Josef Korbel
| Josef Korbel | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
20 September 1909 Geiersberg/Kyšperk, Austria-Hungary (now Letohrad, Czech Republic) |
| Died |
18 July 1977 (aged 67) Denver, Colorado, U.S. |
| Spouse(s) | Anna Spieglova |
| Children |
Madeleine Jana Korbel Katherine Korbel John Korbel |
| Parents | Arnost and Olga Korbel |
| Religion |
Catholicism (Previously Judaism) |
Josef Korbel (20 September 1909 – 18 July 1977) was a Czech diplomat and political scientist. His daughter Madeleine Albright served as Secretary of State under President Bill Clinton, and he was the mentor of George W. Bush's Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice.
Background and career
Josef was born on 20 September 1909 to Arnost and Olga Korbel, who both died in the Holocaust.[1] At the time of his daughter Madeleine's birth, Josef was serving as press-attaché at the Czechoslovak Embassy in Belgrade.
Though he served as a diplomat in the government of Czechoslovakia, Korbel's politics and Judaism forced him to flee with his wife and baby Madeleine after the Nazi invasion in 1939 and resettle in London. During their time in England the Korbels converted to Catholicism. Korbel served as an advisor to Edvard Beneš, the exiled Czech president in London, until the Nazis were defeated.
He then returned to Czechoslovakia, receiving a luxurious Prague apartment expropriated from Karl Nebrich, a Bohemian German industrialist expelled under the Beneš decrees. (Acquisition of this property later caused legal problems; see below.) Korbel was asked by president Beneš to serve but Korbel was forced to flee again during the Communist coup in 1948. Korbel was convicted of the Czech Communist coup in 1948, but escaped to the United States.
Korbel was hired to teach international politics at the University of Denver and became the founding Dean of the Graduate School of International Studies. One of his students was Condoleezza Rice, the first woman appointed National Security Advisor (2001) and the first African-American woman appointed Secretary of State (2005). Korbel's daughter Madeleine became the first female Secretary of State in 1997.
After his death, the University of Denver established the Josef Korbel Humanitarian Award in 2000. Since then, 28 people have received it.
The Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver was named the Josef Korbel School of International Studies on May 28, 2008.
Artwork ownership controversy
Philipp Harmer, an Austrian citizen, filed a lawsuit claiming that Josef Korbel's family is in inappropriate possession of artwork belonging to his great-grandfather, a German entrepreneur Karl Nebrich. Like most other ethnic Germans living in Czechoslovakia, Nebrich and his family were expelled from the country under the postwar "Beneš decrees", and left behind artwork and furniture in an apartment subsequently given to Korbel's family, before they also were forced to flee the country.[2]
References
- ↑ Dobbs, Michael. "Albright's Family Tragedy Comes to Light", The Washington Post February 4, 1997, p. A01.
- ↑ Suzanne Smalley: Germans lost their art, too. Family says Albright's father took paintings - May 17, 2000
External links
- Reprint: Josef Korbel's Enduring Foreign Policy Legacy, Michael Dobbs, Washington Post December 28, 2000
- Guide to the Josef Korbel papers at the University of Denver Retrieved 2014-09-26.
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