The Department of History belongs among the founding workplaces of Masaryk University’s Faculty of Arts in Brno. Founded in 1919, during the first two decades it was adopting and developing the tradition of the Faculty of Arts’ Department of History of Prague’s Charles University, mainly the scientific-pedagogical legacy of Jaroslav Goll and his successors. Mentioned should be at least briefly Václav Hrubý, Rudolf Holinka or Rudolf Urbánek, professors from the pre-war period.

The tragic years of Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia were directly and indirectly reflected in the persecution of the teaching staff and primarily in the forced interruption of teaching in 1939 which was again launched only after the restoration of the Czechoslovak statehood in 1945.

Certain scientific and pedagogical continuity was sustained even after the Communist Coup d’état in 1948. In the fifties and sixties, the Department of History shaped as generally respected workplace in the field of the Auxiliary Historical Sciences (Jindřich Šebánek, Sáša Dušková), which later transformed into an independent department. Further, it was a centre of the historical study of south-east and east Europe’s nations (Josef Macůrek). The department was also recognized for the research in the Early Middle Ages, Italian renaissance, historiography and philosophy of history (Jaroslav Kudrna). Finally, the department was distinguished by its constant interest in the economic, cultural and social problems of the Early Modern Ages (Josef Válka, František Mainuš).