Topic Archive History
Prague students bring the past to life for the radio’s 90th birthday
It is exactly 90 years since the very first regular radio broadcasts in
Czechoslovakia began on 18 May 1923. These were humble beginnings, starting
in a borrowed scouts’ tent on the edge of Prague. But within just a few
years, radio became central to the lives of millions of Czechoslovaks and
over the decades the archives here in the Czech Radio headquarters have
become an Aladdin’s Cave of sound, a living audio source for anyone
wanting to research into twentieth century Czechoslovak history. For our
90th birthday, we joined forces with a group of journalism students in
Prague to bring some of these voices from the past back to life. More
Join us on Saturday in celebrating our 90th birthday
This weekend we’ll be celebrating 90 years since the first regular radio
broadcasts in Czechoslovakia, and we’ll be bringing you a special
programme. David Vaughan has been working with a group of Prague journalism
students, to discover some of the forgotten gems hidden in the radio
archive. He tells us more about Saturday’s special programme.
More
Communist scholar Zdeněk Nejedlý subject of award-winning biography
Zdeněk Nejedlý was an influential Czech musicologist and Communist
politician. Most often remembered as a passionate admirer of the composer
Bedřich Smetana, he was also instrumental in linking Communist ideology to
Czech traditions. A new biography of Nejedlý by Jiří Křesťan offers a
more complex view of the man whose life illustrates the perils Czech
intellectuals faced in the 20th century. More
Czechs get rare chance to view crown jewels
Tens of thousands of people are expected to queue for hours to view the
Czech crown jewels, which have just gone on display at Prague Castle’s
Vladislav Hall. The priceless collection, which includes the St. Wenceslas
crown, is being shown for the first time in five years – but only for a
10-day period. More
Otto Pick – War years just start of peripatetic, colourful life
Professor Otto Pick was one of nearly 700 Jewish children who escaped the
Nazis on a transport to the UK organised by Nicholas Winton, a British
diplomat based in Prague. He says he only became aware relatively recently
that he was on the now famous “Winton train” and does not know how his
family managed to get him on board and save his life. More
Public indignation causes Regional Exhibition to remove Hitler’s statues
The large-scale regional exhibition taking place in two South Bohemian and
two Upper Austrian cities hit the first snag within days of the grand
opening. Part of the exhibit in the small town of Vyšší Brod, which is
dedicated to the houses of worship in the region, sparked intense criticism
for displaying works dating back to darker days in history. More
Czech-born author and publisher Marketa Goetz Stankiewicz
My guest today is Marketa Goetz Stankiewicz, a professor emerita at the
University of British Columbia. Born in 1927 in the Czech town of Liberec,
Marketa left Czechoslovakia following the communist putsch in 1948. She
established herself in Canada as a professor of comparative literature,
author and essayist, focusing in particular on publishing samizdat
literature, and also writing about the work of Czech playwrights such as
Pavel Kohout, Josef Topol, Ivan Klíma, and her friend the former president
Václav Havel. More
Church starts process of beatifying “miracle” priest killed by Communists
The Roman Catholic Church has begun the process of beatifying a priest who
was at the centre of one of the most bizarre and gruesome episodes of the
initial phase of communism in Czechoslovakia. After a cross was said to
have moved in his village church, Josef Toufar was brutally tortured into
confessing to fabricating the “miracle”. However, if he is beatified,
it will be a lengthy process. More
A Tale of Two Towers
Prague’s skyline gave the capital one of its nicknames: the city of a
hundred spires. But in actual fact around a thousand spires, belfries and
towers of various styles and ages now grace the city centre. Some of them
are popular tourist attractions offering great views of the city, others
only recently revealed their mysteries. One served as an observation post
for the secret police; another hosted a morbid display of a dozen severed
heads. More
More turmoil for body overseeing secret police archives as director sacked
Since it was established six years ago the Institute for the Study of
Totalitarian Regimes has provided unprecedented public access to secret
files once held by the security apparatus of communist Czechoslovakia. But
it’s been a troubled institution, under constant political pressure and
plagued by in-fighting. And now it’s in turmoil again, after the latest
director was sacked. More
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