Czechs in History | All stories

The Czechoslovak legions occupy an almost legendary place in Czech history. They comprise the armed forces that fought during and after World War I on the allied side in pursuit of an independent Czechoslovakia. The biggest force, and most potent myths, centre on the Russian force, which became embroiled in the civil war, spending three years and travelling thousands of miles before returning home. We look at the myths and facts about their exploits.

The name Jaroslav Preiss does not create many ripples when it is thrown out today. Perhaps one Czech in a hundred could identify who he was. But at the birth of Czechoslovakia and in the 1920s and 1930s, Preiss was an economic and business colossus and contributed to making the country into a major industrial player between the wars. Chris Johnstone looks at the life of the controversial figure.

In Part I of last week’s Czechs in History we focussed on Czech adventurer and ethnologist Alberto Vojtěch Frič’s journeys to South America, where he befriended the Chamacoco Indians in Paraguay. At the end of his third journey, in 1908, he learned to his dismay that the Chamacoco were being decimated by a mysterious illness. Through a curious mix of circumstances, he ended up bringing one of them, the son of a tribal leader named Cherwuish, back to Prague and they soon became good friends. A burden of responsibility for the South American, however,

Alberto Vojtěch Frič was a Czech botanist, ethnologist and traveller, who earned fame in Bohemia, Europe, and parts of South America in the early 20th century. His first love from childhood was botany but early after his first travels to South America, his professional focus shifted from plants to the lives of indigenous peoples. During his excursions, he befriended the Chamacoco Indians at Gran Chaco in Paraguay, and on his third visit, learning that the tribe was being decimated by an unknown illness, brought one of them, Cherwuish (the son of

One of Prague’s best known German-language authors was Egon Erwin Kisch, who was born in the Czech capital 125 years ago this Thursday. His excellent style and original choice of stories, together with his dramatic life, earned him a reputation of the ‘Raging Reporter’ that is still very much alive today.

For all the funny people who have contributed to a century of Czech filmmaking, the title “King of Comics” belongs to only one. Vlasta Burian would be 119 years old next month, and he would be very proud of his reputation indeed, still a star of the Czech television screen today. But his career as a comedian went hand in hand with the tragedies of the 20th century, and in his lifetime he was a pauper, a prince, and a pauper again.

Much of the tapestry of old Czech history and the fundamental legendry of this country is known to us today thanks to the labours of one wise old man. His name was Cosmas of Prague, he died almost 900 years ago, but today his name is known as well or even better than some of the kings who he immortalised in writing. Cosmas of Prague set the foundation on which Czech historiography was built when he recorded all he knew about his nation in its first annals, the Chronicle of the Bohemians.

To his many Nobel Prize-winning colleagues, Georg Placzek was a physicist of boundless importance. It was not because of a breakthrough discovery on his part, or because he published widely, but because he tended to be the man with the right wits at the right time. At Los Alamos, New Mexico, on July 16th, 1945, he was the only Czech present for the detonation of the first nuclear explosion – an event he had helped to create.

Archbishop, later Cardinal, Josef Beran, become a symbol of opposition to totalitarian regimes. He was dubbed the archbishop who refused to be silenced. The punishment for speaking out was imprisonment first under the Nazi occupation and then the Communists. In this week’s Czechs in History we look at Josef Beran’s exemplary life on the 40th anniversary of his death in exile.

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.