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Change in Library leadership  23/10/24

Today, Wednesday 23 October 2024, Milan Babík decided to resign from the post of director of the Václav Havel Library for personal reasons. The Board of Trustees have accepted his explanation with understanding: “Milan Babík has done a great deal of work. Since June, when he took over, he has succeeded in enriching the Library’s activities, including the launch of projects that should culminate in 2026 in connection with the 90th anniversary of Václav Havel’s birth,” said the chairman of the Board of Trustees, Gabriel Eichler. Until a successor to Milan Babík is chosen, the Board of Trustees, as the statutory body, will assume some of his responsibilities, working closely with the Václav Havel Library team.

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Truth and love never rust  03/10/24

On the occasion of its 20th birthday, the Václav Havel Library is launching a new fundraising campaign. It aims to commemorate an important milestone in the VHL’s existence and to address new donors. The author of the communication concept TRUTH AND LOVE NEVER RUST is idea maker Martin Halaxa, while art director Jan Lesák is behind the graphic design. The campaign primarily draws on materials from the Library’s archive, which currently holds over 80,000 items. It is based on relatively little-known video footage of Václav Havel in various situations in his life, as well as images by photographers closely associated with him: Tomki Němec, Oldřich Škácha and Přemysl Fialka. The actor David Prachař has given his voice to the campaign, with musical accompaniment coming from the famous underground band Psí vojáci. More

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Why Should We Care?  02/10/24

The conference in honour of the laureate of the Václav Havel Prize for 2024, provocatively entitled "What's it to us?", starts at two o'clock! The programme can be found HERE. We look forward to seeing you there! 

Where and when?

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The laureate of this year's Václav Havel Human Rights Prize is María Corina Machado  01/10/24

María Corina Machado is a leading political figure in Venezuela engaged in denouncing human rights abuses in her country and defending democracy and the rule of law. She is the co-founder of the Venezuelan volunteer civil organisation ‘Súmate’ for civil and political freedom, rights and citizen participation.

Where and when?

Program for December 2024<>

entry-free

Winton Wasn’t Alone: Presentation of Unique Graphic Novel

Winton Wasn’t Alone: Presentation of Unique Graphic Novel

  • Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
  • When: December 2, 2024, 19:00 – 21:00

Tereza Verecká and Mikuláš Podprocký have created a graphic novel about Sir Nicholas Winton – and others – whose visual style catches the eye at first glance. At second glance the work wins the reader over with its detailed portrayal of those who were involved in saving Czechoslovaks, even though at first glance they had no reason to do so – somebody simply had to do it. We invite you not only to the presentation of the graphic novel event of the year, but also to a discussion about help, heroism and humanity in general. Guests: Vystoupí Tereza Verecká, Mikuláš Podprocký, Richard Klíčník and Tomáš Kraus.

Debate N: Czech Literature in the Czech Media

Debate N: Czech Literature in the Czech Media

  • Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
  • When: December 3, 2024, 19:00 – 21:00

In connection with the announcement of the results of its third annual Books of the Year poll, Deník N is holding a debate on how Czech literature is reported on in the Czech media.

Robert Kvaček, Guru of Czech Historiography

Robert Kvaček, Guru of Czech Historiography

  • Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
  • When: December 4, 2024, 19:00 – 21:00

A discussion dedicated to Professor Robert Kvaček (1932–2024): historian, writer, teacher and master wordsmith: “A historian shouldn’t read only historical literature, but also fiction and poetry. I was laughed at for using poetry in my explanations. But it has a profound meaning. A historian also needs to be educated in more than one field, otherwise he becomes a professional imbecile. And that’s not on. But a historian needs to mature. Unlike a physicist who’s at his peak at 30, he’s at his peak at 50. They still have time.” Historians Petr Koura, Josef Nožička and Josef Tomeš will appear as guests, while historian Michal Macháček will chair the event.

Organised in cooperation with the Museum of the 20th Century. 

Announcement of Essay Competition Winners

Announcement of Essay Competition Winners

  • Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
  • When: December 5, 2024, 16:00 – 18:00

Announcement of the results of the 17th annual edition of the Václav Havel Library’s student essay competition in the presence of students and the jury. The theme of this year’s competition was: Could(n’t) artificial intelligence write my essay for me? Václav Havel’s essays such as The Power of the Powerless and A Word About Words, have become classic texts of Czech literature; they have been translated into tens of languages, and are among the few truly world-famous works of Czech culture. This is also why it is necessary to keep cultivating the essay genre in the Czech language  not in the sense of imitating Václav Havel’s writing, but in the spirit of his courage to name unpleasant problems and search for unconventional solutions to them. This year’s jury comprised the following figures from Czech public life: journalist Filip Titlbach, writer and journalist Anna Beata Háblová, journalist Tereza Šídlová, media analyst Josef Šlerka, journalist and poet Jonáš Zbořil.

Evening With Radio Free Europe: The Story of Jailed Journalist Alsu Kurmasheva

Evening With Radio Free Europe: The Story of Jailed Journalist Alsu Kurmasheva

  • Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
  • When: December 5, 2024, 19:00 – 21:00

Alsu Krumasheva, a journalist with Radio Free Europe, spent more than nine months in prison in Russia. In May 2023 she travelled to Kazan to visit her sick mother, but the Russian authorities did not allow her to leave the country and return to Prague, where she has lived with her husband and two daughters since 1998. She was charged, detained for months and sentenced to six and a half years for “spreading false information about the Russian army”. The United States government, Radio Free Europe, human rights organisations, and most importantly, Alsu’s family worked tirelessly for her release. On August 1 of this year, after nine months in a cold prison cell, she was finally freed, thanks to a historic prisoner exchange between the West and Russia.

Jiřího Peňás’s St. Nicholas Eve Expeditions

Jiřího Peňás’s St. Nicholas Eve Expeditions

  • Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
  • When: December 6, 2024, 19:00 – 21:00

St. Nicholas Eve with Jiří Peňás’s Expeditions. A cheerful soiree with melancholic pop songs against a backdrop of a conversation between two old buccaneers, Jáchym Topol and Jiří Peňás, who will try to evoke the atmosphere of smoke-scented journeys beyond the horizons of everyday life. The evening will include the ceremonial shaking of boxes of collected writings.   

The Václav Havel Library at Bookfest

The Václav Havel Library at Bookfest

  • Where: DEPO2015, Presslova 14, Plzeň
  • When: December 7, 2024, 10:00 – December 8, 2024, 20:00

Our stand offering new publications, several reprints of out-of-stock titles and a proven range of books and merchandise produced by the Václav Havel Library will be present at this traditional festival of small publishers in Pilsen.

Divadlo na Tahu Performs Audience

Divadlo na Tahu Performs Audience

  • Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
  • When: December 9, 2024, 19:00 – 21:00

A legendary “Vaněk” play as performed by the Divadlo na tahu theatre company. The one-act play Audience (1975) was originally written for the amusement of the author’s friends at Hrádeček and today features in school leaving exams. It has entertained and educated audiences at theatres in Czechia and beyond.

Times are strange and everything is upside down. The banned writer Ferdinand Vaněk makes his living rolling barrels in a brewery. His supervisor, the brewer, is unable to handle a tricky task sent down “from above”... This beer-based duel between principles and clear life attitudes and a system worked out over years to circumvent principles, and survive without unnecessary ethics and opinions, reveals a regime that distorts character and suppresses individual freedom.

Featuring Tomáš Zámečník and Radek Bár, direction by Andrej Krob, musical accompaniment from Obří broskev.

Debate with Respekt

Debate with Respekt

  • Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
  • When: December 10, 2024, 19:00 – 21:00

Discussions featuring editors from the weekly Respekt and their guests. For more details visit www.vaclavhavel.cz prior to the event. This edition will be moderated by František Trojan.

Art Absolutely Everyone Understands: Jan H. Vitvar Book Launch

Art Absolutely Everyone Understands: Jan H. Vitvar Book Launch

  • Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
  • When: December 11, 2024, 19:00 – 21:00

While a few years back it seemed that only a few “insiders” were talking about art in public space, today it can feel like literally everyone has something to say on the matter. What do the case of David Černý and Máj and the petitions against the management of the National Gallery and the Academy of Fine Arts say about us? How did Milan Knížák, the former rebel of Czech culture, become an artistic dictator? Why did the Jindřich Chalupecký Award, intended to support emerging artists, evolve into an elitist enterprise? And is it true that money doesn’t stink in art? Jan H. Vitvar, art critic and head of the arts section of the weekly Respekt, and Jakub Sedláček, editor-in-chief of Paseka, will discuss current issues and events in the art world and the former’s new book Umění, kterému rozumějí úplně (Art Absolutely Everyone Understands).

The Free Academy: Pastoral Brothers – Three Christmas Stories

The Free Academy: Pastoral Brothers – Three Christmas Stories

  • Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
  • When: December 12, 2024, 19:00 – 21:00

Have you noticed that there are three Christmas stories in the Bible, and each is completely different? You haven’t noticed? In that case come to this Pastoral Brothers pre-Christmas lecture – it’ll change how you see Christmas. The Evangelical ministers who present themselves in public as the Pastoral Brothers had the idea of creating videos over a beer. They are young and their faith in God means a lot to them. They show that today’s church needn’t be preserved like a thing of the past and strive to speak in a contemporary way about Christian themes with timeless relevance.

The Path to the Nobel Prize: Starring Translation

The Path to the Nobel Prize: Starring Translation

  • Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
  • When: December 13, 2024, 19:00 – 21:00

A discussion evening on the challenges of translation in the context of the Nobel Prize for Literature. The story of this year’s laureate, Han Kang, illustrates the crucial role of translation in the contemporary literary world. Her novel The Vegetarian, published in Korea in 2007, received international recognition only after its English translation in 2016, when it won the prestigious Man Booker Prize. Her most recent novel, I Do Not Bid Farewell, has not yet been translated into English. However, it was released in a Swedish translation in the spring – a fact that undoubtedly played a role in the Swedish Academy’s decision to award her the Nobel Prize. This development raises again questions about the ways literature travels across languages and cultures. How does literature from “small” languages reach global readers? What does it mean to translate from Korean, a language not only geographically but also structurally distant? And what is the role of translation into English as an intermediary language?

These and other issues will be discussed by Petra Ben-Ari, translator of Han Kang’s works into Czech, Miriam Löwenstein, head of Korean Studies at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University and translator of Korean literature, and Viktor Janiš, renowned translator from English and an expert on the translation scene.

The evening will be hosted by Anežka Charvátová, chairwoman of the Czech Literary Translators’ Guild.

The event is held with the financial support of the City of Prague.

The Václav Havel Library at Knihex

The Václav Havel Library at Knihex

  • Where: UMPRUM technology center, Mikulandská 134/5, Prague
  • When: December 14, 2024, 10:00 – December 15, 2024, 20:00

At the pre-Christmas Knihex, a festival of small publishers, you will also find a Václav Havel Library stand. As part of an accompanying programme, we will present our new books, which – along with established titles, posters and other essentials – will be available for purchase on both days.

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

  • 74327 records in total
  • 31097 of events in the VH's life
  • 2831 of VH's texts
  • 2125 of photos 
  • 406of videos
  • 568of audios
  • 6589of letters
  • 15100of texts about VH
  • 8410 of books
  • 42347of 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.

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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”.

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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.

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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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Support us

We are well aware that freedom and democracy must be nurtured. Here at Ostrovní 13, but also on the audiovisual platform Havel Channel, we strive to do so through our own educational programmes, talks, discussion meetings, books, exhibitions, concerts, theatre performances. We honour Václav Havel's legacy and wish that the Library be a living organism and open to all. That is why our programme is free of charge for everyone. This would not be possible without regular financial support from our supporters. Become one of them...
Václav Havel

Support us with a financial donation

Does our work make sense to you and do you want to support the activities of the Vaclav Havel Library?

You can easily make a one-time payment by scanning the QR code.

Would you like to contribute regularly? Then we invite you to become a member of the Vaclav Havel Library Friends Club. What are the benefits of membership? Find out more.

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Help us expand the archive

The Vaclav Havel Library manages an archive of writings, documents, photographs, video recordings and other materials related to the life and work of Vaclav Havel. This archive is predominantly in digital form. If you or someone close to you owns any original texts, correspondence, photographs, speeches or any other work by Vaclav Havel, we would be grateful if you could contact us.

ArchiveContact

You can donate in other ways too

Supporting a specific charitable or public benefit organization whose activities you appreciate or have been supporting for a long time is also possible through a will. This form of donation is quite common abroad, but in the Czech Republic this tradition is only just taking root.

Share information about us

The Vaclav Havel Library is open to media and promotional cooperation, mutual sharing of links, publishing our banners or information about our events.

For more information, please contact us.

Contact for PR & media

Donations have their rules

At the Vaclav Havel Library, we uphold a transparent, responsible and ethical way of dealing with all those who contribute to fulfilling our purpose and implementing our strategy. Our code of ethics summarizes the basic rules of donations.

Code of conduct

Get involved in volunteering

Would you like to get involved as a volunteer? That's great. We welcome anyone who wants to help our work.

Contact for volunteers

Bakala FoundationRockefeller Brothers FundTrade Centre PrahaČeská centraJan BartaAsiana GroupMoneta Money BankThe Vaclav Havel Library FoundationNadace Charty 77Sekyra FoudationVŠEMRádio 1RicohP3chemTechsoup ČRNewton MediaHlavní město PrahaMinisterstvo kultury ČRMinisterstvo zahraničních věcí ČRUS EmbassyStátní fond kultury