http://radio.cz/en/article/147989 en Sat, 19 May 2012 02:01:00 +0200 Sat, 19 May 2012 02:01:00 +0200 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Radio Prague CMS 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Radio Broadcasting cr@radio.cz (Cesky Rozhlas) webmaster@radio.cz (CRo Webmaster) http://radio.cz/en/article/147989 Czechs and Slovaks spent most of the 20th century in one country, Czechoslovakia. Ever since its foundation, however, each nation had a different idea of how the country should work, and what their role in it should be. In his new book entitled Czechs and Slovaks in the 20th Century: Cooperation and Conflicts, historian Jan Rychlík argues that Czechoslovakia was in fact bound to fail as a state, and that communism only postponed its inevitable end. Sat, 19 May 2012 02:01:00 +0200 urn:uuid:7f5df350-561b-5557-a226-3d93f9d0b2c0 http://radio.cz/en/article/147309 Prague’s Antonín Dvořák Museum recently reopened after renovation with a new programme dedicated to the life and work of the famous composer. Entitled The journeys of Antonín Dvořák, it offers a new look at the composer’s stays abroad. It also features an exhibition on Dvořák’s Czech-American friend and collaborator, Josef Jan Kovařík, who worked with Dvořák during his stay in New York. Sat, 21 Apr 2012 02:01:00 +0200 urn:uuid:dec3e06c-5bc2-54a3-aee4-79d9ee903295 http://radio.cz/en/article/146667 You might not recognise the name straight away, but Antonín Josef Čermák - a miner’s son from Kladno, Central Bohemia - is one of the most famous Czech-Americans to have ever lived. Anton (or Tony) Cermak became mayor of Chicago at the height of prohibition, overhauled Democratic Party politics in the city, and was then assassinated in the most mysterious of surroundings. All quite dramatic for someone who started his career selling firewood… Tue, 27 Mar 2012 13:21:40 +0200 urn:uuid:e2dbcaa9-5f22-5265-a944-8a82cb9f3e31 http://radio.cz/en/article/146510 What would happen if the Czechs still had a monarch? Or if the country’s population was still one-third German? What would be different today if the 1948 communist coup had been defeated? These are some of the questions explored in a new Czech TV show entitled What If which looks at some of the turning points in modern Czech history. Rather than providing answers, however, the creators of the new programme say they wanted to provoke viewers to look at some of the historical milestones from a different perspective. In this edition of Czech History, we talk to one of the authors of the new show, Eva Vojtová. Tue, 20 Mar 2012 17:07:33 +0100 urn:uuid:bf4d8877-96bd-50ae-864f-0aacacc49d83 http://radio.cz/en/article/146319 Prague City Museum recently put on display a part of the biggest silver treasure ever found in the country. Visitors are able to admire just a fraction of the vast depot of nearly half a ton of silver jewelry, tableware, goblets, coins as well as raw silver, which was hidden in a Prague building some time after the end of WWII. The museum is now trying to find out who hid such a huge treasure, only discovered by accident roughly three years ago. Tue, 13 Mar 2012 15:31:29 +0100 urn:uuid:80d087b6-ddf8-5878-a9ee-f60405ead9bf http://radio.cz/en/article/146141 This year marks the 110th anniversary of the death of Dr Emil Holub, perhaps the best-known Czech explorer, who made vast contributions to public understanding of Africa in the latter half of the 19th century. Tue, 06 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0100 urn:uuid:93a5bad8-754f-5d77-8905-80604881a25c http://radio.cz/en/article/145943 This February marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of one of the Czech Republic’s greatest animators, puppeteers and illustrators, Jiří Trnka. This milestone is being marked in the Czech Republic by the country’s National Film Archive; its Prague-based Ponrepo cinema screening a collection of Trnka’s films and documentaries about the artist until March 16th. Czech Centres around the globe – which exist to promote the Czech Republic - are also marking the anniversary heralding an exhibition called “Jiří Trnka: In the Service of the Imagination” which kicked off in Munich and also runs until March. Tue, 28 Feb 2012 14:34:59 +0100 urn:uuid:0505461f-1bd3-5d61-a008-c718570e6707 http://radio.cz/en/article/145764 It can easily be called one of the most important documents in the history of modern science. Gregor Mendel’s priceless manuscript on the inheritance of plant traits, composed in Brno in 1865, opened the door to the field of genetics. This month, after many years of changing hands and much negotiation, it was brought home. Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:18:02 +0100 urn:uuid:71350566-46bd-5a9c-9087-0ed06dcce947 http://radio.cz/en/article/145592 Hugo Haas was one of the stars of Czechoslovak cinema's golden age of the 1930s. This versatile actor and director was hugely popular in the First Republic and he appeared in a number of classic films from that era. Despite his success, however, Haas's life and career - like that of so many other Czechs who lived during this period - was blighted by the tide of history that swept through Czechoslovakia in the 20th century. Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:10:17 +0100 urn:uuid:31e31a37-733e-507b-9a75-972e21180b36 http://radio.cz/en/article/145415 Petr Novák's unmistakeable, delicate tenor voice is synonymous with Czechoslovak society of the late 1960s. This talented musician shot to fame in this country at the time of the Prague Spring, when his gentle love songs influenced by Western pop groups like The Beatles were hugely popular among young Czechs. His success during this era, however, proved to be short-lived and his career subsequently stagnated under the influence of communist repression and his own problems with alcohol. Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:45:36 +0100 urn:uuid:aa598c08-c4e2-5173-bfe5-0f2b09364d65 http://radio.cz/en/article/145226 Writer and youth movement activist Jaroslav Foglar left a deep trace in Czech popular culture. Besides more than 25 novels for children, Jaroslav Foglar is also the father of Rychlé šípy, or “Rapid Arrows”, a legendary comics that has earned a following with generations of Czech readers. Persecuted by the Nazis and the communists, the writer also single-handedly founded his own youth organization which, in its heyday, had tens of thousands of members across the country. Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:30:23 +0100 urn:uuid:c3704df1-8f15-5914-afcf-c2e4267f5401 http://radio.cz/en/article/145052 The Prague district of Bubeneč, in the bend of the Vltava river, is a quiet, mostly residential part of town, and a scene of continuous archaeological discoveries. People have been living in the area since at least the 5th millennium BC, when the phenomenon of agriculture began to spread through Central Europe. Only last year the district made the international news with the discovery of an atypical burial site from the ancient Corded Ware culture. Now archaeologists working on the site of the new Canadian embassy have found what appears to be the earliest use of agricultural ploughing in the Czech lands. In this episode of Czech History, Christian Falvey speaks with Petra Maříková Vlčková, one of the members of the archaeological team. Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:31:01 +0100 urn:uuid:c944d5ac-443f-53d3-a50f-dbaa852962f6 http://radio.cz/en/article/144870 Czechoslovak Radio, January 16, 1969: The municipal office of public order in Prague reports that at around 3 p.m. today on Wenceslas Square a 21-year-old arts student, J.P., set himself o n fire. He doused himself with a flammable liquid, set fire to his clothing and suffered serious burns. The fire was extinguished with the speedy assistance of passerby and he was taken to hospital by rescue services for treatment. The motive for the act is under investigation… Tue, 17 Jan 2012 17:04:54 +0100 urn:uuid:de038346-cecb-51d7-8ea2-fe038b596713 http://radio.cz/en/article/144687 The last communist president of Czechoslovakia Gustáv Husák became the symbol of the oppressive regime that ruled the country after the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia. Himself a political prisoner in the 1950s, he oversaw the persecution of opposition activists in the 1970s and 80s – an intellectual who supported the reforms of the Prague Spring turned into the Soviet Union’s lackey. We look at the life of Gustáv Husák on the 99th anniversary of his birth. Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:20:48 +0100 urn:uuid:c23fccb8-ca43-5524-92b2-63f089a478ad http://radio.cz/en/article/144513 Archbishop, later Cardinal, Josef Beran, become a symbol of opposition to totalitarian regimes. He was dubbed the archbishop who refused to be silenced. The punishment for speaking out was imprisonment first under the Nazi occupation and then the Communists. Tue, 03 Jan 2012 16:02:48 +0100 urn:uuid:f8eb54e6-326d-51c0-bcea-cfd4cc92700e http://radio.cz/en/article/144004 For all the suffering that Bohemia and Moravia endured during WWII, relatively little of the damage was physical. Prague escaped the terrible bombing that left so many of the ancient cities of Europe wasted. There were incidents, however - two in particular in the last year of the war that brought large-scale destruction and great loss of life. Tue, 13 Dec 2011 17:05:33 +0100 urn:uuid:1d324bfe-8f37-5076-a8c7-60e7d772254e http://radio.cz/en/article/143806 It would be hard to meet a Czech whose childhood was not touched (perhaps unconsciously) by the art of Jiří Trnka, a painter, puppeteer, illustrator and above all, the founding father of Czech animated film. His poetic drawings brought immortality to books that would otherwise be long forgotten. And his animated films bestowed dozens of puppets and drawings with life. Tue, 06 Dec 2011 14:53:56 +0100 urn:uuid:414b8485-dd8d-5e53-aff9-74723e5a3c23 http://radio.cz/en/article/143641 Ema Destinnová - or Emmy Destinn, as she became known abroad - was one of the greatest dramatic sopranos of the twentieth century and one of the most sought-after singers before WWI, thanks to her voice of exceptional richness, power, and control. She sang with the legendary Enrico Caruso and many other stars in the most prestigious opera houses in Europe and the United States, such as Bayreuth, Berlin's Hofoper, London's Covent Garden and New York's Metropolitan. Tue, 29 Nov 2011 16:16:19 +0100 urn:uuid:64f6d554-7606-5fc6-924b-2903633b057b http://radio.cz/en/article/143459 Welcome to Wilsonstadt, an independent Central European city of 400,000 Germans and Hungarians, and a few Slovaks thrown in for good measure. Named after US President Woodrow Wilson in 1919, after successfully avoiding annexation by Czechoslovakia - and an impossible number of other would-be conquests - it's a prosperous, provincial town on the Danube, though plagued by poor relations with its neighbors. Tue, 22 Nov 2011 16:59:50 +0100 urn:uuid:b17459b1-50b1-568b-a9ae-7ba119185d3a http://radio.cz/en/article/143286 The 1948 communist takeover of Czechoslovakia remains a trauma for many Czechs today. Could the country’s fall under Soviet domination have been prevented? Why did Czechoslovak politicians of the era so severely underestimate the threat of communism? These are some of the issues discussed in a new biography of the politician Prokop Drtina, one of the key figures of the brief period between the end of the war and the start of the communist regime. Tue, 15 Nov 2011 15:39:35 +0100 urn:uuid:ed960ab6-d491-5d2d-ab1a-1d29a1563645