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Mailbox 9.5.2010
05.09. 2010Today in Mailbox we reveal the identity of August’s mystery Czechs – yes, there are two of them – and announce the names of the winners (again two this time). Listeners quoted: Salahuddin Bhuiya, Ian Morrison, Don Schumann, Sandeep Jawale, David Eldridge, Chun-Quan Meng, Xiu-Ping Qian, Hans Verner Lollike, Colin Law, Charles Konecny.
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The long shadow of Emperor Franz Joseph
29.08. 2010August 18 marked the 130th anniversary of birth of one of the most distinct figures of the old Austrian empire, Emperor Franz Joseph I. He ruled his peoples for nearly seven decades, and although Czechs today don’t seem to identify with this particular period in their history, the legacy of the ‘aged monarch’, as he was semi-officially referred to towards the end of his life, is still apparent in most of his former empire today.
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Science Journal 8.29.2010
29.08. 2010There’s a hole in the middle of Prague, and we want you to know what’s in it. The early 1980s metro station at Národní třída is the scene of a fascinating archaeological dig that we’ll be visiting in this month’s Science Journal.
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The Café Louvre: a surviving jewel from Prague’s café heyday
25.08. 2010Café society was a reality in Prague and many other Czech towns and cities during a golden era before the First World War and between the wars. There were hundreds of such cafés with the latest addition often trying to outdo its predecessors in luxury and splendour. This edition of Prague Spotlight centres on one of the most famous of these cafés, the Café Louvre. It is one of the few great cafés which have survived the ravages of time and has been restored to some of its original grandeur.
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Czech literary treasures in London
22.08. 2010Not many of the thousands of passengers arriving every day at London’s busy St Pancras Station are aware that they are passing just a few dozen metres away from one of the largest and most diverse collections of Czech books outside the Czech Republic. Tucked in beside the station is the huge, but surprisingly inconspicuous complex of the British Library. In this week’s Czech Books, David Vaughan shows us some of the highlights of the library’s rich Czech collection.
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The 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia through the eyes of Soviet troops
21.08. 2010August 21 marks the anniversary of the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union and other communist countries. The occupation crushed an attempt to reform the communist regime, and drove the country into two decades of hard-line rule. What that all meant to the people of Czechoslovakia has been looked at many times. In our special programme today, we look at August 1968 from another perspective: that of the occupiers.
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Monument unveiled to Polish 'human torch' protestor against Soviet invasion
20.08. 2010A monument was unveiled in Prague on Friday morning to Ryszard Siwiec, the Polish man who set himself alight in September 1968 in protest at his country’s participation in the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia. Siwiec committed suicide in Warsaw just weeks after the invasion and six months before the Czech student Jan Palach made his own terrible sacrifice in Prague. The monument was unveiled on the eve of the 42nd anniversary of the invasion.
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The Czechoslovak legions: myth, reality, gold and glory
18.08. 2010The 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.
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Police uncover human bones at alleged site of Sudeten German mass murder
17.08. 2010A gruesome find has made headlines in the Czech Republic: Police have uncovered human remains in what appears to be a mass grave in a field near the village of Dobronín, in the Jihlava region. Fifteen Germans are said to have been brutally murdered there by the locals in the turbulent days after the end of World War II. The discovery is the first piece of evidence pertaining to this long-forgotten massacre and has once again re-opened a dark chapter of Czech-German history.
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Equine war memorial unveiled at Napoleonic battlefield site near Brno
17.08. 2010A war memorial with a difference was unveiled this weekend at a famous Napoleonic battlefield near Brno. The life size bronze statue stands out immediately from similar memorials to war heroes and generals from the fact that it features a horse with no one in the saddle.
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Oldřich Škácha – photographer of Havel and others
12.08. 2010In his basement studio in the Šelmberkovský Palace in Prague’s Malá Strana, Oldřich Škácha is visibly amused as he points out a shot he took in 1991. It features then finance minister Václav Klaus, grinning broadly, flanked by two bunny girls at a Playboy ball. Škácha says he likes to exhibit the picture today as a little jab at the president.
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A walk across Prague’s Charles Bridge
11.08. 2010No visit to Prague is complete without a stroll across Charles Bridge. A masterpiece of mediaeval architecture, the bridge has survived floods, sieges and even some poorly executed renovations. In this edition of Spotlight, we walk across the bridge with architect Martin Krise from a preservationists’ association called the Club for Ancient Prague.
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PM defends actions of controversial 1950s group at funeral of Milan Paumer
04.08. 2010The funeral has taken place of Milan Paumer, who died on July 22 at the age of 79. He was a member of the controversial Mašín group, who dramatically shot their way across the Iron Curtain in the 1950s. Though many people consider the group killers, a number of senior Czech politicians attended Wednesday’s ceremony, and the prime minister no less made a strong defence of their actions.
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Mailbox 8.1.2010
01.08. 2010This week in Mailbox we reveal the identity of July's mystery man and quote from your correct answers. Listeners quoted: Chun-Quan Meng, Victor Mumba Ndzai, S. J. Agboola, Patsy Libby, Hans Verner Lollike, Riaz Ahmad Khan, David Eldridge, Colin Law, Charles Konecny.
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Jan Bubeník – one of the student leaders of the Velvet Revolution
26.07. 2010Jan Bubeník was one of the organisers of a student march in Prague on November 17, 1989 to mark the anniversary of a Nazi crackdown on Czech universities 50 years previously. When the marchers carried on to Národní St in the centre of the city they were brutally attacked by police, an incident which set in train the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia. Bubeník quickly became one of the student leaders of the Velvet Revolution, and even served briefly as a member of parliament. Today he runs a successful recruitment agency. At its Prague offices the other day, I asked Jan Bubeník what were his strongest memories of the Velvet Revolution.
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Member of group who shot their way across Iron Curtain in 1950s Milan Paumer dies at 79
23.07. 2010Milan Paumer, a member of a group who made a dramatic escape from communist Czechoslovakia in the 1950s, has died in Prague at the age of 79. He, Josef and Ctirad Mašín and their associates were fierce anti-communists and were extremely unusual in taking up arms against the regime. Some Czechs regard Paumer and the rest of the Mašín group as freedom fighters. However, for others they were not heroes but cold blooded killers.
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Find proves main Czech pilgrimage site Velehrad was settled at time of Great Moravian Empire, say archaeologists
22.07. 2010Archaeologists have just discovered what they say is the first evidence that the Czech Republic’s most important pilgrimage site was inhabited during the era of the Great Moravian Empire; pieces of ceramic material found during a dig at Velehrad are being seen as proof that it was indeed settled in the 9th century.
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Czech noble slams mooted sale of historic palace to Germany
21.07. 2010A Czech noble has weighed into ongoing talks about whether the Czech state should sell one of Prague’s Baroque architectural masterpieces to its current tenants: the German embassy. For the Germans, the building is more than a 17th century architectural jewel, it is also part of their recent history.
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Jaroslav Preiss: banking and business colossus of inter-war Czechoslovakia
21.07. 2010The 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.
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Jan Žižka at Grunwald: from mercenary to Czech national hero
16.07. 2010The Battle of Grunwald, where 600 years ago the Polish and Lithuanian armies defeated the mighty order of the Teutonic Knights, changed the map of central Europe. The legendary Czech 15th century general Jan Žižka took part in the battle on the side of the Poles. But Žižka was yet to become the leader of the Hussite movement and a Czech national hero. When the armies clashed at Grunwald on July 15, 1410, Jan Žižka was a ruthless mercenary ready to fight for whichever side hired him.
