Club / News / Program
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
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.
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
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 January 2020<>
entry-free
Krzysztof Miller: Breakthroughs and Conflicts
- Where: Leica Gallery, Školská 28, Praha 1
- When: November 8, 2019, 19:00 – January 5, 2020, 21:00
Work by the Polish photo reporter from the Velvet Revolution and around the world.
1989. The Eastern Bloc is falling apart. Krzysztof Miller, then a fledgling Polish reporter, captures in his pictures demonstrations and changes in Poland, the Velvet Revolution in Prague and the bloody fall of the regime in Romania.
Between 1990 and 2008 he documented a series of military conflicts and victims of massacres and famines. Miller, who is today famous, has undertaken almost 60 international trips, returning to a number of places several times. Among other spots, he has taken pictures in Romania, Iran, Georgia, Nagorno-Karabakh, Bosnia, Croatia, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Burundi, Zaire, Kosovo, Congo, Iraq, Uganda, Southern Sudan and Kenya.
Miller immortalised key moments and central conflicts of the 20th century, as this exhibition bears out. The images on show deliver not just a picture of the contemporary world but also of a perceptive and exceptional photo reporter who, thanks to his perceptive eye, has managed to capture ordinary people in their everyday reality.
The exhibition is an accompanying event to Festival of Freedom, celebrating the anniversary of 17 November 1989.
Co-organisers: Polish Institute in Prague, Václav Havel Library, Leica Gallery Prague, Dom Spotkań z Historią and Agencja Gazeta. The project has been supported by the Czech-Polish Forum of the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Amputations: Stories from an Undeclared War
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: January 6, 2020, 19:00 – 21:00
Igor Pomerantsev, a poet, radio dramatist and journalist with the BBC and Radio Free Europe, will introduce a pictorial book by five authors focused on the tragedy of the war in Eastern Ukraine. Amputation is a versatile metaphor for the excising of part of the body, of state territory and also of human consciousness. The heroes of Igor Pomerantsev’s poetry collection Amputace (Amputations) are 12 volunteer soldiers who set off to protect their country and returned from the war without limbs. How to live? To forget or to remember? To reconcile oneself or to fight? As the officer Andrej Skorochod says, losing a leg is forever but losing Crimea or Donbas is not.
The evening will also include a screening of excerpts from the documentary film Amputation (2017) by Igor Pomerantsev and Lýdie Starodubcevá. Other authors of the anthology, Boris Chersonskij and Ljudmila Chersonskaja, will also present their work. Boris Chersonskij’s 2014 collection Missa in tempore belli (Mass in a Time of War) was a response in poetry form to shock at the “amputation” of Crimea and the undeclared war in Donbas.
The Ukrainian poet Ljudmila Chersonskaja also focuses on the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Czech readers have their first opportunity to become acquainted with her work with a selection from the 2018 collection Vaulting the Ditch. The translator and psychiatrist Džamila Stehlíková will also share her impressions from a trip to Eastern Ukraine in 2014.
Introduced by Michael Žantovský, director of the Václav Havel Library.
Interpretation into Czech provided.
A Reading for Josef Škvorecký
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: January 7, 2020, 18:30 – 22:00
You are cordially invited to a reading of the correspondence of the Škvoreckýs, the married exiles who founded ’68 Publishers, and more.
The evening will feature music, which was extremely important to both Škvorecký’s.
It will also include the exhibition The Swell Season, curated by Václav Krištof and loaned by the Prague 4 district authority.
Organised by the Václav Havel Library in cooperation with the Josef Škvorecký Society and the PEN Club.
Amnesty
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: January 9, 2020, 19:00 – 21:00
An amnesty may be criminal, premediated or based on a desire for fundamental change. The new Czechoslovak president Václav Havel declared an amnesty on 1 January 1990. Later referred to as the great amnesty, it became associated with a rise in crime. However, it was intended to help society come to terms with a regime regarded as unjust to all as well as to allow a transformation of the repressive penal system.
The amnesty and the extent to which it was used to change criminal justice will be discussed by philosopher and journalist Fedor Blaščák and lawyer Lenka Marečková, co-authors of the book Amnestie (Amnesty), published on the 30th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution in an attempt not to defend the amnesty but to lay out the facts and place them in context, and John Bok, who along with Lenka Marečková and other dissidents helped calm unrest and revolts in prisons at the turn of 1990.
Organised by the Václav Havel Library in cooperation with publishers Slovart.
First State Visit: Václav Havel in Munich
- Where: Literaturhaus, Salvatorplatz 1, Munich
- When: January 13, 2020, 20:00 – 22:00
On December 29, 1989 Václav Havel was elected Czechoslovak president, with the playwright president became an icon of the Velvet Revolution. Just four days later, on January 2, 1990 he carried out his first international trip to Germany, where he visited Munich. As a trip, it was an important signal. But how come it took place so soon? What were the intentions behind it? And how did Václav Havel do as a novice in world politics?
Guests who experienced those events personally will look back: Bernd Posselt (Member of the European Parliament and spokesperson of the Sudeten Germans), Milan Horáček (Member of the European Parliament) and Michael Žantovský (director of the Václav Havel Library and at that time spokesperson for Václav Havel).
Discussion chaired by Daniel Brössler, Brussels correspondent of Süddeutsche Zeitung.
The debate will be held in German without interpretation into Czech.
Organised by the Václav Havel Library in cooperation by the Stiftung Literaturhaus and Haus des Deutschen Ostens.
Debate with Respect
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: January 14, 2020, 19:00 – 21:00
Editors of the weekly Respekt and their guests will discuss a topical issue. For more details visit www.Václavhavel.cz
Bohdan Holomíček: I’m Not Sad
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: January 16, 2020, 19:00 – 21:00
Ceremonial launch of the Pocket VH Plays series.
The newly established Library book series Pocket VH Plays gives students and others the unique chance to carry Václav Havel’s plays with them even if they don’t have a bag or backpack over their shoulder. It is characterised by a pleasant format, a nice, easily legible font and above all unique content – what more could a reader wish for?
The first volume in the series is entitled Já nejsem smutný (I’m Not Sad) and contains Audience and Unveiling, the first two plays in which the legendary character Ferdinand Vaněk appeared.
The book and series as a whole will be launched by Bohdan Holomíček, who will share recollections alongside photographs from the very period when Václav Havel was writing the Vaněk plays.
Jan Lukavec: Imaginary Zoology
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: January 20, 2020, 19:00 – 21:00
Havel’s pig, Kafka’s chimpanzee… and other animals in the works of major writers. How did the perception of animals evolve under our predecessors? What place did dogs, ants or magpies occupy in their minds and what remains of those meanings today? And can literature help us a achieve a better relationship with our “furry friends” than the one that has prevailed in modern times?
The book Imaginární zoologie (Imaginary Zoology) offers a cultural history of selected animals, from ancient, mythical times to the present day. Generally speaking it chimes with Havel’s assertion that man is not the ruler of nature, merely a part of it. Among other things the publication shows that along with increasing environmental awareness there is also a growing realisation that every animal has its place in the ecosystem and in that sense is worthy of protection and the attention that an increasing range of living organisms are receiving, including from authors.
The book will be discussed by its author Jan Lukavec, anthropologist Lukáš Senft and literary scientist Pavel Kořínek.
Evening with an Illiterate
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: January 23, 2020, 19:00 – 21:00
Presentation of the Czech translation of the book Analfabet (The Illiterate), published by Větrné mlýny, by the writer and intellectual guru of contemporary Slovakia Michal Havran.
Jiří Peňás: Excursions for the Senior and Advanced
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: January 27, 2020, 19:00 – 21:00
A fun evening bordering on a variety show for the senior and advanced.
The book with the Hrabalesque title Výpravy pro starší a pokročilé (Excursions for the Senior and Advanced) brings together a collection of weekly travel essays that Jiří Peňás wrote for the magazine Týdeník Echo. In its way it is a unique portrait of a world near at hand and further afield, growing out of a journey that cannot be halted. The texts blend personal experience with history, history of art and politics and romance with humour (for the most part bitter and melancholic).
Participants will include close friends of Jiří Peňás, who will himself host.
For more details, a personal journey is recommended.
Přemysl Houda: The Normalisation Festival
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: January 28, 2020, 19:00 – 21:00
Normalizační festival (The Normalisation Festival) is an original monograph about Czechoslovak late socialism, in particular the late socialist public sphere, which is today regarded as toxic. The book’s author Přemysl Houda eschews the dichotomy of dead and living water and shows that it was indeed possible to do something meaningful with the grey words of socialism at that time.
Evening Marking the Anniversary of Jan Balabán’s Birth
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: January 29, 2020, 19:00 – 21:00
The first part of the evening will be given over to the play Bezruč?! by Jan Balabán and Ivan Motýl. In a slight modification of the play, we have focused on the relationship between Vašek/Bezruč and Marie/Maryčka. Taking part in the play, in the form of a staged reading, will be actors and non-actors, though all will delight together in the beauty and urgency of the text. (Featuring: Zuzana Truplová, Přemysl Bureš, Jakub Chrobák, Zdeněk Janošec Benda and co-author Ivan Motýl, director: Přemysl Bureš).
In the second part, participants and other guests will recall the life and oeuvre of Jan Balabán, one of the most important turn of the century writers.
Friends, relatives and admirers of the author will take part, including Ivan Motýl, Pavel Hruška, Zdeněk Janošec Benda, Přemysl Bureš and Jakub Chrobák.
Ivo Vodseďálek – Little-Known Genius
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: January 30, 2020, 19:00 – 21:00
The work of Ivo Vodseďálek (1931–2017) can without hype be described as one of the previously undiscovered treasures of modern Czech literature. The writer is virtually unknown to most readers but enjoys an almost cult status in the literary community. His friends and admirers included such greats of Czech literature as Bohumil Hrabal, Kamil Lhoták, Vladimír Boudník and Egon Bondy, while his legacy has been the focus of literary historians and critics for some time. Dílo 1949–1998 (Works, 1949–1998), a voluminous, 1,100-page volume of Vodseďálek’s selected poetry will be presented by its editor Martin Machovec, author Jáchym Topol, filmmaker Olina Kaufmanová (Vodseďálek’s daughter) and Argo publishing house editor Petr Onufer.
Actor Karel Dobrý will read from the author’s work.
Organised by the Václav Havel Library in cooperation with the Argo publishing house.
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.
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.
Diary IV. 1974–1989
399,- CZK
Foolish Writing
299,- CZK
Havel to the Castle
149,- CZK
Kilián Nedory
199,- CZK
Case for a Novice Headsman
199,- CZK
I am not sad. Audience & Vernissage
129,- CZK
To the Castle and Back
249,- CZK
I am the Gypsy Baron
299,- CZK
Conferences & prizes
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 2022Olomouc Prague 2023PragueMnichov 2020Brussels 2020Prague 2019Brussels 2019Prague 2018Brussels 2018Europe at the Crossroads (e-book)Prague 2017Brussels 2017Prague 2016Brussels 2016Prague 2015Brussels 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.
11th Year of the Prize (2023)10th Year of the Prize (2022)9th Year of the Prize (2021)8th Year of the Prize (2020)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
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.
Transatlantic Dialogues 2021Transatlantic Dialogues 2022HATD 2022 Prague
Václav Havel
Educational projects
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.
- 71004 records in total
- 27933 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
- 8269 of books
- 40721of 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.
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”.
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.”
All about Library
Podpořte nás
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...
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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.
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