The Brief History of Prague

Let’s start in the beginning (kind of): Jan Hus is the most famous figure of the Czech Republic (2^nd place is Jaromír Jágr; NHL player). Hus is famous for many things in the history of Prague and the Catholic religion. We were told the story of how he went against many Catholic teachings and instructions to translate the lessons of the Bible from Latin to Czech, allowing the general public to read those lessons for themselves. Hus was burned at the stake for heresy.

In response to Hus’ death, a group of Czech Hussites formed to respond to the death of such a great man; he who gave the lessons of the Bible to the people. Appalled by the charges and eventual burning of Hus, this group marched to the New Town Hall on Charles Square. They marched into the town hall and, in a process called defenestration, through the judge and thirteen members of the city council out the window to fall to their deaths. I’m pretty sure that wouldn’t fly in this day and age either (It’s a pun! Get it!).

Fast forward a few thousand years, and we have the rise of the Nazi party in Germany. In an effort to appease Adolf Hitler, the British and French give Hitler the area known as the “Sudetenland” (which included Czechoslovakia) through the Munich Agreement so that he would not forcefully try to expand Germany (it worked really well). The funny (ironically funny, not comically funny) part is that the British and French did not speak with Czechoslovakia about the decision. They were just given away like some kind of offering.

During World War II, ReinhardHeydrich, Hitler’s number two man, occupied Prague. He was arrogant and believed himself to be more than human, nigh invincible. Prague Castle holds the royal family jewels that are said to be cursed. Any person not of the royal lineage who wears them will die within the year. (Do you see where this is going?) Heydrich could not resist, so he occupied the castle and dawned the jewels and marveled in his own glory.

A group, the Czechoslovakian government-in-exile, was trained by the British Special Operations Executive, and they wanted their revenge. They wanted to kill Heydrich. Because he was so pompous, he continued to drive around in a convertible. When Hitler called him for a meeting, the former government/new assassins found their chance to kill him.

They knew there was only one road between Prague and Berlin, so two of them camped along a bend in the road where they believed they could kill Heydrich. As he drove by, one of the would-be assassins sprayed his car with machine gun fire. Somehow, (he must have closed his eyes) he managed to miss with every single shot. A normal man would tell his drive to punch the accelerator and flee. However, Heydrich was proud. Daring. He asked that the car be stopped to kill this attacker.

They stopped, a short distance thereafter, in front of the second federal assassin standing with an explosive. He tossed the bomb onto the car’s windshield causing a great explosion and rendering the car useless. Yet, somehow, Heydrich emerged from the smoking wreckage, wounded and bleeding, to exact revenge on these two men. Eventually, he collapsed from blood loss and exhaustion before he could catch these two attempted murderers.

A woman had seen the explosion and came to Heydrich’s aid. She flagged down a van that would take him to a nearby hospital. He had lost a lot of blood and would need a transfusion to survive his injuries. Unfortunately (maybe), the nearest German city was Berlin, and he would only accept Aryan blood. The blood of Czechoslovakians was impure and unfit for a king like himself. He would die awaiting the shipment of pure Aryan blood. In the end, he would die of his own arrogance and pride 363 days after dawning the royal jewels.

During WWII, many of Prague’s Jewish citizens were held in Terezin, a concentration camp.. They held many famous Jewish artists, musicians, and more here and were used to video tape the inside of the camp to show how popular and nice it was. This was all a clever trick because obviously things were not enjoyable inside the walls. A famous artist who also studied art psychology, Frederika Dicker-Brandeis, was held in Terezin.

She wanted to prolong the innocence of the children stuck in the camp, so she smuggled in art supplies. The children drew and painted marvelous, happy pictures. When the Nazis found out what she had been doing, she was transferred to Auschwitz, but she was able to collect many of the childrens' paintings in a suitcase and bury it in the yard of Terezin. Years later, this artwork was uncovered and is now on display Prague's Jewish Museum (unfortunately, we didn't get the opportunity to see these).

Now we move forward in time to the occupation of Czechoslovakia by communism. Communists carefully (although not carefully enough) select Alexander Dubček (Pronounced: “doob-check”) to lead the country. This marks the beginning of an era known as the Prague Spring. Dubček believed in giving some of the power to the people, and during the Prague Spring, allowed his people the rights to free speech, media, travel, and partial decentralization of the government and economy. Needless to say, the Soviet power back Dubček was not exactly thrilled with this event.

They organized an invasion of Czechoslovakia to begin at exactly 12:01 am, when all of the radio communications would be disabled for the night. Unfortunately for the Russians, the Czechs observed daylight savings time, and they invaded at exactly 11:01pm. The Czechoslovakians were able to relay a message through the radios that the Russians had invaded their country. They could not fight such a vast army with so little preparation, so they devised a two-part plan…

Citizens were told not to fight the army. They were told to go out and take down, paint over, or destroy the street signs; all save the signs directing the invading army back to Moscow. The second part of the plan was to name every city Dubček. Each city the commanding officer entered, he would meet a citizen and ask, “Where are the street signs? What is the name of this town?” To which, the law abiding citizen would respond, “Why I don’t know, but you’re in the town of Dubček, sir.” Town after town this happened. The commander raged with anger. With no street signs, no city names, and no Google maps or TomToms to direct them, it took three days to find Prague; a journey which should have taken only a few hours. Unfortunately, the forces eventually did cease control of Prague and remove Dubček from power, but it was a good effort, and it is estimated that 70,000 people fled the country immediately, while the wave of emigration eventually reached a grand total of about 300,000. Pretty clever bunch, if you ask me.

Shortly thereafter, in response to the taking away of the rights and liberties provided to them by Dubček by the Soviet insertion, many non-violent protests spread throughout the country. The most famous of these protests was performed by a Czech student, Jan Palach. He entered Wenceslas Square, poured gasoline over his body, and lit himself on fire. His protest was not only in response to the Soviet invasion but a response to the demoralization felt by the Czechoslovakian citizens. He wanted his people to not give up or give in to the communist regime moving into their home.

Although Palach's attempts did not succeed, a more powerful and supported non-violent movement of Czechoslovakians, dominated by students, made and effort to oust Communism in 1989. This effort was known as the "Velvet Revolution", which eventually succeeded. Between 1913 to 1993, when Czechoslovakia dissolved (in the peaceful "Velvet Divorce") into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the Czechs had undergone eight different regime changes, including the Nazi and Communist invasions, and now they must deal with a new invasion: tourism. Their national anthem, “Kde domov můj?”, is appropriately translated to “Where Is My Home?”. You would probably feel the same way if your country was conquered, traded, and reformed like the ragdoll country that is the Czech Republic.