The Founding Charter of the Masaryk Foundation in Lány

The Founding Charter of the Masaryk Foundation in Lány
Masaryk’s legacy
The first president of the Czechoslovak Republic, T. G. Masaryk, left behind a rich moral, intellectual and political legacy. His grand ideas of humanity, democracy and culture are possessed of an enduring currency. In outline, they can be expressed by a selection of his principles:
Happy is he whose life abounds with rich substance; happy is he who through honest effort is able, if only in part, to realize his ideals.
Every person, whatever his stature, can contribute to the building up of Czechoslovak democracy.
To work means to resist evil – and to do so consistently.
Bringing up involves the molding of character.

So that we too may, in our own modest way, contribute to the resurrection and realization of these ideas, the representatives of the Civic Forum of the city of Stochov and the representatives of the Civic Forum of the Municipality of Lány – places with a geographical connection to Masarykian traditions – have decided to found the “Masaryk Foundation”, which shall be based in Lány.

The Purpose and Aims of the Foundation

1. Establishment of a T.G.M. Museum in Lány
In the first stage, the Foundation shall strive to collect all extant materials regarding T. G. Masaryk, in particular those originating from Lány and its environs. In the next stage, the Foundation, after having established cooperation with the Masaryk Society and the Office of the President of the Republic and arrived at a joint position, shall aim to build in Lány a worthy and thoughtfully situated structure that shall serve as a museum, a reading room and a store for books and promotional materials of high aesthetic and content value.

2. Educational activities
Instruction in foreign languages (especially for the young), philosophy and history. Recruitment of instructors and acquisition of teaching materials. Arrangement of contacts with entities abroad.