Jan Kapras

Jan Kapras
Minister of Education and National Enlightenment of Bohemia and Moravia
In office 16 March 1939 – 19 January 1942
Prime Minister	Rudolf Beran Alois Eliáš
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Emanuel Moravec
Personal details
Born	(1880-01-17)17 January 1880 Brno, Moravia, Austria-Hungary
Died	13 May 1947(1947-05-13) (aged 67) Nový Bydžov, Czechoslovakia
Party	National Democracy Party of National Unity National Partnership
Alma mater	Charles University
Occupation	politician, lawyer

Jan Kapras (17 January 1880 – 13 May 1947) was a Czech jurist and politician.

Career

After studies in Innsbruck and Prague, he achieved habilitation in Bohemian legal history and was appointed professor at the University of Prague in 1910. He authored many works on Bohemian legal history, and substantially influenced the field with his principal work Právní dějiny zemí Koruny české (1913–1920).

After 1918, Kapras was mainly active in politics. Representing the National Democratic Party, he was elected senator in 1929 and held that office until 1935. From 1938 to 1939, he was minister of education in the last pre-war Czechoslovak government, and continued in that office in the German occupation government of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia from 1939 to 1942. Suspected by the Gestapo, he was eventually dismissed from his office.

Further reading

• Kreuz, Petr (2001). "Kapras, Jan". In Michael Stolleis (ed.). Juristen: ein biographisches Lexikon; von der Antike bis zum 20. Jahrhundert (in German) (2nd ed.). München: Beck. p. 349. ISBN 3406-45957-9.