Josef Sousedík
This article needs additional citations for verification. (September 2013) |
Josef Sousedík (18 December 1894 – 15 December 1944) was Czech inventor, industrialist and resistance fighter.[1]
Life[]
Josef Sousedík grew up in a poor family in Vsetín in Czechoslovakia. After finishing elementary school he trained as an electrician. He fought in the Austria-Hungary army during World War I and participated in the Battle of Slovakia in 1918. He opened his own workshop in 1919,[1] using his patents and inventions. The workshop expanded into a factory employing over 200 people by 1934.[1] The factory went bankrupt in 1934 during the Great Depression and was bought by Ringhoffer-Tatra, which employed Sousedík as a CEO.
He was twice elected mayor of Vsetín from 1927–1938.[1]
Sousedík was an anti-Nazi resistance leader during World War II, collaborating with the group and the 1st Czechoslovak Partisan Brigade of Jan Žižka. He was arrested in 1944 and shot dead after a fight during an interrogation.[1] Sousedík was decorated with the Czechoslovak War Cross (Czech: Válečný kříž) in memoriam by Czechoslovak president Edvard Beneš.
The Communist dictatorship suppressed recognition of Sousedík's acts due to his collaboration with Western states and factory ownership.[1]
Inventions and products[]
Sousedík owned over 50 patents, mostly in the electrical field, such as an electrical rudder. His factory produced electrical parts for the ČSD Class M 290.0 and for the .
References[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f "Important personalities in Vsetín history". Vsetín official city website. January 8, 2007. Retrieved September 22, 2013.
- 1894 births
- 1944 deaths
- Czechoslovak soldiers
- Czech resistance members
- Czech people executed by Nazi Germany
- People from Vsetín District
- Czechoslovak businesspeople
- Czechoslovak engineers
- Resistance members killed by Nazi Germany
- Recipients of the Czechoslovak War Cross