Československo

Gentleman’s clubs are an integral part of English culture, and in the 1920s some members of Prague’s intellectual elite yearned to have a similar institution. Thanks to the efforts of influential individuals associated with President T. G. Masaryk and Minister of Foreign Affairs Edvard Beneš, the exclusive Social Club was founded in the Baroque-era Sylva Taroucca Palace on the city’s Na Příkopě Street. The club’s numerous salons and its library, smoking room, and restaurant were meant to introduce foreign visitors to Prague to the elite of Czech society. The Social Club was part of the young republic’s sophisticated promotional apparatus, but it also succeeded in becoming an authentic center of cultural life, a popular meeting place for well-known journalists, authors, painters, politicians, diplomats, and actors. The club’s members included many leading figures of the First Republic. It was thus foreordained that the events of 1938 would have a serious impact on the Social Club. After the club’s half-secret Arianization it was disbanded outright, only to be reopened under a different name and a partial change in management. The expulsion of Jewish members resulted in a postwar suit against some of the club’s representatives on the basis of the “Small Decree” for offenses against the national honor. The history of the Social Club thus reflects the effort at building a democratic Czechoslovakia… and its failure.

The study goes back to the exhibition Staré umenie na Slovensku
(Early Art in Slovakia) that was held from June 12 to October 10,
1937 in Vladislavský sál (Vladislav’s Hall) of the Prague Castle.
In addition to the modest amount literature, particularly
the archive sources from the collections of the Umělecká
beseda association (Art Meeting Society, 1863 – 1974), which
are kept in the Literary Archives of the Museum of National
Literature, the source of information also included the
collection of the Ministry of Education and National Culture
in the National Archives in Prague. Umělecká beseda, the
oldest and most significant Czech art association, was the
organizer of this exhibition. The preparatory committee
was composed of painter Václav Rabas, the chairman of the
Umělecká beseda, painter and writer Josef Čapek, industrialist
Joe Hartmann and physician Jozef Brumlík. Painter and
publicist Karel Šourek was the general commissioner. The
main aims and motives of this exhibition were summarized
by the preparatory committee in the Memorandum o výstavě
Staré umění na Slovensku v Praze 1937 (Memorandum on the
Exhibition Early Art in Slovakia in Prague 1937). The committee
emphasized the need to deepen the general knowledge of
Slovak cultural traditions and along with folk art, which
served as an inspiration for Czech artists from the middle
of the 19th century, to get to know the high art of the cities,
religions and aristocracy of Slovakia. In addition to its
scientific significance, this exhibition also had distinctive
social and political importance, since it manifested the
political co-existence of Czechs and Slovaks in the spirit of
unity and mutual tolerance in the Czechoslovak Republic. It
intended to show specific features of Slovak culture, while
also documenting its western European basis and the same
cultural orientation as Bohemia and Moravia. Thinking of the
Slovak nation as simply a branch of the Czechoslovak nation
was already an anachronism and misunderstanding of the
Slovak issue at the end of the 1930s. Although the members
of Umělecká beseda won the support of the exhibition from
Edvard Beneš, the President of the Republic, Prime Minister
Milan Hodža, Minister of Education and National Culture,
Emil Franke, and other members of the government, in
Slovakia they met with a lack of understanding. They had to
prove to the Slovak general public that the motives of their
exhibition were purely artistic and scientific and that the
popularization of Slovak culture would be the main benefit
of this exhibition. Doors to further negotiations in Slovakia
opened for them only after Andrej Hlinka, the chair of the
strongest political party in Slovakia at that time, Hlinka’s
Slovak People’s Party and the papal legate, became a member
of the presidium of the honorable committee of the exhibition.
The selection and accumulation of exhibits was in the care
of the Art Historical Commission composed of Czech and
Slovak historians, curators of monuments, archeologists,
ethnologists and art historians (Marie Ludmila Černá, Jan
Eisner, Ovídius Faust, Alžbeta Güntherová-Mayerová, Jan
Hofman, Dušan Jurkovič, Heřman Landsfeld, Václav Mencl,
Dobroslava Menclová, Vojtech Ondrouch, Josef Polák, Vilém
Pražák, Václav Vilém Štech, Antonín Václavík, Josef Vydra,
Vladimír Wagner, Oľga Wagnerová). The publishing of the
exhibition catalogue was stopped due to financial and time
constraints, but it was successfully replaced by the pictorial
publication Umění na Slovensku – odkaz země a lidu (Art in Slovakia
– A Legacy of the Land and People), which was published by the
Melantrich Publishing House in 1938. Over two thousand
exhibits from prehistoric times to the end of the 19th century
were concentrated at this exhibition; medieval painting and
plastic art had the largest representation and also became the
most popular, along with the abundant collection of folk art.
The exhibited items were not only from museums, galleries,
libraries and private collections, but also liturgical and sacral
works that were brought directly from churches in which they
were actively used. Many works were conserved and restored
prior to their exhibiting (woodcarver Bohumil Beck, restorer
Bohuslav Slánský, painter Jindřich Hlavín). Sculptures and
parts of architecture which could not be transported were
represented by patinaed plaster casts (sculptor Karel Šístek).
In addition to the paintings, sculptures, works of goldbeating,
pottery and others, originals and copies of the expositions
were supplemented by photographs of architecture and wall
paintings. The photographs were done by the Press Photo
Service, a company from Prague and its photographers F.
Illek and A. Paul during their spring expedition to the Slovak
countryside. A novel approach was also used for medieval wall
paintings in actual size. Large black and white photographs
were glued to hard pads and subsequently colored according
to the originals directly in churches (painters C. Majerník,
Václav Vojtech Novák, Martin Salcman). This exhibition
featured unusually large financial donations from private
entrepreneurs, bankers and industrialists, as well as from
state funds. However, even these funds were not sufficient to
cover all of the expenditures and Umělecká beseda suffered
serious financial troubles which led to their surrendering
their own collections. The exhibition was publicized by
posters, radio broadcasts, films and articles in newspapers and
magazines. Evening tours were conducted for the first time in
the history of Czechoslovak exhibitions and the use of sound
in the background of the folk art section was also groundbreaking.
The exhibition was extremely successful and the number
of spectators – 151,984 from throughout Czechoslovakia and
abroad is proof of that. The visitors had high praise for the
installation of the exhibition, which was carried out by
architect and stage designer, František Tröster, the founder
of the Czechoslovak school of stage design and exhibitionorganizing.
The massive space of Vladislavský sál was
divided into a set of cabinets and openings necessary for the
placement of the most valuable art treasures from the oldest
prehistoric monuments up to the beginning of Classicism.
Individual sections of the exhibition followed in chronological
order, thus charting the transformations of art styles and
artistic expressions. The exhibition fulfilled its purpose and
showed the theretofore unknown face of Slovakia; it awakened
interest in a deeper knowledge and preservation of Slovak
monuments and completed the nearly twenty year process
of the Slovak protection of monuments in the democratic
conditions of the first Czechoslovak Republic.

Profesionalizácia archeologického bádania na Slovensku sa začína so vznikom samostatnej Československej republiky. Vyvrcholenie týchto snáh, stelesnené vznikom Štátneho archeologického ústavu v Turčianskom Sv. Martine, je však úzko previazané až s pomerne neskorým obdobím rokov 1938-1939. Archívny výskum, ktorého výsledky sú prezentované v tejto štúdii, priniesol nový a ucelenejší pohľad na formujúce roky tejto dodnes existujúcej inštitúcie. Pozornosť je venovaná najmä začiatkom ústavu, jeho počiatočným finančným, personálnym i priestorovým problémom v rozmedzí rokov 1939-1953. Príspevok si kladie za cieľ predovšetkým sprístupniť doposiaľ nepublikované informácie o živote Štátneho archeologického ústavu, a tým tak aspoň čiastočne zaplniť medzeru v bádaní o dejinách archeologických inštitúcií na Slovensku.

Etnologický ústav AV ČR, v. v. i. Oddělení pro výzkum kulturního dědictví ve spolupráci s Českou asociací pro sociální antropologii (CASA) sekce Antropologie náboženství, magie a nadpřirozena si vás dovolují pozvat na konferenci Nadpřirozené Československo: magie, okultismus a víra v nadpřirozeno v kontextu utváření moderního státu.

Magie, čarodějnictví i víra v nadpřirozeno byly a jsou často označovány jako primitivní, pověrečné a tedy zcela zásadně nemoderní fenomény. Předpokládá se, že tyto jevy mají svůj původ v dávné historii a s moderní společností ani státem údajně nemají nic společného. Opak je ovšem pravdou. Navzdory tezi o postupné sekularizaci společnosti máme množství důkazů nejen o přítomnosti ale dokonce i o rozmachu těchto fenoménů a to jak v nedávné minulosti, tak v současnosti. V kontextu české vědy byla dosud fenoménům magie, čarodějnictví a nadpřirozena věnována jen velmi malá pozornost. Celá řada zahraničních badatelů a badatelek nicméně poukázala na to, že víra v nadpřirozeno může být mimo jiné interpretovaná jako výraz společenské nejistoty, související s proměnami společnosti, utvářením nových forem vládnutí a obecně i nástupem modernity. Skrze víru v nadpřirozeno a její praxi tak lze studovat dynamické vztahy napětí mezi státem a jednotlivcem, respektive konflikty mezi normativním společenským řádem a sociálními aktéry, kteří se vymykají dominantním formám vlády.

In occasione del Cinquantesimo anniversario dell’occupazione sovietica in Cecoslovacchia è in uscita il volume "Il Sessantotto capovolto, primavere del dissenso" di Maria Teresa Iervolino, edizioni Melagrana, con la prefazione dell’immensa Lidia Menapace e l’introduzione di Rino Malinconico, poeta e filosofo.
Il testo propone uno studio socio-culturale dei movimenti del Sessantotto e dei fermenti da esso prodotti nei percorsi del dissenso nell’ultimo trentennio del Novecento nei Paesi dell’ex blocco sovietico. Negli anni Sessanta quest’area è stata interessata da varie forme di dissenso, con caratteristiche peculiari nei vari Paesi in cui esso si è sviluppato, in seguito alla fine delle speranze legate al comunismo dal volto umano e delle primavere soffocate con repressione e censura da parte del Regime sovietico totalitario.
“Ho tracciato una mappa del dissenso, inteso come reazione a quel consensus non spontaneo, bensì imposto anche con la repressione da parte delle autorità, in due aree dell’Europa Centro-Orientale: Cecoslovacchia e Jugoslavia. Attraverso l’indagine bibliografica e con la testimonianza di alcuni protagonisti, esponenti della resistenza culturale nei loro territori di origine, ho seguito, lungo un percorso interculturale, la storia del dissenso e della ‘resistenza culturale’ in quelle aree dalla fine degli anni ’60 agli anni ’70, mettendo in evidenza anche gli elementi che hanno influenzato il periodo successivo contribuendo quindi a ridisegnare il cuore dell’Europa a partire dal 1989. Nelle fasi preparatorie e successive al Sessantotto ‘il secolo pazzo’ - uso questa espressione variando il titolo dello straordinario romanzo autobiografico di Ivan Klíma - è stato contrassegnato da una concomitanza di eventi storico-sociali, da momenti di trasformazione nella società che hanno gettato le basi per la reazione critica ai totalitarismi e per l’affermazione dei principi basilari di libertà e democrazia.
Il Sessantotto è una vasta trama di eventi che coinvolge tanto il mondo occidentale quanto quello orientale con modalità e tempi in parte diversi. La Russia e l’Europa Orientale, hanno avuto percorsi specifici, spesso intersecati con il destino di altri Paesi a regime totalitario, per alla fine insorgere contro le distorsioni di quel comunismo nel cui nome ci si batteva in Occidente. Anche nel cuore dell’Europa il Sessantotto è stato caratterizzato da un senso di disperazione che dopo la Primavera di Praga ha accompagnato la Primavera Croata ed è culminato con la stesura della Charta77 in Cecoslovacchia, a testimonianza della presa posizione netta da parte di alcuni dei più noti intellettuali cechi del secondo Novecento. Aldilà della Cortina di Ferro, le proteste di massa rappresentavano una critica ‘da sinistra’ al regime comunista totalitario, che si esprimeva in immagini e linguaggi della tradizione operaia ed era capace di dar voce ad una cultura e ad un sistema di valori profondamente diversi da quelli delle politiche delle sinistre europee nel dopoguerra. E’ importante sottolineare che proprio nell’ambito del mondo comunista si sviluppavano forme di riflessione critica che miravano ad una trasformazione della società da una posizione di sinistra, ossia progressista, ma coerente con i principi del socialismo. Naturalmente i medesimi stimoli culturali e ideologici nei vari contesti socio-politici innescavano processi anche molto diversi. L’intellettuale rivendicava un ruolo rivoluzionario, di avanguardia.

Diplomová práce Nacionalistické myšlenky v liberálních spolcích: židovský spolek Makabi Hacair a československý spolek Junák se věnuje dvěma liberálně definovaným spolkům v období meziválečného Československa. Na základě vybraných rozhovorů s pamětníky zkoumá projevy nacionalistické (včetně sionistické) ideologie v liberálním prostředí. Každý spolek je reprezentován třemi narátory, kteří byli vybíráni s ohledem na věk, genderovou vyváženost a lokální hledisko. Práce se skládá ze tří kapitol, přičemž je nejprve popsána společenská situace ve druhé polovině 19. a v první polovině 20. století, a to jak českého, tak židovského obyvatelstva. V další části práce jsou pak využity orálně historické metody výzkumu, analýza a interpretace rozhovorů. V průběhu analytické části je hledána odpověď na výzkumnou otázku, jak se nacionalismus, popřípadě sionismus projevoval v liberálním prostředí spolkových organizací.The diploma thesis Nationalist Thoughts in Liberal Associations: the Maccabi Hatza...