HISTORY The university, bearing the name of first Czechoslovak president T. G. Masaryk, was founded in Brno on 28 January 1919, a mere three months after the new nation declared independence. Its establishment marked the culmination of almost forty years of endeavour aimed at the formation of a second Czech university. Initially consisting of four founding faculties – Law, Medicine, Science and Arts – Masaryk University soon became an internationally recognized academic institution and a centre drawing students as well as first-rate teachers and research workers. Its progress was only stifled by the Nazi-organized shutdown of all Czech universities and the outbreak of WWII. The Communist regime – instituted in 1948 – did not favour independent development either: in 1950, the Faculty of Law was dissolved for almost two decades and the university as a whole was subject to ideological pressure and deprived of some of its best minds. From 1960 to 1989 the university bore the name of Jan Evangelista Purkyně – a significant 19th century Czech physiologist – and was only allowed to return to its original name in 1990.