Czech History | All stories

The first two names always given at the top of the pantheon of Czech classical music are Antonín Dvořák and Bedřich Smetana; the third is invariably Leoš Janáček. Probably the most innovative of the three, Janáček likely lags behind the famous duo only because even today, 80 years after his death, musicians, musicologists and music lovers are still reassessing those innovations, which took classical music into uncharted territory.

For today’s episode of Czech History I’ve come here to Nuselský most or Nusle Bridge which joins two parts of the city. Completed in 1973, the bridge serves as a major artery for six lanes of North-South traffic and even the city’s metro. Every single day countless thousands of commuters rely on it.

In 1939, the chairman of the German Social Democratic Workers Party in the Czechoslovak Republic, Wenzel Jaksch, saw himself forced to escape his native land after it was invaded by Germany – staying would have put him, who opposed the growing influence of the Nazis in Sudeten-German politics, in grave danger. Wenzel Jaksch successfully escaped to London, via the Beskydy Mountains and Poland. He later shared his amazing story – and based on his written account, his children, George and Mary Jaksch, have set out for a pilgrimage in their father’s

The Czech lands have a long military history to be sure, but for a place that lacks a sea there is a surprisingly interesting naval history as well. Episodes of Czech sailors serving in the Austro-Hungarian Navy are the subject of a series of books by military historian Jindřich Marek called “Under the Austrian Flag”, “The Emperor’s Sharks” and “The Pirates of Freedom”. In this week’s Czech History we look at some of the heroic – and infamous – adventures of Czech mariners around the time of the First World War.

The Regional Museum in Mikulov, in southern Moravia, has opened an exhibition of historic scientific instruments once used at the town’s 380-year-old grammar school. The exhibition highlights the beauty of the elaborate antique objects, and it also shows what role the school, founded by the Catholic order of the Piarists in the middle of the Thirty Years’ War, played in the town’s history.

The Czech writer Jaroslav Hašek is best known today for his hilarious anti-war novel The Good Soldier Švejk. Hašek’s own biography, however, is perhaps just as farcical and action-packed as his most famous book. In this edition of Czech History, we look at the life and times of this world renowned author.

The inter-war years are generally seen as a golden age by many Czechs. The first Czechoslovak Republic, which was established in 1918, was one of the world's most successful democracies until its annexation by Nazi Germany in 1938. While the contributions of brilliant statesmen like Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk and industrialists like Tomáš Baťa to the success of the First Republic are well documented, it is not so well known that Czechoslovakia at that time had a vibrant free press, which also did much to nurture the country's democratic system. One

The bustling Dejvice district of Prague is not where you would expect major encounters with prehistory. Just a few hundred metres from the transport hub at Vítězné Náměstí though, archaeologists are sifting through the millennia and finding ever more evidence of the fact that Prague and its environs have always been inhabited. In the case of the dig at Terronská Street, by the enigmatic Corded Ware culture some 5,000 years ago. My guide to the excavation is archaeologist Kamila Remišová Věšínová.

Karel Kramář earned his place in history as the first prime minister of Czechoslovakia. But his political career spanned more than four turbulent decades. We look at a life than included a death sentence, assassination attempt and birth of a new state.

In the Late Middle Ages, a group of Czech frontiersmen were charged with guarding the kingdom’s western borders. In today’s Czech History we travel to Domažlice to visit the descendants of the Chods.