News
Fund-raising for Masaryk memorial in Rotterdam
Apr
A new memorial reminding a historic meeting between the first Czech president Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk and British Journalist Robert Seton-Watson is expected to be unveiled in Rotterdam in autumn 2015. To cover the cost of the memorial and the unveiling ceremony a fund-raising campaign has been initiated.
The project is an initiative of the Czech Republic scholar Peter J. Goedhart and former Netherlands ambassador in the Czech Republic Jan C. Henneman. Shortly after the outbreak of the First World War (WWI), professor Masaryk visited the neutral Netherlands to meet with the British journalist and historian Robert Seton-Watson in the Hotel Weimar in Rotterdam. Masaryk fought for an independent Czechoslovakia which after the WWI became a reality, with Masaryk becoming the president of the young republic. The territorial borders of the new state largely corresponded with the contours that Masaryk had visionary outlined during the meeting in Rotterdam.
Read more about this epoch-making Masaryk’s visit to Rotterdam in an article by Gert Andeweg in the Trouw publication (in Dutch).
Artist Hans Citroen was asked to design a memorial that recalls the meeting between Masaryk and Seton-Watson. The location will be a place near the former Hotel Weimar, which was destroyed during the bombing of Rotterdam in 1940. The intention is to unveil this memorial in autumn this year. However in order to cover the cost of the memorial and the unveiling ceremony, additional resources are still required. Should you be interested in supporting this initiative, please us at info@cdcc.nl.
Read more detailed information about the meeting and the initiative: