Richard Bienert

{{Short description|Czech police officer and politician (1881–1949)}} {{Inline citations|date=August 2024}}

{{Infobox officeholder | image = File:Album_representantů_všech_oborů_veřejného_života_československého_-_1927_-_Richard_Bienert.png | birth_date = September 5, 1881 | birth_place = [[Prague]] | death_date = February 2, 1949 | death_place = Prague | office = [[Prime Minister of Bohemia and Moravia|Prime Minister of Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia]] | term = | alma_mater = [[Prague University]] | predecessor = [[Jaroslav Krejčí]] | successor = Office Abolished ([[Zdeněk Fierlinger]] as [[Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia]]) | term_start = 19 January 1945 | term_end = 5 May 1945 | president = [[Emil Hácha]] }}

'''Richard Bienert''' (September 5, 1881 – February 2, 1949) was a [[Czechs|Czech]] high-ranking police officer and politician. He served as [[prime minister]] of the [[Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia]] from January 19 to May 5, 1945. After [[World War II]] he was sentenced to prison for [[Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy|collaboration]] with [[Nazism|Nazis]].

== Career == Born in Prague, Bienert came from a family of magistrates clerks from that city and after he finished law studies at [[Prague University]] he also entered the state service. Some of his ancestors were of German-Bohemian ethnic descent and had assimilated into Czech society. From 1906 he worked as a police official for [[police]] in Prague and in January 1918 he even became a clerk in the Presidium of the Police in Prague. During [[World War I]] Bienert cooperated closely with the [[Maffia|Czech resistance]] movement and after the proclamation of Czechoslovak independence in October 1918 he was rewarded with an appointment to the position of Prague Police Director. Later in the 1930s he also became the Provincial President in the Land of [[Bohemia]].

After the [[German occupation of Czechoslovakia]] in 1939, he was briefly arrested by the Germans but soon released in exchange for a pledge of loyalty. In 1942, after prime minister [[Alois Eliáš|Eliáš]] was arrested by [[Reinhard Heydrich|Heydrich]], Bienert was appointed to minister of interior under the new prime minister [[Jaroslav Krejčí]]. In 1945 Bienert replaced Krejčí in this position and at the same time also served as the substitute for seriously ill president [[Emil Hácha|Hácha]].

In an agreement with [[Karl Hermann Frank|state secretary Frank]], Bienert tried to broadcast the statement on the dissolution of the Protectorate (which should be replaced by Czech puppet state still controlled by Germans) on 5 May 1945. However the same morning the [[Prague uprising]] broke out and Bienert was captured by insurgents in the broadcasting room of [[Old Town Hall (Prague)|City Hall]].

After the end of [[World War II]], Bienert was tried for [[treason]] and [[Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy|collaboration]] with the Nazis, but because of many [[mitigating circumstances]] he was sentenced to only three years in prison. Due to poor health, he was released prematurely in 1947, and died in Prague two years later.

==External links== * [http://zivotopisyonline.cz/richard-bienert.php Biography] {{in lang|cs}} * {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080527221824/http://zivotopisyonline.cz/protektoratni-vlada-bienertova-1945-clenove.php |date=May 27, 2008 |title=Members of Bienert's government, 19.1.1945 - 5.5.1945 }} {{in lang|cs}}

{{s-start}} {{s-gov}} {{succession box| before=[[Jaroslav Krejčí]]| title=[[List of rulers of the Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia|Prime Minister of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia]]| after=[[Zdeněk Fierlinger]] <br><small>[[Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia]]</small> | years=1945 }} {{s-end}} {{Prime ministers of Czechoslovakia}} {{Rulers of Bohemia and Moravia}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bienert, Richard}} [[Category:1881 births]] [[Category:1949 deaths]] [[Category:Politicians from Prague]] [[Category:People from the Kingdom of Bohemia]] [[Category:Czech people of German descent]] [[Category:National Partnership politicians]] [[Category:Prime ministers of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia]] [[Category:Government ministers of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia]] [[Category:Czech anti-communists]] [[Category:Czech collaborators with Nazi Germany]] [[Category:Czech fascists]] [[Category:Czechoslovak prisoners and detainees]] [[Category:People convicted of treason against Czechoslovakia]] [[Category:Police officers convicted of treason]] [[Category:Czech police officers convicted of crimes]] [[Category:Czech politicians convicted of crimes]] [[Category:Burials at Olšany Cemetery]]