http://radio.cz/en Latest articles on 'History' - en Sat, 15 Jun 2013 02:01:00 +0200 Sat, 15 Jun 2013 02:01:00 +0200 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Radio Prague CMS   http://radio.cz      http://radio.cz/assets/imgs/radiopraha-rss.png   200   200 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/section/books/could-the-coup-have-been-avoided-the-legacy-of-a-government-in-exile Last week Prague hosted an international conference that looked at the role played during World War Two by the London-based governments in exile of occupied countries. These included not just Czechoslovakia, but also many other European states, among them the Netherlands, Poland, Yugoslavia and France. The exile politicians played a complex, sometimes tortuous role in shaping not just the course of the war, but also the political order that followed. David Vaughan reports. Sat, 15 Jun 2013 02:01:00 +0200 urn:uuid:e5afd0d8-b387-580b-9c31-74449cc07f2c http://radio.cz/en/section/czech-history/the-social-agent-exposes-czech-writer-jiri-mucha-as-secret-police-agent-1 British journalist Charles Laurence first came to Prague as a child in the 1950s. His father, a diplomat, served at the UK embassy here, and brought his family with him. In the spy-ridden communist country at the height of the Cold War, he was soon targeted by the secret police. Fifty years later, Charles Laurence revisited Prague in search of what really happened. In his book The Social Agent: A True Intrigue of Sex, Lies, and Heartbreak Behind the Iron Curtain, he exposes Czech writer, and family friend Jiří Mucha as a man who spied on his father, and whose actions had very tragic consequences for his whole family. Sat, 15 Jun 2013 02:01:00 +0200 urn:uuid:2d36bf46-29b2-5ad8-9e80-75118388fcb0 http://radio.cz/en/section/special/don-sparling-part-2 While thousands of Westerners flocked to Czechoslovakia in the wake of the Velvet Revolution, Don Sparling experienced those dramatic events at first hand. In the second part of a two-part interview, he discusses, among other things, that intoxicating period and the changes that followed. Thu, 06 Jun 2013 16:15:40 +0200 urn:uuid:ce5eec24-04e4-52d6-94ac-a8ea1edce208 http://radio.cz/en/section/special/don-sparling-part-1 Few if any Westerners have been living in this part of the world for as long as Don Sparling. Indeed, the Canadian-born academic came to Czechoslovakia in March 1969, just seven months after the Soviet invasion that crushed the Prague Spring movement. He has been here ever since, for the most part living in Brno, where he eventually became head of the English Department at Masaryk University. Wed, 05 Jun 2013 16:02:23 +0200 urn:uuid:0253ba15-62c0-5d79-8b76-97648aec1e5a http://radio.cz/en/section/letter/hej-hej-this-is-frey I’ve found myself paying increased attention to significant Czech anniversaries recently and was intrigued by one the other week: May 21st was the 132nd anniversary of the installation of the first telephone in Prague. Sat, 01 Jun 2013 02:01:00 +0200 urn:uuid:dc294337-8f15-56eb-ad42-f20114f448b9 http://radio.cz/en/section/panorama/holocaust-survivor-vera-egermayer-telling-children-my-story-helped-me-understand-my-own-life Like many child survivors of the Holocaust Vera Egermayer, started a new life in a new environment soon after the war. Her family moved to New Zealand when she was just eight and the country became her second homeland. A few years after the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia she returned to her birthplace as New Zealand’s honorary consul and faced the ghosts of the past, the murder of family members and her own internment at Terezin. Thu, 23 May 2013 00:00:00 +0200 urn:uuid:9d2df43d-9299-5ea4-8180-ad215de6515a http://radio.cz/en/section/in-focus/prague-city-gallery-brings-back-life-and-history-to-an-old-town-palace The City of Prague Gallery was given custodianship of the Colloredo-Mansfeld Palace in Prague’s Old Town a few years ago. The gallery is finally ready to open the building to the public, and possibly make it one of its main exhibition and educational sites. Radio Prague headed over to the palace to speak with the team that is working on its new appearance. Tue, 21 May 2013 16:31:00 +0200 urn:uuid:2a3b74df-a336-5bd8-a2ac-0e1eb0eee640 http://radio.cz/en/section/one-on-one/gisela-cheffer-i-even-sat-on-the-lap-of-some-nazis-of-course-they-had-no-idea-that-my-father-was-jewish Gisela Cheffer was born Gisela Duschinský in Brno in 1932. Her Viennese father was Jewish, which made her a target for the Nazis, and her baptism as a Roman Catholic very likely saved her life. She later came close to being forced to leave during the mass expulsion of Czechoslovakia’s German population after the war. But she stayed – until, that is, a meeting with a Finn led to a life abroad. Mon, 20 May 2013 13:16:08 +0200 urn:uuid:5e849759-8a95-542b-a53e-1b779319d718 http://radio.cz/en/section/special/prague-students-bring-the-past-to-life-for-the-radios-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. Sat, 18 May 2013 02:01:00 +0200 urn:uuid:4ac8068b-72c8-5aab-a068-35525c9d421a http://radio.cz/en/section/curraffrs/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. Thu, 16 May 2013 15:35:21 +0200 urn:uuid:560c176e-381a-57c8-bf97-38fd701ceff2 http://radio.cz/en/section/czech-history/communist-scholar-zdenek-nejedly-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. Sat, 11 May 2013 02:01:00 +0200 urn:uuid:0dfb5b58-6d2b-5418-9b32-576e2bc4b1da http://radio.cz/en/section/curraffrs/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. Fri, 10 May 2013 14:44:10 +0200 urn:uuid:ee9bdb1a-2831-5e8c-88f9-11c67372c997 http://radio.cz/en/section/special/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. Wed, 08 May 2013 02:01:00 +0200 urn:uuid:985159e2-05a0-5207-860f-b253269f180b http://radio.cz/en/section/curraffrs/public-indignation-causes-regional-exhibition-to-remove-hitlers-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. Tue, 07 May 2013 15:54:41 +0200 urn:uuid:a1aefe2e-77d4-5c99-be2e-21528096eee4 http://radio.cz/en/section/one-on-one/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. Mon, 29 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0200 urn:uuid:bbd60c5d-18dc-55f6-9afe-6c86b575a66b http://radio.cz/en/section/curraffrs/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. Wed, 24 Apr 2013 15:59:41 +0200 urn:uuid:663192d4-2011-5b06-b1ec-d5f1f4fe0dbf http://radio.cz/en/section/czech-history/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. Sat, 13 Apr 2013 02:01:00 +0200 urn:uuid:163f55a7-33a7-55b5-ae7f-7628e00e0ef3 http://radio.cz/en/section/curraffrs/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. Thu, 11 Apr 2013 15:58:23 +0200 urn:uuid:4ab10832-f409-5d97-94a5-5baa81eb87e2 http://radio.cz/en/section/special/czech-easter-rituals-and-their-ancient-origins Wherever you are in the Northern Hemisphere, it is likely that sometime around now you are marking one of the dozens of religious or cultural holidays that celebrates the beginning of spring. In this year’s Easter Monday special, we look at the ancient origins some of the peculiar traditions and trappings of the Czech spring celebration. Mon, 01 Apr 2013 02:01:00 +0200 urn:uuid:41c349c0-3eab-5519-8bf8-d0a2b3e483d9 http://radio.cz/en/section/curraffrs/controversial-marian-column-to-return-to-old-town-square-after-almost-100-years The Prague City Council has approved a revitalization plan for the capital’s Old Town Square that includes the installation of a replica of a Marian column that stood on the square for over 250 years until it was torn down in 1918. Many consider the column a symbol of oppression, but its supporters, who have campaigned for its return for over 20 years, have found a strong ally in the current mayor. Wed, 27 Mar 2013 15:24:07 +0100 urn:uuid:56dc3e04-5c29-5f73-9066-b89d55fabf34