The Murder of Slovak Exile Matúš Černák in Munich in July 1955 ©

Matúš Černák, born on August 23, 1903, in Turčianske Teplice, was a former Slovak Minister to Berlin in World War II, a Slovak National Council Abroad (SNCA) representative in West Germany, and a listed CIA informant. Černák was arrested by the American military in Bavaria, Germany, in 1945 and handed over to Czechoslovakia. He was sentenced to prison. After his release in 1948, he escaped Czechoslovakia to Bavaria. 

He was critical of Radio Free Europe's Czechoslovak Service for not representing the true interests of the Slovak people. Černák later was a joint author of a statement criticizing Radio Free Europe for “suppressing the majority (i.e., Slovaks),  recruiting personnel among communists, betraying routes of escape from Czechoslovakia, and demoralizing their listeners with American jazz.”

 

He was killed by a package bomb explosion in a Munich post office on July 5, 1955. Černák was buried in Munich’s Waldfriedhof cemetary in a ceremony attended by German Chancelor Konrad Adenauer. In 1991, his remains were sent to a cemetery in Bratislava, Slovakia.

 

The Bavarian State Criminal Office promised 5,000 DM, and later 10,000 DM for providing any information that would lead to arrest and prosecution. The police investigation revealed that the explosive package was filed at Frankfurt’s Main Train Station at the post office. It was reportedly sent by a man between the ages of 40-45, 1.65-1.70 cm tall, slim figure, dark hair, a dark beard, and reportedly spoken in broken German with a Slavic accent. The package was sent to the Slovak National Council.

 

On July 6, 1955, the Bavarian Minister-President Dr. Wilhelm Hoegner broadcast a statement in which he said that his police thought it likely that “this was the work of one or another of the exile groups in Germany.”

 

Bratislava Slovakia Radio on July 9, 1955, called the bombing “Gangster warfare in the Underworld of traitors.” 

 

There was comprehensive spread newspaper coverage in the United States and Germany of the bombing. For example, in the US, some grassroots newspapers carried headlines, "Hunting Bomb Slayer of Anti-Commie," "Bomb in Mail kills Anti-Communist Hero," and "Bomb Assasin of Slovak Leader is hunted at Munich."

Michigan Congressman Alvin Morell Bentley made remarks before Congress on July 7, 1955, including this statement, “I personally feel sure that an investigation will substantiate the fact that this is merely another of a series of Communist terrorist activities.”

 

Also, on July 7, 1955, in Munich, there was a press conference of the “Democratic Exile Union (DEU),” an association of Slovak, Romanian, Georgian, Cossak, and Hungarian émigrés. There were more than 50 German and foreign newspapermen and news agency representatives. Černák was a leader of the DEU. The conference was called to discuss his death. In a prepared statement, Černák was called "an idealist whose strength came from his Christian faith ... He died for the cause of freedom for his Slovak people, for whom he joined the ranks of martyrs."

 

On April 13, 1959, in Vienna, Austria, there was a four-hour meeting between an unidentified Czechoslovak intelligence officer and a CIA officer. That was followed up by a message to CIA headquarters about the meeting, part of which included: 

 

Czech Intelligence Service (StB) did blow up Matúš Černák. Operation conceived and run by Intelligence Service man Rudolf Baloun, who was under CTK (news agency) cover. The bomb was made in Prague, delivered to an unknown agent, probably a German, by Baloun in a meadow near Hallein, Austria. (Redacted) drove the car, and a third man, probably Lubomir (or Ladislav) Kubicek, who then TDY from Prague, went along. The agent did not know the package contained a bomb. I mailed it as instructed. When newspapers headlined Černák death, the agent got jitters, went to Vienna, went to Legation, and packed off to CSSR. (Redacted) says the purpose bombing was to create discord between Slovak separatists and Czech nationalists in Munich immigration. Adds bombing not now totally taboo, such proposals no longer approved. 

                        

Circumstantial evidence pointed to an agent who allegedly mailed the package to Černák, as Kurt Baumgartner, code name “Berthelot.” Reportedly, when Baumgartner read the news in the newspapers about the circumstances of the bombing, he panicked and immediately went to Austria to the Czechoslovak Embassy and was transported to Czechoslovakia. His StB case officer, Lieutenant Kubiček (code name “Kautský”), reportedly was awarded 2,000 Czech Crowns for “successful implementation of operative actions abroad.”

 

Baumgartner lived quietly in Prague in an apartment provided by the StB, received monthly payments, provided translations, and gave German lessons until he died in 1987. For more information about Černák and Slovak nationalism, see Chapter 9 in