš was additionally an official of the Czechoslovak legionary community and of the union of Czechoslovak teachers.