Karel Engliš

Life and work

Born at Hrabyně near Opava, he studied law in Prague, worked at the Provincial Statistical Office and taught as professor at the Brno technical university and university. He was minister of finance in 1920–1921, 1925–1928 and 1929–1931. After 1948 he was stripped of all offices, expelled from Prague and died in his native Hrabyně; he was rehabilitated only after 1989.

Engliš and the Czechoslovak currency

After Rašín's deflationary policy he pushed for stabilising the crown at a realistic level and drafted the National Bank of Czechoslovakia Act (1926); he became the bank's governor in 1934. He managed the devaluations of the crown in 1934 and 1936 and kept the currency's gold backing until the occupation. In 2022 the Czech National Bank commemorated him with a 100 Kč commemorative banknote for the 100th anniversary of building the Czechoslovak currency (series: 2019 Rašín, 2022 Engliš, 2026 Pospíšil).