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Three candidates shortlisted for the 2023 Václav Havel Prize  05/09/23

The selection panel of the Václav Havel Human Rights Prize, which rewards outstanding civil society action in defence of human rights in Europe and beyond, has today announced the shortlist for the 2023 Award. Meeting in Prague today, the panel – made up of independent figures from the world of human rights and chaired by the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Tiny Kox – decided to shortlist the following three nominees, in alphabetical order: More

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Three candidates shortlisted for the 2022 Václav Havel Human Rights Prize  06/09/22

The discussion among the seven-member jury helmed by the president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe centred on the importance of the issue of human rights during this tense period. The finalists include Vladimir Kara-Murza, a political prisoner and leading Russian democracy campaigner; Ukraine’s 5 AM Coalition, which gathers evidence of human rights abuses stemming from Russia’s invasion of the country; and Hungary’s Rainbow Coalition defending LGBTQIA+ rights. “This year’s selection reflects the central role that human rights play in the current European crisis,” says Michael Žantovský, jury member and executive director of the Václav Havel Library, which bestows the prize in cooperation with the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and Nadace Charty 77.

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The Other Europe  27/04/22

Dear Friends, After three years we have completed the international project The Other Europe, during which, in cooperation with partner institutions, we have processed and made public recordings of interviews shot in 1987 and 1988 behind the Iron Curtain, and in exile, with important representatives of the opposition and the arts, as well as random citizens. Over those three years we have prepared video, audio and text of 106 interviews in speakers’ native languages and English translation. Despite public health restrictions in the Covid period, we have jointly prepared 16 international conferences and public presentations in six Central and Eastern European states. More

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From Schuman to Havel – what next?  16/02/22

The Václav Havel Library is a proud partner of the project Beyond Robert Schuman’s Europe More

Program for November 2018<>

entry-free

Daniel Kroupa: Masaryk – Patočka – Havel

Daniel Kroupa: Masaryk – Patočka – Havel

  • Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
  • When: November 1, 2018, 19:00 – 21:00

Masaryk – Patočka – Havel, a new book by the academic, politician, philosopher and Charter 77 signatory Daniel Kroupa, explores the philosophies of these three Czech thinkers, whose overriding common factor is a call to action. For Masaryk, Patočka and Havel, politics was built on moral foundations. They sought a new spiritual dimension in the life of modern man, for whom neither metaphysics nor traditional religion represent a buttress. Their search also has the potential to be an inspiration to contemporary thinking when it comes to solving present-day political problems, issues surrounding the shape of Europe and our relationship to violence, war and revolution. Most of all, however, it encourages and validates personal engagement, including in situations in which such discourse is not normally present.

Masaryk – Patočka – Havel will be introduced by Jiří Chotaš (Institute of Philosophy at the Czech Academy of Sciences, Faculty of Arts at J. E. Purkyně University) and Rudolf Kardoš (J.E.Purkyně University).

Tomáš Halík and Martin C. Putna will helm a discussion with the author.

Psí vojáci: Music on the Canvas

Psí vojáci: Music on the Canvas

  • Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
  • When: November 3, 2018, 12:00 – November 4, 2018, 17:00

Music on the Canvas returns to the Václav Havel Library exactly a year later. On the first weekend of November come along and view eight pictures by the young artist Sára Svobodová inspired by the songs and lyrics of Filip Topol and Psí vojáci and celebrate in an intimate fashion the 39thanniversary of their first official concert, which took place at the Prague Jazz Days festival on 3 November 1979.

Věra Jirousová: Tweets 1956–1963

Věra Jirousová: Tweets 1956–1963

  • Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
  • When: November 5, 2018, 17:00 – 19:00

The second half of the 1950s. Stalin is not long dead. A train passes through Libeň. Workers continue to live and work on Prague’s proletariat periphery. From the only lit window a little school girl observes the world around her. What has happened to her today and what awaits her tomorrow…?

Tobiáš Jirous and the creator of the original illustrations, Matěj Lipavský, will present a book by Věra Jirousová from a time before she bore that name. Her diaries from the 1950s, an unexpected find, depict a nascent personality whose attitudes later influenced others. A deeply subterranean text, which preceded the underground, has come to the surface.

Lost in Translation III: Editing is Essential!

Lost in Translation III: Editing is Essential!

  • Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
  • When: November 5, 2018, 19:00 – 21:00

Do you look at the credits on books? Are you aware of what the work of the editors and proof readers concerned actually involves? Do some publishers confuse editing with proof reading? Is it completely clear to editors today what their task is? And do translators know what they should and can expect from editors? What are the purview and responsibilities of those engaged in producing books in translation? What should they be? Who is responsible for the final text?

The process by which books in translation are produced, from purchase of publishing rights to sale in bookshops, will be discussed at a forum for editors and publishers focused this time on the translator-editor-publisher relationship.

Organised by the Václav Havel Library in cooperation with the Czech Literary Translators’ Guild.

Taking part in the discussion will be Jan Zelenka, English Studies expert and former editor at publishers Odeon; Jitka Jindřišková, Nordic Studies specialist and editor; Petr Eliáš, English Studies expert and editor-in-chief of the Albatros Media publishing house; and Filip Tomáš, bohemist and publisher (Akropolis).

Anežka Charvátová, who is a Hispanic Studies expert, translator and editor in one, will chair the debate.

Republic Café: Lost and Found Post 1918 – The Provincial Nobility

Republic Café: Lost and Found Post 1918 – The Provincial Nobility

  • Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
  • When: November 6, 2018, 19:00 – 21:00

The foundation of the Czechoslovak Republic a century ago was accompanied not only by patriotic fervour but also concerns about the future. Minorities, the Catholic Church, the aristocracy and many others were faced with decisions regarding to how to proceed. In the uncertainty with which they were treated by the fresh republic they themselves also had to consider how to respond to the new state.

Guests: František Kinský, descendant of the Kinský noble family, local politician, mayor and administrator of the family chateau, and Zdeněk Hazdra, historian and director of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes.

Chaired by Renata Kalenská.

This debate series marking the centenary of the foundation of Czechoslovakia has been prepared for the 2018–2019 season by the Václav Havel Library and the theatre Divadlo Husa na provázku. Debates will take place in parallel in Prague and Brno once a month.

Jiří Gruša – Writer and Politician

Jiří Gruša – Writer and Politician

  • Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
  • When: November 9, 2018, 19:00 – 21:00

Evening marking the 80thanniversary of his birth.

Jiří Gruša will be remembered by, among others, writer Eda Kriseová, journalist Karel Hvížďala and diplomat and former Czech ambassador to Austria Jan Sechter.

The evening will be hosted by Dalibor Dobiáš from the Institute for Czech Literature at the Czech Academy of Sciences.

Ivana Ryčlová: They Chose Freedom

Ivana Ryčlová: They Chose Freedom

  • Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
  • When: November 12, 2018, 17:00 – 19:00

In her latest book Zvolili svobodu (They Chose Freedom)literary historian Ivana Ryčlová maps the fates of the shapers of Russian 20thcentury culture who expressed disagreement with the Soviet-Orwellian reality in which they were living, including Shalamov, Solzhenitsyn, Galich, Sinyavsky, Ratushinskayaand many others. The author outlines how their opposition to the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Soviet forces in 1968 impacted their complicated life stories to varying degrees. Anatoly Marchenko suffered a tragic fate, with his uncompromising positions – including media appearances defending the freedom of Czechoslovakia – meaning he spent the majority of his life in the Gulag, where he died in murky circumstances in the mid 1980s.

Writer Milan Uhde will discuss the book, published by the Centre for the Study of Democracy, while Ondřej Černý, director general of the Czech Centres network, will chair a talk with the author.

Andriy Lyubka: Your View, Cio-Cio San

Andriy Lyubka: Your View, Cio-Cio San

  • Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
  • When: November 12, 2018, 20:00 – 22:00

Novelist, poet, essayist and translator Andriy Lyubka is one of the most important members of Ukraine’s young generation of authors and his book Saudadereceived the Yuriy Shevelyov Award in 2017. His poems have been published in the Czech magazine Psí víno. Lyubka’s new novel Your View, Cio-Cio Sanis a psychological thriller about life in contemporary Ukraine, where nothing goes unpunished and both happy and cruel events of the past are reflected in the lives of the future generation.

The author will introduce his novel and Rostislav Prokopjuk will moderate.

Interpretation into Czech provided.

Debate with Respekt

Debate with Respekt

  • Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
  • When: November 13, 2018, 19:00 – 21:00

Discussion with Respekt editors and their guests on a topical issue.

Don’t Be Afraid to Go Home

Don’t Be Afraid to Go Home

  • Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
  • When: November 14, 2018, 19:00 – 21:00

What happens if we lie to a patient about their state of health? Do serious illnesses have some meaning? And why should we not kill the dying, as proponents of euthanasia wish, but respect their lives until the natural end?

These issues and more are in focus in Neboj se vrátit domů (Don’t be Afraid to Go Home), a book of interviews with the founder of the Czech hospice movement,Marie Svatošová. The discussion with her will be helmed by writer and journalist Aleš Palán. The new book was issued by publishers Kalich in connection with the autumn Big Book Thursday.

It was Svatošová some years ago who put forward the idea of hospice palliative care. It was she who initiated the opening of the first Czech hospice. And it is she who continues to tirelessly cross the country giving lectures on hospice care and serving as an advisor to new hospices. In the book Svatošová also discusses her own family and medicine studies, how Fr. Ladislav Kubíček influenced her and her Trappist fan club.

In many hospices we find the quotation “Our aim is to fill days with life, not life with days.” The author of those words, Marie Svatošová, has succeeded in filling her own life with life, as well as meaning and incredible service. 

Dr. Marie Svatošová and Aleš Palán will answer readers’ questions at the VHL.

Film Series: Jan Palach

Film Series: Jan Palach

  • Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
  • When: November 15, 2018, 18:00 – 20:00

Rejecting evil with silent protest

/Film evening with guest/

The film Jan Palach (2018, 124 min.) focuses on the final months of the student who laid down his life to make an emphatic statement to a submissive Czechoslovakia. He refused to accept repression and 20 years later his action resulted in freedom for all his compatriots.

The guest in the second part of the evening will be actor Viktor Zavadil, who followed the changing atmosphere “through Palach’s eyes” and captured his thinking and decision on screen. 

Final evening on the theme “Famous Evangelists: Masaryk, Horáková, Palach” taking place in connection with the centenary of the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren.

Czech Radio journalist Magdaléna Trusinová will moderate.

Theatre Night 2018 – The Power of the Powerless

Theatre Night 2018 – The Power of the Powerless

  • Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
  • When: November 17, 2018, 19:00 – 24:00

The date of this year’s Theatre Night, 17 November, is crucial in Czech history. Theatre and revolution had already been intertwined several times when 29 years ago people of the theatre offered the revolution their stage and became key movers, with the informal leader of the revolution being the dramatist, essayist, human rights activist and later president of the country Václav Havel.

We have drawn on this connection and invited Brno’s Divadlo Feste theatre company to bring a theatrical collage of The Power of the Powerlessto the VHL. “The text is very topical in a highly unpleasant way. I’m stunned at how deeply the atmosphere of normalisation is again palpable in an every day manner…,” says director Jiří Honzírek.

The production is not staged indoors but in public spaces in cities and towns, with each new and original performance informed by the character of the place in question. Many such spots are to be found around the Václav Havel Library in Ostrovní St. 

Theatre Night, part of the international European Theatre Night project, is coordinated in the Czech Republic by the Arts and Theatre Institute in Prague and aims to present theatre in a creative and non-traditional form.

If Sorrow Smouldered

If Sorrow Smouldered

  • Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
  • When: November 19, 2018, 19:00 – 21:00

The occupation of Czechoslovakia through the eyes of Finnish poet Eeva-Liisa Manner.

Anxiety, despair, the arrival of Barbarians, spent shells. The invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact troops in August 1968 shocked the entire world and also found a response in international literature. The major Finnish modernist poet Eeva-Liisa Manner addressed the tragic event in intensely lyrical form in the collection If Sorrow Smouldered (Jos suru savuaisi) published in 1968. She dedicated it to her friend Václav Havel, whose plays she had translated into Finnish in the 1960s and about whose fate she received only fragmentary, unverified reports in the first days of the occupation. The context in which the collection was written and reactions to it in Finland, Eeva-Liisa Manner’s unique relationship to Czech and Slovak culture and Finnish political, social and cultural responses to the occupation of Czechoslovakia will be discussed by translator Michal Švec and historian Barbora Skálová. The evening will be complemented by readings from the collection If Sorrow Smouldered, which will be heard in Czech for the first time, 50 years after their publication.

During the evening there will also be a presentation of the Czech novel V domě básnířky (In the Poet’s Home)in which author Helena Sinervo takes on Eeva-Liisa Manner’s life story in a poetic manner. 

Event organised by the Václav Havel Library in cooperation with the Finnish Embassy in Prague as part of the year-long Scandinavian House project Northern Literature in the Heart of Europe 2018, which has been supported by the Czech Ministry of Culture and the City of Prague.

Dear Mum / Dear Alice

Dear Mum / Dear Alice

  • Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
  • When: November 20, 2018, 19:00 – 21:00

Stage reading of the letters of two exceptional women, Charlotte and Alice Masaryk, from the period when Alice was imprisoned in Vienna in 1915–1916. The letters bear witness to the impressive moral strength of both women at a time when the whole of T. G. Masarky’s family were going through trying times. Their brave stance also represents a stimulating message for the modern age.

The programme’s dramaturgy was inspired by a book of the same title compiled by D. Hájková and J. Soukup (published by the Masaryk Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences, 2001).

Cast: Daniela Kolářová and Marie Málková, dramaturge: Lucie Němečková, director: Zuzana Burianová

Organised by the Václav Havel Library in cooperation with the American Spring festival.

Evenings with Polish Reporters: Volhynia –Polish and Czech Memories

Evenings with Polish Reporters: Volhynia –Polish and Czech Memories

  • Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
  • When: November 21, 2018, 19:00 – 21:00

Same place, different recollections? Czechs and Poles were, alongside Ukrainians and Jews, village neighbours in Volhynia. In the first half of the 20thcentury the picturesque and fertile landscape became the site of bloody battles and the movement of both borders and inhabitants.

“When some kill others come with help” is the motto of Sprawiedliwi zdrajcy (Righteous Traitors) by the Polish journalist Witold Szabłowski (published in Czech by Pant in 2018, translated by Michala Benešová). In the book the author sets off on the trail of the what is known as the Volhynia Massacre, ethnic cleansing of Polish inhabitants in Ukraine in 1943–1944. He also spoke to pastor Jan Jelínek, who during WWII gave shelter at his parochial house to all facing persecution. How do Polish and Czech memories of Volhynia differ?

Taking part in a discussion with the Polish journalist will be the poet and translator Josef Mlejnek, author of the book Volyň tam v dáli (Volhynia in the Distance) (2015) and the descendant of people from Volhynia, and the painter Rostislav Zárybnický, who was born in 1936 in Sklíň and repatriated to Czechoslovakia with his family in 1947.

The debate is part of a discussion series introducing contemporary Polish reporters run by the Polish Institute in Prague and the Václav Havel Library. The event will take place in Polish with simultaneous interpretation provided.

The Low-Carbon Revolution: The Future of Green Energy

The Low-Carbon Revolution: The Future of Green Energy

  • Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
  • When: November 22, 2018, 19:00 – 21:00

The low-carbon economy is one element of energy policy and therefore also sustainable energy policy. It comes in response to climate change and will aid the long-term maintenance of quality of life for us and future generations. It encompasses sustainable transport and mobility and intelligent distribution, storage and energy transfer systems. The low-carbon economy is cost-saving and socially inclusive. It requires society-wide vision, cooperation with industry, investment in science and research and the involvement of society, citizens, industry, research, politics and the public administration. The shape of the debate in the Czech Republic, the areas Czechs are strong or weak in and what lessons they can draw from abroad will be the subject of a discussion on the benefits of the low-carbon economy.

Chaired by Lucie Tungul, political scientist and analyst at the TOPAZ think tank.

Organised by the Václav Havel Library in cooperation with TOPAZ.

Simon Mawer: Prague Spring

Simon Mawer: Prague Spring

  • Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
  • When: November 23, 2018, 18:00 – 20:00

Simon Mawer, author of the New York Times bestseller The Glass Room, returns to Czechoslovakia with his novel Prague Spring set in the turbulent 1960s. The Prague Spring and the Cold War, Dubček’s “socialism with a human face”, Czechoslovak youth brimming with hope and new ideas. Behind the Iron Curtain nothing seems impossible in this moment. However, the massive cogs of politics are turning in the background, the Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev is putting the pressure on and the Red Army is assembling on the borders…

The author will take part in the presentation of the book and Petr Vizina will moderate.

The reading and discussion will take place in English with interpretation into Czech provided.

Ivan Martin Jirous – Mága

Ivan Martin Jirous – Mága

  • Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
  • When: November 26, 2018, 19:00 – 21:00

“Baptism” of the book Mága and a project to digitalise Jirous’s work.

The main subject of Mága (The Wizard) is the poet Ivan Martin Jirous. The book is an unusual combination of diary entries by Jirous’s daughter Františka Jirousová and her friend Jana Bauerová. They called Jirous Mág (meaning wizard or magician), a play on his nickname Magor (madman), and the book records events in Prostřední Vydří, Prague and Stará říše between 1997 and 2011.

The diaries map moments of Jirous’s life that other media were unable to capture, in particular everyday trifles and habits, such as his relationship to animals or how music moved him. The entries show the Jirous of the 1990s in a different light from how he was then seen by the public – as a drunk and provocateur. Both writers will take part in the presentation. 

In the second part of the evening we will introduce a project of the Municipal Library in Prague under which it is issuing all of Jirous’s poetry as e-books. Richard Olehla will outline its discuss plans and prospects. 

Aleš Palán will moderate.

When Will it Go Off? Tomorrow!

When Will it Go Off? Tomorrow!

  • Where: Divadlo v Dlouhé, Dlouhá 39, Prague 1
  • When: November 27, 2018, 12:00 – 16:00

Where? In Teplice, in Liberec, in Prague… in all of the country’s regions.

Václav Havel’s play Tomorrow! is focused on Alois Rašín and the dramatic events of the night of 27 to 28 October 1918 preceding the declaration of the independent Czechoslovak Republic.

Tens of schools have responded to a call from the Václav Havel Library for students and pupils to mark the centenary of Czechoslovakia by staging Tomorrow!

They will record the performances they are putting on in their villages, towns and cities and the project will culminate with a theatre event at the Prague theatre Divadlo v Dlouhé where the producers of the best school productions will come together. 

The project has been carried out with the support of the Czech Ministry of Culture as part of the Společné století initiative.

Boris Khersonsky – Family Archive: Vanished Eastern Europe

Boris Khersonsky – Family Archive: Vanished Eastern Europe

  • Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
  • When: November 28, 2018, 19:00 – 21:00

The Ukrainian poet, journalist and doctor Boris Khersnosky, who lives in Odessa, will present the first Czech translation of his novel in verse Family Archive.

It tells the story of his Slav-Jewish family, which plays out against the backdrop of the 20thcentury and primarily in the area of Central and Eastern Europe. The book takes us to Odessa, Lvov and Karlovy Vary but also Kolyma, Jersalem and Brooklyn. 

With the detachment of a sober observer and careful documentarian, the author outlines the story of four generations of members of his own – at one time very spread out – family in the context of dramatic historical turns and disasters. These include WWI, the Bolshevik revolution, the years of Stalin’s terror, WWII, the Holocaust and the post-war totalitarian period. The book paints a complete picture of the period with the help of captions about those photographed and their appearances and attributes, as well as drawing attention to apparently inconsequential details about their environments. From these fragments it gradually burrows beneath the surface of events into the tragic fates of family members and the disappearing world of East European Jewry, as well as Orthodox Christianity as an ethos beneath the façade of Soviet reality. 

Also taking part in a discussion of the book will be its translator and the poet Ludmila Khersonsky, creator of the collages in Family Archive.

Interpretation into Czech provided.

Josef Topol: Seasons of the Heart

Josef Topol: Seasons of the Heart

  • Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
  • When: November 29, 2018, 17:00 – 19:00

Sezóny srdce (Collage In Adagio) (Seasons of the Heart (Collage in Adagio) is a book of interviews with Josef Topol conducted by Karel Hvížďala between 2003 and 2005. It is supplemented by correspondence between the author’s grandparents and parents as well as his own letters, diary entries, period documents and over 100 unique photographs.

The book will be introduced by Marie Tomášová, while Topol’s oeuvre will be discussed by Milan Uhde and Lenka Jungmannová. 

Jan Šulc will host the evening. 

Recollections of Natalya Gorbanevskaya

Recollections of Natalya Gorbanevskaya

  • Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
  • When: November 29, 2018, 20:00 – 22:00

In this country she is best-known as one of the eight brave people who protested against the occupation of Czechoslovakia on Red Square on 25 August 1968. Thanks to the fragments of her poetry translated to date the Czech public also know a few of her poems.

Five years have passed since the death of Natalya Gorbanevskaya. This evening is dedicated to her and to all who wish to remember her together. We will remember her as a poet, with her poetry to be read in both the original and Czech translations, but also as a journalist and translator. 

We will recall how she was during her last few visits to Prague in the 2016 documentary Natalya Gorbanevskaya: “I’m Not a Hero” by Ksenia and Kirill Sacharnov. The film will be introduced by Ksenia Sacharnov, who will also share recollections of her encounters with its subject. 

Havel Channel

Havel Channel je audiovizuální projekt Knihovny Václava Havla, jehož cílem je šířit myšlenkový, literární a politický odkaz Václava Havla, bez ohledu na vzdálenost, zeměpisné hranice či nouzové stavy. Jeho páteř tvoří debaty, vzdělávací projekty a rozhovory. Velký prostor je věnován též konferencím, autorským čtením, záznamům divadelních inscenací a koncertům. Audiovizuální projekt Knihovny Václava Havla Havel Channel se uskutečňuje díky laskavé podpoře Karel Komárek Family Foundation.

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Publications / E-shop

The central focus of the Library’s publishing programme is the life and work of Václav Havel, his family and close collaborators and friends. For clarity, the programme is divided into six series: Václav Havel Library Notebooks, Václav Havel Library Editions, Student Line, Talks from Lány, Václav Havel Documents, Works of Pavel Juráček and Václav Havel Library Conferences. Titles that cannot be incorporated into any of the given series but which are nonetheless important for the Library’s publishing activities are issued independently, outside the series framework.

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Conferences & prizes

Illustration

Václav Havel European Dialogues

The Václav Havel European Dialogues is an international project that aims to initiate and stimulate a discussion about issues determining the direction of contemporary Europe while referring to the European spiritual legacy of Václav Havel. This idea takes its main inspiration from Václav Havel’s essay “Power of the Powerless”. More than other similarly focused projects, the Václav Havel European Dialogues aims to offer the “powerless” a platform to express themselves and in so doing to boost their position within Europe.

The Václav Havel European Dialogues is planned as a long-term project and involves cooperation with other organisations in various European cities. Individual meetings, which take the form of a conference, are targeted primarily at secondary and third-level students, as well as specialists and members of the public interested in European issues.

Illustration

Václav Havel Human Rights Prize

The Václav Havel Human Rights Prize is awarded each year by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in partnership with the Václav Havel Library and the Charta 77 Foundation to reward outstanding civil society action in the defence of human rights in Europe and beyond.

Illustration

Havel - Albright Transatlantic Dialogues

Since the first Václav Havel Transatlantic Dialogues at GLOBSEC and FORUM 2000 conferences last year, we have lost another stalwart advocate of the transatlantic bond and of the need to face threats to democracy and international order together on both sides of the Atlantic, the former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. In view of the close bond between Václav Havel and Madeleine Albright and, after Havel's death, between the Secretary and the Library, the Václav Havel Library, with the approval of Madeleine Albright's family, renamed and rebranded the program as The Havel-Albright Transatlantic Dialogues (HATD), after the two major figures with roots in Central Europe who have personified the bond. Together, Václav Havel and Madeleine Albright symbolize the transatlantic relationship and the fundamental values underpinning it perhaps better than any other two people in recent history. The upcoming Dialogues “The Indispensable Woman: The Legacy of Madeleine K. Albright”, at the FORUM 2000 conference on September 1, and at the “Havel and our Crisis” conference at Colby College, ME, on September 28, will thus become venues for a well-deserved tribute to the pair we all respected and admired.

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Václav Havel

Václav Havel
* 5. 10. 1936 Praha
† 18. 12. 2011 Hrádeček u Trutnova

1936
Foto
Václav Havel grew up
in a well-known, wealthy entrepreneurial
and intellectual family.
1951
Foto
Václav Havel completed primary schooling. Because
of his "bourgeois" background, options for
higher education were limited.
1951
Foto
Václav Havel worked as a chemical laboratory technician
while attending evening classes at a high school
from which he graduated in 1954.
1955
Foto
Václav Havel studied at the
Economics Faculty of the Czech
Technical University in Prague.
1960
Foto
Václav Havel began working at Prague's Theatre on
the Balustrade, first as a stagehand and later as
an assistant director and literary manager.
1963
Foto
Havel´s first play The Garden
Party was staged at Prague's
Theatre on the Balustrade.
1964
Foto
Václav Havel
married Olga
Splichalova.
1966
Foto
VH finished studies at at the
Theatre Faculty of the Academy of
Performing Arts in Prague .
1968
Foto
Václav Havel played an active role in
democratization and renewal of culture during the
era of reforms, known as Prague Spring.
1969
Foto
Havel's work were banned in Czechoslovakia. He
moved from Prague to the country, continued
his activities against the Communist regime.
1974
Foto
Václav Havel worked as a manual laborer
at a local brewery near Hrádeček in
the north of the Czech Republic.
1975
Foto
Václav Havel wrote an open
letter to President Gustav Husak,
criticizing the government.
1977
Foto
Václav Havel co-founded the Charter 77
human rights initiative and was one
of its first spokesmen.
1978
Foto
Václav Havel co-founded The
Committee for the Defense
of the Unjustly Prosecuted.
1979
Foto
Václav Havel was imprisoned several times
for his beliefs, his longest prison
term lasting from 1979 to 1983.
1989
Foto
Václav Havel emerged as one of the
leaders of the November opposition movement, also
known as the Velvet Revolution.
1990
Foto
Václav Havel is elected
President of Czechoslovakia on
December 29.
1993
Foto
Václav Havel is elected, after the
dissolution of Czechoslovakia, the first President
of the Czech Republic.
1996
Foto
On January
27, Olga
Havlova died.
1997
Foto
Václav Havel married Dagmar Veskrnova,
a popular and acclaimed Czech theatrical,
television and movie actress.
1999
Foto
Václav Havel enabled the entry of
the Czech Republic into the North
Atlantic Treat Organisation (NATO).
2003
Foto
Václav Havel left office after
his second term as Czech
president ended on 2 February 2003.
2004
Foto
Foundation of Václav
Havel Library in
Prague.
2004
Foto
The Czech Republic became the 35th
member State of the Council of
Europe on 30 June 1993.
2010
Foto
Václav Havel directed
a film adaptation of
his play Leaving.
2011
Foto
Václav Havel died at his
summer house Hrádeček in the
north of the Czech Republic.
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Educational projects

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Archive / Documentation centre / Research projects

Dokumentační centrum

The Václav Havel Library is gradually gathering, digitizing, and making accessible written materials, photographs, sound recordings and other materials linked to the person of Václav Havel.

  • 70140 records in total
  • 27137 of events in the VH's life
  • 2831 of VH's texts
  • 2125 of photos 
  • 403of videos
  • 568of audios
  • 6604of letters
  • 15101of texts about VH
  • 8255 of books
  • 40246of bibliography records

Access to the database of the VHL’s archives is free and possible after registering as a user. Accessing archival materials that exist in an unreadable form is only possible at the reading room of the Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, 110 00 Prague 1, every Tuesday (except state holidays) from 9:00 to 17:00, or by prior appointment.

We will be glad to answer your queries at archiv@vaclavhavel-library.org.

Illustration

Havel in a nutshell

The virtual exhibition Václav Havel in a Nutshell places the life story of Václav Havel in the broader cultural and historic context in four chronologically distinct chapters with rich visual accompaniment. The exhibition is supplemented by the interactive map Flying the World with Václav Havel, which captures in physical form Havel’s global “footprint”.

Illustration

Vladimir Hanzel's revolution

Collage of recollections, images and sound recordings from Vladimír Hanzel, President Václav Havel’s personal secretary, bringing the feverish atmosphere of the Velvet Revolution to life.

Illustration

Václav Havel Interviews

A database of all accessible interviews given to print media outlets by the dramatist, writer and political activist Václav Havel between the 1960s and 1989. The resulting collection documents the extraordinary life story of an individual, as well as capturing a specific picture of modern Czechoslovak history at a time when being a free-thinker was more likely to lead to jail than an official public post.

Illustration

Pavel Juráček Archive

The Pavel Juráček Archive arose in February 2014 when his son Marek Juráček handed over six banana boxes and a typewriter case from his father’s estate to the Václav Havel Library. Thousands of pages of manuscripts, typescripts, photographs, documents and personal and official correspondence are gradually being classified and digitalised. The result of this work should be not only to map the life and work of one of the key figures of the New Wave of Czechoslovak film in the 1960s, but also to make his literary works accessible in the book series The Works of Pavel Juráček.

The aim of the Václav Havel Library is to ensure that Pavel Juráček finds a place in the broader cultural consciousness and to notionally build on the deep friendship he shared with Václav Havel. Soon after Juráček’s death in 1989 Havel said of him: “Pavel was a friend of mine whom I liked very much. He was one of the most sensitive and gentle people I have known – that’s why I cannot write more about him.”  

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All about Library

The Václav Havel Library works to preserve the legacy of Václav Havel, literary, theatrical and also political, in particular his struggle for freedom, democracy and the defence of human rights. It supports research and education on the life, values and times of Václav Havel as well as the enduring significance of his ideas for both the present and future.

The Václav Havel Library also strives to develop civil society and active civic life, serving as a platform for discussion on issues related to the support and defence of liberty and democracy, both in the Czech Republic and internationally.

The main aims of the Václav Havel Library include

  • Organizing archival, archival-research, documentary, museum and library activities focused on the work of Vaclav Havel and documents or objects related to his activities, and carries out professional analysis of their influence on the life and self-reflection of society
  • Serving, in a suitable manner, such as through exhibitions, the purpose of education and popularisation functions, thus presenting to the public the historical significance of the fight for human rights and freedoms in the totalitarian period and the formation of civil society during the establishment of democracy
  • Organizing scientific research and publication activities in its areas of interest
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Staňte se členy Klubu přátel Knihovny Václava Havla

We believe that we are succeeding in fulfilling the vision of Václav Havel, who, when he founded the Library, declared that it only makes sense as a living organism that occupies an unmissable place in the whole of public and political life. We see this as a commitment and inspiration for the future. We would like to use the footage of our hundreds of events in our own internet TV channel, expand our publication programme, develop more e-learning series, start organising workshops for teachers... But all this will require considerable financial resources. That's why we decided to turn to our visitors and supporters for support.

Pomozte nám inspirovat své okolí i Vy!
Přijdete se k nám a staňte se členem Klubu přátel Knihovny VH!

 

Podpořte nás
jednorázově
Přispět

Přítel

1000 KČ / měsíc
Přispět

Váš příspěvek nám pomůže s organizací pravidelných akcí pro veřejnost.

Patron

10000 KČ / měsíc
Přispět

Váš příspěvek nám pomůže rozvíjet náš ediční plán a publikační činnost

Partner

? Kontaktujte nás
pro další informace
Kontaktovat

Váš příspěvek nám pomůže s vývojem vzdělávacích miniserií, audivizuálních projektů, přípravou mezinárodních konferencí...

Support us

Financial donations

If you would like to support the work of the Václav Havel Library or its specific activities or projects by means of a financial donation you can do so via the VHL’s PayPal account

Or by bank transfer to:

ČSOB a. s., Na Poříčí 24, 115 20 Praha 1

  • Crown account number 7077 7077 / 0300 CZK
  • Euro account number 7755 7755 / 0300 EUR
  • Dollar account number 7747 7747 / 0300 USD

If an individual makes a donation of over CZK 1,000, or if a company makes a donation of over CZK 2,000, in one calendar year we will create for you a donation contract confirming the amount of the donation involved; the donor can use this to reduce their tax base in compliance with the law on taxation. For more information, contact us.

Donors with US citizenship can support us through the Vaclav Havel Library Foundation New York.

Donations and loans to the VHL archive

The Václav Havel Library administers an archive of written materials, documents, photographs, video recordings and other materials related to the life and work of Václav Havel. The archive is predominantly digital in form. If you or somebody close to you is the owner of original texts, photographs, speeches or other works produced by Václav Havel we would appreciate it greatly if you contacted us. We will oversee the digitalisation of these documents and place them in our digital archive. If you would like to keep possession of such documents or items, we will return them in perfect condition.  

If a copy or original is donated to the Václav Havel Library, the terms of donation and use will in all cases be agreed with the owner. The names of all donors or owners will be listed alongside the documentary materials in question.

Internships

We offer short and long-term internships at the Václav Havel Library to Czech and foreign students. Interns are particularly welcomed in the fields of library studies and archival science, arts management, journalism, Czech Studies and other areas of the humanities.

We welcome knowledge of English (German and French are also a plus), while knowledge of Czech is an advantage for foreign interns.

Internships range in duration from six weeks to one year, while it is possible to agree on individual duration depending on the requirements of schools. On completion of the internship, the participant receives a certificate with an appraisal. Internships take place on the basis of prior agreement with applicants and dates must be agreed around two months in advance. Václav Havel Library internships are unpaid and we do not cover transport or accommodation costs.

If you are interested in an internship at the Václav Havel Library, contact us at the email address:

Media and promotion cooperation with the VHL

The Václav Havel Library welcomes the mutual exchange of links and the publication of our banners and information about our events. For more information, contact us directly.

Volunteers

The Václav Havel Library welcomes volunteers who would like to assist in our work.  

Česká centraBakala FoundationRockefeller Brothers FundJan BartaAsiana GroupMoneta Money BankThe Vaclav Havel Library FoundationNadace Charty 77Sekyra FoudationVŠEMRicohP3chemTechsoup ČRNewton MediaHlavní město PrahaMinisterstvo kultury ČRMinisterstvo zahraničních věcí ČRUS EmbassyStátní fond kultury