Famous funerals in Czech history

T. G. Masaryk’s funeral (the first president of Czechoslovakia and most probably its biggest founder)
1. Funeral procession at Wenceslas square  2. Next to the Rudolfinum (former parliament)  3. Prague Castle 4. two minutes of silence 

K. H. Mácha’s ‘second’ funeral during the Nazi occupation
5. Mácha’s first funeral took place only with the presence of his brother as his poetry wasn’t truly understood until later, however, in 1939 his last march on Vyšehrad cemetery wasn’t modest in attendance and turned into a silent protest against Nazism

Jan Masaryk’s funeral
6. and 7. The death of the last democratic politician in 1948, a month after the communist coup. The snowdrop next to his ear was suspected to be hiding a bullet hole. Jan Masaryk was said to have “fallen” from a window.

Klement Gottwald’s funeral (the first communist president)
8. and 9. Gottwald was something like a Czech Stalin and followed him to the grave only two weeks after. He was mummified and put on display in the same way as Lenin, however, his body had to be cremated 20 year later because it was falling apart.

“the living torch” Jan Palach
10. The funeral of a student Jan Palach in 1969 was attended by thousands of people. He lit himself on fire as a protest against the Soviet occupation and to rouse citizens of Czechoslovakia from indifference. His coffin was exhibited in the building of Charles University. 

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Moravian Museum (Moravské zemské muzeum) is the second largest and oldest museum in the Czech Republic. The museum was founded in July 1817 in Brno by a decree of Emperor Francis I. Its collections include over 6 million objects, representing valuable scientific material from the fields of literature, music and theatre, geology, mineralogy, botany, zoology and entomology.
 Museum Premises (9 of them can be found in Brno) : Dietrichstein Palace, Leoš Janáček Memorial, Bishop’s Courtyard, Memorial of Kralice Bible, Palace of Noble Ladies, Old Castle of Jevišovice, Anthropos Pavilion, Castle of Budišov, Centre for cultural history of the 20th century, Centre of Slavonic archeology
[museum’s homepage fully in English]

The Silesian Museum is a gate to Silesia, with a scope extending from both animate and inanimate objects to prehistory, history and art history, primarily with regard to the history of Silesia, as well as north and northwest Moravia. The Silesian Museum is the oldest public museum on the territory of the current Czech Republic, with a history that stretches back to 1814. With its 2,400,000 exhibition items, it is, at the same time, the third biggest museum in the country.
Exhibition premises: The Historical Exhibition Bulding, Opava, The Nový Dvůr Arboretum, The Second World War National Memorial, Hrabyně, The Petr Bezruč Memorial, Opava, The Hlučín-Darkovičky Czechoslovak Fortification Complex, The Petr Bezruč Chalet, Ostravice
[go the museum website]

Czech chronicles:

• The Chronicle of Dalimil + (latin version); the oldest Czech chronicle in verse, probably not written by Dalimil
• The Chronicle of Zbraslav  (1305–1339); one of the most important sources for the 14th century Czech history
• Vita Caroli; an autobiography of the Czech king and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV Luxembourg 
• Old Czech Chronicles (1378-1526)
• The Hussite Chronicle of Vavřinec from Březová (Diarium belli hussitici Laurentii Brezicii), a Czech historian who documented the Hussite Revoluiton
• Chronica Boemorum; the oldest Czech chronicle, written by Cosmas in Latin

Terezín (German: Theresienstadt) is a small stronghold town in Litoměřice region in Northern Bohemia. It was named after Maria Theresa and build as a fortification by her son Joseph II against Prussians during Austro-Prussian Wars. In the end the stronghold was too intimidating and was never actually besieged. But nevertheless the military base called Malá pevnost found more than enough uses as a prison. Someone very famous was held there during the WW1 – Gavrilo Princip. He was sentenced to 20 years (they couldn’t kill him because he wasn’t 20 yet) but the conditions in Terezín were so horrible he died 4 years later. 

Theresienstadt concentration camp, also referred to as Theresienstadt Ghetto, was established by the SS during World War II and served as a Nazi concentration camp staffed by German Nazi guards. Tens of thousands of people died there, some killed outright and others dying from malnutrition and disease. More than 150,000 other persons (including tens of thousands of children) were held there for months or years, before being sent by rail transports to their deaths at Treblinka and Auschwitz extermination camps in occupied Poland, as well as to smaller camps elsewhere. After the war the prison was used as an internment camp for German prisoners of war and also for some German citizens who were to be evicted from Czechoslovakia on the basis of Beneš decrees. (x) virtual map here

Samizdat

the-czech-book:

I took a class about Czech life under Communism, and one of our cooler lectures was going to Libri Prohibiti, a library of works published underground during Communism. People published and circulated things all throughout the regime, but the “proper” business of samizdat publishing got organized in the 1970s, during “normalization”.

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What preceded the creation of Czechoslovakia

get-to-know-cz:

Before we get to the history of Czechoslovakia, we’ll first need to know how how it even got on the map. It would seem at first as a little random arrangement. After all Czech lands didn’t have historically much to do with Slovakia, if we don’t count brief time of Great Moravia. But that could be hardly counted as state of Czechs and Slovaks…

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The Battle of Slavkov | The Battle of Austerlitz | The Battle of the Three Emperors
was one of Napoleon’s greatest victories, where the French Empire effectively crushed the Third Coalition. On 2 December 1805 a French army decisively defeated a Russo-Austrian army, commanded by Tsar Alexander I and Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, after nearly nine hours of difficult fighting. The battle took place near Slavkov/Austerliz about 10 km (6 mi) south-east of Brno in Moravia, at that time in the Austrian Empire (present day Czech Republic). 
The greatest defeat suffered Austria which had to give up part of Italy to the French ally Bavaria and most importantly Austria for the first lost its influence in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation which thanks to Napoleon’s policy dissolved and was replaced by Rhine confederation. Austria’s later attempts to seize back its power were met only partial success, having to compete with Prussia and pay Napoleon 140 million franks used to repair French national deficit. (x) 
Kick-ass re-enactment photographs of Project Austerlitz belong to Ondřej Požár

Quick Czech History: Přemyslid dynasty

We don’t really know the origins of Přemyslid dynasty (Czech: Přemyslovci) if we aren’t counting the legend about Přemys Oráč or speculations about them being part of Moravian lineage.
The first documented duke of Bohemia was Bořivoj (872?–883?), probably put on throne by duke Svatopluk of Moravia in 867, still during the existence of Great Moravia. After Bořivoj’s death Bohemia emancipated from Great Moravia and turned to western religion.

1) Baptism of the duke Bořivoj by St. Methodius   2) Before the silver lion Přemyslids had on their coat of arms black flaming eagle.

For the next 300 years the relationship with Eastern Franks and later Holy Roman Empire was rather difficult, accompanied by constant struggle with German neighbours and their emperors appropriating the right to intervene in Czech matters. Czechs were many times buying peace by paying tribute.
Boleslav I the Cruel (935 – 967/72), alleged murderer of his brother Saint Wenceslas, unsuccessfully tried to abandon this habit but was defeated by Emperor Otto I. Boleslav was actually pretty successful ruler and in 995 he and Otto I defeated Hungarian tribes, ending their European expansion.

The fratricidal murder of Saint Wenceslas (Czech: Svatý Václav). According to the legend Wenceslas tried to hide in the chapel but the priest refused to open the door for him. What an asshole...

Boleslav II the Pious (967/72 – 999) finished unification of tribes living in Bohemia, established the first bishopric in Prague and murdered another Czech lineage for unknown reason. After his death the Czech state got into huge crisis followed by many years of struggle for the throne. 

Boleslav III the Red-haired (999-1002) was described as “the worst man that ever sat on the throne” and for his cruelty expelled by Vršovci family.
Polish duke Bolesław I Chrobry helped on Czech throne his notoriously alcoholic brother half-Přemyslid Vladivoj who out of fear that somebody would attack his position lets in 1002 Emperor Henry II grant him Czech lands as fief to make him his ally. He was the first Czech ruler to do so and since then were Czech lands considered part of the Holy Roman Empire, giving emperors right to intervene. After Vladiovj drinks himself to death Boleslav III comes back to revengefully murder Vršovci family but is forced to leave by Bolesław I Chrobry once again.
Bolesław I Chrobry (1003 – 1004) tried to create Czech-Polish Empire against the Reich but his efforts failed when Henry II, realizing the possible danger of such a big neighbour, allied with Přemyslid Jaromír and with Czech help Poles were banished from Bohemia.

Even though Moravians stayed loyal to Bolesław I Chrobry, Moravia was later conquered back by Přemyslid Oldřich (1012-1013), becoming a permanent part of the Czech state. Oldřich was later forcibly taken down for a year by the Emperor for refusing to aid in attack on Poland. 

Vratislav II, Vladislav II, Břetislav…from preserved skeletal remnants we have pretty good idea how Přemyslids looked. Even though most of them had muscular, athletic figure they were no huge warriors and possessed nearly feminine looks (especially in the face). Their hair was either brown or auburn.

Břetislav (1034–1055) was Oldřich’s bastard son and unlike his father he had no scruples about invading Poland. This provoked conflict with the Emperor Henry II who demanded the Polish booty and for Czech soldiers to retreat from Silesia. Conflict between Henry II and Břetislav despite initial Czech victories ended in Břetislav’s defeat. Břetislav had to pretty humiliatingly beg Henry for forgiveness in Resenburg, only to later become one of Henry’s most valuable allies.

Vratislav II (1061–1092) was the first Czech ruler that got the title of Czech king for being a good friend an ally to Henry III against Piasts, Swabia and Meisse, however, that tile wasn’t hereditary.

Vladislav II (1140–1172) was at first elected for being “young and flippant” but to great disappointment of Czech lords he ruled with strong hand and later even suppressed their revolt. For aiding Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa in his raid against Italian cities Vladislav II finally received the title of king with the promise of hereditary possession. During Vladislav’s reign the country was in a huge boom but after his death the kingdom for a quarter of a century experienced a huge decline of power, proving the excessive dependence on the Reich as ill-advised.

Next: Last Přemyslids and Luxembourgs on Czech throne

Mikoláš Aleš (1852 – 1913) was a Czech painter, decorator and illustrator. Aleš is estimated to have had over 5,000 published pictures; he painted for everything from magazines to playing cards to textbooks and buildings. His paintings were not publicized too widely outside Bohemia, but Mikoláš Aleš is regarded as one of the Czech Republic’s greatest artists and a classic of the 19th century. Many of his paintings depict events or people from Czech history.

(1) After the battle near Ústí  (2) Prokop Holý and Jan of Rokycany (3) Hussite cavalry (4) Mathias Corvinus and George of Poděbrady (5) Jan Roháč from Dubá (6) Slaugther of Saxons under Hrubá Rock + more here