Related articles

A library set to open in Paris’s northern Pajol district next year will be named after the late Czech president Václav Havel, the Czech embassy in Paris writes on its website. The embassy cites the French capital’s mayor, Bertrand Delanoë, who said that he wants to pay respect to one of the greatest artists, statesmen and fighters for freedom. The new library should contain some 30,000 volumes. Mr. Delanoë had already expressed his wish to name either a cultural institution or a street after Mr. Havel three weeks ago, when he signed a book of condolences at the Czech embassy in Paris.

In a similar effort, a street in the Polish city of Gdánsk was named after the late Czech president. According to a Czech member of the European Parliament, it is also likely that one of the parliament’s buildings will be named after Mr. Havel. A petition to rename Prague’s international Ruzyně airport after the late president has received over 80,000 signatures to date.

Prague councillors have appealed to the Finance Ministry and state representatives to act on the public initiative to rename Prague’s international airport after the late president Vaclav Havel. The initiative, launched by film producer Fero Fenič shortly after Mr. Havel’s death has received support from the late president’s family and the respective petition has been signed by 80.000 people to date. Prague City Hall supports the proposal, but has said it is not in a position to see it through since Ruzyně Airport is not city but state property. The state-owned company that runs Prague’s international airport has already registered the Vaclav Havel International Airport trademark ahead of a possible name change. The finance minister has promised to table the issue at the next cabinet meeting.

The annual Forum 2000 conference, which was co-founded by the late Czech president Václav Havel, will continue taking place after Mr. Havel’s death. The director of the Forum 2000 conference, Oldřich Černý, said that the late president’s legacy will retain its importance. He added that it remains to be seen how often the conference will take place and what form it will take. Forum 2000 will also be collaborating with the Václav Havel Library, he said.

The Forum 2000 conferences have been held in Prague since 1997, bringing prominent thought leaders, Nobel laureates, and former and acting politicians to the Czech capital. Among the conference’s speakers in the past were the Dalai Lama, Shimon Peres and Bill Clinton. Its mission is to map the globalization process and to note its positive results as well as the perils encountered by an increasingly interconnected world.

In this edition we read from your letters of condolence on the death in December of the former president Václav Havel; we quote from your answers to December's mystery Czech quiz question; and we announce a brand new question for January. Listeners/readers quoted:Mary Lou Krenek, Allan Loudell, Jana Zimmer, Lynda-Marie Hauptmann, Andy Martynyuk, Madeleine Blum, Bibi Z. Shah, Jaroslaw Jedrzejczak, Caitlin Brown, Colin Law, Charles Konecny, Jonathan Murphy, Hans Verner Lollike.

By the mid 1960s political control over many aspects of cultural and social life in Czechoslovakia had relaxed considerably. This was the height of the “New Wave” in Czechoslovak cinema, in theatre socialist realism had long gone out of fashion and in music the swinging sixties were well under way. But it wasn’t just through the music it was playing that Czechoslovak Radio tried to keep pace with the changes. One programme that broke the traditional mould was launched in 1966 and was called “The 33 Questions of Marcel Proust”. These were questions

According to a poll by the SANEP agency, over 80 percent of Czechs believe that the state funeral for the late president Václav Havel was dignified. More than half of those polled said that the attendance of international political leaders at the funeral inspired a feeling of national price in them. Mr. Havel’s time in office had helped promote the Czech Republic and its reputation worldwide, said 80 percent of the respondents. Over 70 percent believe that Mr. Havel’s contribution to democracy in the country was significant.

Some 40 countries had sent representatives to the funeral of Mr. Havel, which was held on December 23. Among them were French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German President Christian Wulff, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, British Prime Minister David Cameron and others.

The remains of the late president Václav Havel were on Wednesday placed in the family tomb at Prague’s Vinohradský cemetery. The private ceremony was attended by Václav Havel’s widow Dagmar, his brother Ivan with his wife, and several of the ex-president’s closest friends. The remains of the late president, playwright and human rights leader were placed in the tomb on the 15th anniversary of his marriage to his second wife.

The many flowers and wreaths that people placed around the coffin of former Czech president Václav Havel took center stage at a silent farewell to the national hero. After travelling downriver for three days, the flowers were greeted by hundreds of people gathered at the Elbe River’s bank in Děčín and dropped into the river. The unusual tribute was organized by former human rights minister Michael Kocáb, a friend of the late president.

Flowers and wreaths from Václav Havel’s funeral were dropped into the Elbe River at Děčín on Monday, after a three-day boat trip from Prague. Some 1,500 people watched the late Václav Havel’s friends and colleagues unbind the wreaths and throw the flowers into the river below the Děčín chateau. Former Czech human rights minister and a friend of the late Czech president Michael Kocáb, who came up with the idea, said only organic material would be thrown into the water. A couple of dozen people accompanied the flowers on their way from Prague to Děčín; one of the passengers said people stopped to greet the boat on the banks throughout the journey.

In the last major commemoration of the death of former president Václav Havel, a boat laden with funerary flowers and wreaths launched from Prague on Saturday to begin a three-day trek along the Vltava and Elbe rivers. The boat left a pier near Mr Havel’s family home at Rašinovo Nábřeží in central Prague and will reach Mělník on the same day, continuing on to Ústí nad Labem and finally Děčín. The wreaths and flowers will then be thrown into the river. Václav Havel died in his sleep on the morning of December 18th after a prolonged illness. He was 75 years old.