Edvard Beneš (May 28, 1884, Kožlany, Bohemia, then in Austria-Hungary - September 3, 1948 Sezimovo Ústí , Czechoslovakia) was a leader of the Czechoslovak independence movement and the second President of Czechoslovakia.

Since 1912 a teacher at the Charles University of Prague, 1916-1918 a Secretary of the Czechoslovak National Council in Paris and Minister of the Interior and of Foreign Affaires within the Provisional Czechoslovak government, 1918-1935 Foreign Minister of Czechoslovakia, 1920-1925 and 1929-1935 member of the parliament, since 1921 a professor, 1921-1922 Premier Minister, 1923-1927 member of the League of Nations Council (1927-1928 president of its committee), de jure 1935-1948 President of Czechoslovakia (1938 - 1945 president-in-exile), de facto 1935-1938 and 1940-1948 President of Czechoslovakia (1940-1945 president-in-exile).

During World War I he was one of the leading organizers of an independent Czechoslovakia abroad.

He was a member of the Czechoslovak National Socialist Party (till 1925 called Czechoslovak Socialist Party) and a strong Czechoslovakist - he did not consider Slovaks as a separate ethnicity to the Czechs.

Beneš became first Foreign Minister of Czechoslovakia and in 1935 he succeeded Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk to become President. He resigned from office and went into exile in London in October 1938, just before the Nazi dismemberment of Czechoslovakia. He then (1940) organized the Provisional Government-in-Exile in London led by Jan Šrámek , and Beneš himself became the President of Czechoslovakia in exile. Although oriented to the West, in 1943 he signed the entente between Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union to secure position of Czechoslovakia and his own.

At the end of World War II, he returned home as the President of Czechoslovakia. He resented the Communist takeover of Czechoslovakia on 25 February 1948 led by Prime Minister Klement Gottwald, and resigned as President on 7 June 1948. Gottwald became his successor as President of Czechoslovakia.

The so-called Beneš decrees, which, among other things, expropriated the property of ethnic German and Hungarian Czechoslovakians, and laid essential terms for the expulsion of ethnic Germans to Germany and Austria, were named after him.

See also

• History of Czechoslovakia
• List of Prime Ministers of Czechoslovakia

|- style="text-align: center;" | width="30%" |Preceded by:
Milan Hodža (acting) | width="40%" style="text-align: center;" |President of Czechoslovakia
1935–1938 | width="30%" |Succeeded by:
Jan Syrový (acting)

|- style="text-align: center;" | width="30%" |Preceded by:
Emil Hácha | width="40%" style="text-align: center;" |President of Czechoslovakia
1945–1948 | width="30%" |Succeeded by:
Klement Gottwald