If I consider myself to be a European, it does not mean at all I cease being a Czech. It is really the other way round. As a Czech, I am also a European. Somewhat poetically I say that Europe is the mother of all fatherlands Václav Havel, A Speech to the European Parliament, November 11, 2009
Club / News / Program
THE WINNER OF THE 2018 VÁCLAV HAVEL HUMAN RIGHTS PRIZE 08/10/18
Today, on Monday 8 October, 2018, Oyub Titiev was ceremonially announced as laureate of the 2018 Václav Havel Human Rights Prize at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. The award is presented by the Council of Europe in cooperation with the Václav Havel Library and the Charter 77 Foundation. For more information about the Prize visit us here.
The Unbearable Lightness of Evil – registration open! 30/08/18
Dear friends, please allow us to inform you that we have just launched registration for the sixth annual conference in honour of the laureate of the Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize, which is entitled The Unbearable Lightness of Evil, and the subsequent concert A Tribute to the Brave. You will find more information here.
Three candidates shortlisted for the 2018 Václav Havel Prize 28/08/18
The selection panel of the Václav Havel Human Rights Prize, comprising independent figures from the world of human rights and chaired by the President of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) Liliane Maury Pasquier, drew up the shortlist of candidatures in Prague today. The shortlisted nominees, in alphabetical order, are: More
Have a great summer! 02/07/18
Dear visitors, though our club programme ended over a week ago, we’re still here for you: From Tuesday to Friday you can visit our permanent exhibition Havel in a Nutshell (always from 12:00 to 17:00) and, in the case of prior agreement, also our reading room. At any time you can access our digital archive and YouTube channel, where you will find close to 900 videos from our events… Have a wonderful summer and see you again in September!
Program for April 2019<>
Poverty and Debt in Czech – The Parameters of Social Policy
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: April 1, 2019, 18:00 – 20:00
A resolution of poverty and social exclusion in the Czech Republic is further away once again. In 2018 a safety net of benefits for the impoverished fell apart, while towns in northern Bohemian and northern Moravia have unleashed a tsunami of declarations of so-called benefits-free zones. Parliament has pushed through “new” rules on debt relief that have made insolvency inaccessible to hundreds of thousands of people facing multiple distraint actions. It has become clear that over 600,000 people are active in the grey economy in the Czech Republic. At the same time, the government has withdrawn a draft law on social housing and wants to support the construction of monitored social housing, which would represent state hostels, and to make ill-conceived changes to the benefits that are the central pillar of housing policy in the Czech Republic and represent a safety net for over 200,000 households in the country…
In this debate on current social policy, we will discuss the visible impact these events and decisions are already having in the field and what effects can be anticipated in the future, as well as what resolutions and measures the government needs to introduce to improve the situation surrounding social exclusion.
Debate participants: Martin Šimáček, Institute for Social Inclusion, director; Alena Zieglerová, ISI, employment expert; Jaroslav Valůch, ISI, security expert. Special guest: Martin Nekola, Centre for Social and Economic Strategies, Department of Public and Social Policy, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Prague.
Organised by the Václav Havel Library in cooperation with the Institute for Social Inclusion.
Magnesia Litera IV
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: April 2, 2019, 19:00 – 21:00
Readings by authors nominated across seven categories in the annual Magnesia Litera literary awards: Vendula Borůvková: 1918 aneb Jak jsem dal gól přes celé Československo (1918, or How I Scored a Goal Across the Entire Czechoslovakia) (Children and Young Adults category), Štěpán Hobza: Ferrari v džungli (A Ferrari in the Jungle) (DILIA Litera prize for Discovery of the Year) and Pavla Horáková: Teorie podivnosti (A Theory of Strangeness) (Prose).
Introduced by Pavel Mandys of organisers Litera.
Lenka Marečková: Long Live Society!
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: April 4, 2019, 19:00 – 21:00
Presentation of the book Ať žije společnost (Long Live Society!), an anthology of three poetry collections by Lenka Marečková.
The writer, a Charter 77 signatory, was convicted and imprisoned in the 1980s at the age of 20 for her poetry criticising the country’s then political system.
In the book’s foreword, Marečková, who is today a lawyer, writes: “Democracy, sometimes reduced to mere mechanisms and instruments, is threatened both by growing problems and crises and linked calls for security (in the form of a strong nation or strong leader) and by the evisceration of its content. If we regarded the previous regime as totalitarian, we can observe today that what was sown then has now germinated and is thriving in a way we didn’t anticipate then and couldn’t have foreseen. Today nobody will lock me up over poetry. At the same time, I don’t believe that today’s injustices are lesser. They’re just different. What’s worth doing today? Way back, shouting sufficed… Let’s look at where the roots of our troubles lie. At changes that would be worthwhile. At what needs to be abandoned and what transformed. Let’s search together for the causes of this situation, ways forward and functioning alternatives. It’s time to break the cycle.”
Introduced by Jáchym Topol. Hosted by the book’s editor Martin Machovec.
Music and vocals: Dáša Vokatá and Oldřich Kaiser.
Organised by the Václav Havel Library in cooperation with the Kalich publishing house.
Republic Café: 50 Seasons of Divadlo Husa na provázku
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: April 8, 2019, 19:00 – 21:00
For 50 years now, Brno’s Divadlo Husa na provázku (Goose on a String Theatre) has been not only active in creative terms but also socially engaged. What that meant in the past and the company’s direction today will be discussed by its longstanding dramaturge Petr Oslzlý, the director of its Centre for Experimental Theatre, Miroslav Oščatka, and artistic chief Anna Davidová.
The journalist and poet Karel Škrabal, a member of the Brno literary group Vítrholc, will moderate.
Organised by the Václav Havel Library in cooperation with Divadlo Husa na provázku.
The Shadow of Jiří Křižan, Josef Somr and Pavel Batěk
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: April 9, 2019, 17:00 – 19:00
Ceremonial presentation of the audiobook Stín (The Shadow)
The audiobook (Tebenas, 2019) brings to life the eponymous novel by Jiří Křižan (published by the Václav Havel Library last year) in the most economical and intense manner possible. The voices of actors Josef Somr and Pavel Batěk, the music of Raven and Robert Tamchyna’s direction together invigorate this story of an abandoned country boy brought up by an old-world and fair-minded grandfather, which is interspersed with “dumb” tales from the Auxiliary Technical Battalions (unarmed alternative military service). The narration gives the listener an almost physical sense of what it was like to grow up on the margins of society as a stigmatised “class enemy” and second-class “former person”.
Participants in the presentation: Josef Somr (grandfather), Pavel Batěk (grandson) and Raven (music). Moderated by Robert Tamchyna (director).
Debate with Respekt
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: April 9, 2019, 19:00 – 21:00
Discussion between Respekt editors and their guests on a topical issue. For more information go to www.vaclavhavel.cz
50 Years Since Eliyahu Rips’ Protest
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: April 11, 2019, 19:00 – 21:00
“I didn’t believe that the Prague Spring could ignite a spark in Latvia or in the Soviet Union. But when everybody is in prison and a fellow inmate manages to escape, you’re also delighted. However, after the occupation, that delight turned to bitterness… My act stemmed from absolute bitterness. I ceased believing that communism could collapse in the way it later did. It seemed that that evil would remain here forever.” Eliyahu Rips, 2008
Meeting with the Israeli mathematics professor Eliyahu Rips, who on 13 April 1969, inspired by Jan Palach, set himself on fire in central Riga in protest at the occupation of Czechoslovakia. The evening will also include a talk by historian Petr Blažek on cases of self-immolation linked to the Soviet invasion.
Moderated by Adam Hradilek of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes.
Organised by the Václav Havel Library in cooperation with the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes.
Radka Denemarková: Hours of Lead
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: April 15, 2019, 19:00 – 21:00
“I had to write this book because I understood that I am living in a time when something essential is fracturing and changing and I don’t know what. Beneath me tectonic shifts are taking place but what is this ‘something’ that’s happening in China and which the whole world secretly admires? The worst of communism and the worst of capitalism have embraced. This functions economically and doesn’t have a name. Václav Havel and his philosophy have an important role in the novel. I have become friends with people connected to the dissident anthology DanDu, who in very trying circumstances are building on the work of Václav Havel. I was deeply ashamed in front of them because my country’s politicians are enchanted by China and claim it’s a stable and harmonious society. However, everything that can be conceived beneath the term brutal police state I encountered there …”
The substantial novel Hodiny z olova (Hours of Lead) is inspired by the author’s visits to China.
Dana Pfeiferová will chat to writer Radka Denemarková about her new book and a host of topical issues.
Evenings With Reporters: Poles and Czechs 30 Years After / Change
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: April 16, 2019, 19:00 – 21:00
Everything’s going to be different from now on! The rapid transition to capitalism and pluralism kick-started in 1989 impacted on the everyday lives of every family and on thinking about the orientation of the state. The philosopher and journalist Dariusz Karłowicz and the ex-director of Czech Radio’s Vltava station Petr Fischer will discuss how Polish and Czech societies have changed, looking at the clash of the old and new worlds and the search for models and paths to the future. Prior to 1989, we were building better futures – what kind are we building today?
For Central European countries 1989 was both a new starting line and a challenge to get to grips with numerous internal problems. Thirty years after the fall of communism Polish and Czech journalists and public figures are discussing the transformations in their countries. This anniversary debate series has been created by the Václav Havel Library and the Polish Institute in Prague.
Supported by the Czech Foreign Ministry’s Czech-Polish Forum.
The debate will take place in Czech and Polish, with simultaneous interpretation provided.
Lost in Translation IV
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: April 17, 2019, 19:00 – 21:00
Does anybody read or write reviews?
The latest in a series of discussions dedicated to the art of translation looks at literature in translation in various media and on social networks. Book reviews have all but vanished from the daily press and are less and less common in magazines. And does anybody at all read them? Does anybody purchase books on the basis of reviews? Or is book promotion migrating from classic media to social media such as Instagram, Facebook and YouTube? What is the specific situation in this regard of literature in translation and what future does it have in a world in which there is a growing shift from paper to digital?
These questions will be discussed by: Jakub Pavlovský, bookstagrammer; Lukáš Růžička, PR Paseka publishing house; Monika Zavřelová, MF Dnes journalist and reviewer.
Moderated by Tereza Semotamová.
Organised by the Czech Literary Translators’ Guild in cooperation with the Václav Havel Library.
Vendulka Voglová: Escape to Freedom
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: April 18, 2019, 20:00 – 21:00
Evening with Ondřej Kundra dedicated to the life of Vendulka Voglová, who became a symbol of the Holocaust thanks to a photograph by Jan Lukas.
At the moment the well-known Czechoslovak photographer released the shutter of his camera Vendulka Voglová was due to die within months. However, the picture that later made the 12-year-old girl a symbol of the Holocaust might never have been taken. Vendulka was Jewish and Lukas was afraid to develop the photo; if the Nazis had found it, he would have ended up in a concentration camp like Vendulka and her family.
Nearly 80 years later the journalist Ondřej Kundra succeeded in tracking Vendulka Voglová down in the US, where she had emigrated after the war, and persuaded her to speak about her troubled life and friendship with Lukas. His gripping report delivered a personal, and exceptional, account of the most painful events of the 20th century.
Flickers of Freedom, or The Late ‘80s in the Photographs of Miloš Fikejz
- Where: Lucerna Gallery, Štěpánská 61, Praha 1
- When: April 24, 2019, 17:00 – 21:00
Ceremonial exhibition launch.
Reportage photography from a 1988 festival in Lipnice where Václav Havel appeared in public for the first time in 19 long years. Portraits of artists ostracised by the regime (Ivan Klíma, Vlasta Chramostová, Pavel Juráček). Photographic documentation of an interview given by Václav Havel to the “underground” Lidové noviny and the “Sand Pit” action organised by the pranksterish Society for a Merrier Present. The atmosphere of November 1989 in the streets of Prague. The theatres strike. Following the path of the “Havel to the Castle” poster – today quite iconic – that was made from a photograph by Miloš Fikejz…
This exhibition in honour of the late film journalist, encyclopaedist and photographer Miloš Fikejz (1959–2019) has been organised by the Václav Havel Library in cooperation with Galerie Lucerna. It runs until 22 May 2019.
Long Journey Home: A Prague Love Story
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: April 25, 2019, 19:00 – 21:00
A launch and reading from this memoir, recently published in Canada, in which a four-year-old girl survives a harrowing escape across the heavily armed border of Czechoslovakia with her mother and brother after the Communist takeover in 1948, leaving everything behind to flee to freedom in Canada.
Years later, as a young woman living in Toronto, she is drawn to her country of birth and returns to Prague, finding love, danger, heartbreak and her family's legacy.
The book is introduced by its author, Helen Notzl in discussion with David Vaughan.
The event is held in English.
Organised in cooperation with Canadian Embassy in Prague.
Carnations and Velvet
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: April 30, 2019, 19:00 – 21:00
Meeting with Portuguese guests who as young students came to support the democratisation of Czechoslovakia in December 1989. In a discussion with Velvet Revolution student leaders, they will recall a gathering on Prague’s Národní boulevard, where the Portuguese presented those in attendance with 50,000 roses. There will also be special recollections of Václav Havel, whom the students met during their stay and via whom Havel invited the president of Portugal, Mário Soares, to his inauguration.
Speakers: Álvaro Beleza, Diogo Cabrita, António Tavares, José Campelo, José Viegas, Paulo Barros Vale and, from the Czech side, Monika Pajerová and Martin Mejstřík.
Moderator: Jakub Železný
The discussion has been organised in connection with the opening of the exhibition Carnations and Velvet: Art and Revolution in Portugal and Czechoslovakia 1968–1974–1989 at Prague’s Municipal Library.
Taking part in the evening will be the Czech Republic’s ambassador to Portugal, Petr Šelepa.
Organised by the Václav Havel Library and the Prague Municipal Library.
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.
Conferences
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.
Prague 2019Prague 2018Europe at the Crossroads (e-book)Prague 2017Prague 2016Brussels 2015Prague 2015Brussels 2014Berlin 2014Prague 2014 - J. GauckBruges 2014Prague 2014
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.
7th Year of the Prize (2019)6th Year of the Prize (2018)5th Year of the Prize (2017)4th Year of the Prize (2016)3rd Year of the Prize (2015)2nd Year of the Prize (2014)1st Year of the Prize (2013)History of the prize
Václav Havel
Educational projects
Man of inspiration
This six-part series of educational videos introduces young viewers to the most important events in Czechoslovak history in the second half of the 20th century, with an accent on the human rights struggle. It is presented by singer and TV moderator Emma Smetana and choreographer and producer Yemi. The presenters of the English versions are native speakers.
Year of Revolution
The year of the Velvet Revolution from the perspective of young YouTubers. A series of seven video lessons aimed at elementary and secondary schools mapping the revolutionary year from January to December 1989 and introducing viewers to key moments in totalitarian Czechoslovakia’s transformation into a democratic country.
Read Havel
A collection of short videos in which well-known young people in Czech public life present iconic and lesser-known texts by Václav Havel.
Václav Havel here and now
A travelling series of discussions about VH and more with Michael Žantovský, intended for secondary school students, libraries and arts centres.
Best Student Essay Competition
One of the key genres of Václav Havel’s work is essays – on literary, artistic, social, political, and spiritual topics. His essays, such as the 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. For this reason, the Václav Havel Library is announcing the next year of the literary competition for secondary students: the Václav Havel Library Prize for Best Student Essay.
Václav Havel´s Bookshelves
The Václav Havel Little Libraries are a key new Václav Havel Library project aimed at establishing a nationwide network of elementary and secondary schools that, with the support of the VHL, will spread the legacy of Václav Havel among their pupils and students. The aim of the Little Libraries is to create in schools (on the model of the existing Václav Havel’s Places) book shelves on which the schools will gather both texts by Václav Havel and texts closely linked to him. They may also contain other written materials, audio and video recordings and photographs.
Lets rock!
Are your students (whether at elementary, arts-focused elementary or secondary schools) interested in history? Do you have a theatre or film club at your school, or are you teaching young people who “just” like to act? If so, we cordially invite you to join the Václav Havel Library in celebrating in a creative manner the centenary of the foundation of Czechoslovakia with the theatre-education project Tomorrow!
Václav Havel – a Czech myth, or Havel in a Nutshell
This interactive workshop lasting for about 180 minutes takes place in the “Havel in a Nutshell” exhibition hall. Primary and secondary school students are divided into groups within which they deal with various “research” projects. Students work with selected texts and are provided with particular books. The workshop is related not only to the teaching of Czech history, but also to personal, literary, artistic and media training, and increasing student’s democratic consciousness as citizens.
Guided tour – Havel In A Nutshell
The Václav Havel Library’s permanent exhibition Havel In A Nutshell introduces pupils and students the life of Václav Havel through a collage of photographs and quotations. Touch screens make use of detailed information and sound recordings to place individual chapters – family, theatre, dissent and presidency – in a broad cultural-historical context, while a large interactive map creates a tangible sense of Václav Havel’s global “footsteps”.
Exhibitions
Havel in a nutshell
The Václav Havel Library’s permanent exhibition brings Václav Havel’s story to life via a collage of photographs and quotations. Touchscreens place individual chapters of his life in the broader cultural and historical context, while a large-scale interactive map allows visitors to gain a tangible sense of Václav Havel’s global “footsteps”.
Oldřich Škácha – Occupation 1968
A collection of photographs by Oldřich Škácha from the Václav Havel Library’s collection.
The Faces of Resistance
Pavel Hroch’s online photographic exhibition captures the stories of those who, across several decades of Czechoslovak history, stood up to evil, inhumanity, oppression and coarseness and who at certain moments displayed courage, will to freedom, love of those around them and common sense.
Via the East to the West
In autumn 1989, Prague was flooded with citizens from the German Democratic Republic. For them, the Czechoslovak capital was to be a transfer station on the journey to freedom, to the western part of their country, whose division was symbolised by the Berlin Wall. One of the main reasons for the sudden growth in the number of refugees was the fear that the GDR would close its borders with Czechoslovakia, the only country East German citizens could enter without a visa, ahead of 40th anniversary celebrations of its foundation.
With a Passion for Freedom
Pavel Hroch’s photographs capture the revolutionary period springing from November 1989 as well as the era of transformation, the start of the 1990s, when things happened in Czechoslovakia that had previously been impossible and unimaginable, a period of joy and carnivalesque festivity, a period of visions, hopes and a great and perhaps somewhat naïve belief in the future. Twenty-five years later, the photographs hold a mirror up to the manner in which those dreams and visions have been realised and to where we find ourselves today.
August invasion of Hrádeček
A meeting of the children of dissidents and others who shared recollections of Václav Havel. The exhibition is a colourful collage of photographs, audio recordings – from talks by individual participants on the subject “My life with Václav Havel”, to a concert by Monika Načeva and Michal Pavlíček – and unique archival materials.
Archive / Documentation centre / Research projects
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.
- 50587 records in total
- 15290 of events in the VH's life
- 2994 of VH's texts
- 1784 of photos
- 275 of videos
- 555 of audios
- 5625 of letters
- 14718 of texts about VH
- 5451 of books
- 15274 of 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.
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.
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.
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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