The ceremonial presentation of this banknote commemorating the establishment of the Czechoslovak currency will be held in the Great Hall of MU’s Faculty of Law.
Karel Engliš contributed significantly to building the economy of the newly founded Czechoslovak Republic. Therefore, he was chosen to be honoured on one of three commemorative banknotes issued by the Czech National Bank in 2019, 2022, and 2026. This set of commemorative banknotes has an overarching motif: “building the Czechoslovak currency”.
Karel Engliš is considered the most important economist in interwar Czechoslovakia. In 1919 he became the first rector of newly founded Masaryk University, which he also helped establish. From 1920 to 1931 he served as minister of finance in several governments, and from 1934 to 1939 he was the governor of the National Bank of Czechoslovakia.
“President Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk put great trust in Engliš. He was not only an economic theorist; he was also a man who massively influenced real economic policies in interwar Czechoslovakia,” says Josef Menšík from MU’s Faculty of Economics and Administration. “Engliš’s nearly unlimited access to available macroeconomic data and his motivation to resolve the practical macroeconomic problems of his time were then reflected in his economic theory,” adds Menšík, an assistant professor at the Department of Economics.
Karel Engliš established and built a school of economics in Brno, and by the start of World War II he had published nearly 20 scholarly books and textbooks on economics.
The proposal to issue a second, 100 Kč commemorative banknote featuring a portrait of Karel Engliš was approved by the board of the Czech National Bank in October 2019. The banknote was designed by academic painter Eva Hašková. This 194x44 mm banknote will be printed on watermarked paper featuring a windowed thread with negative microtext and protective fibres. On 30 March 2022, the Czech National Bank will issue 20,000 commemorative banknotes featuring the likeness of Karel Engliš.