Václav Havel was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright and dissident. Havel served as the last president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until 1992, prior to the dissolution of Czechoslovakia on 31 December, before he became the first president of the Czech Republic from 1993 to 2003. He was the first democratically elected president of either country after the fall of communism. As a writer of Czech literature, he is known for his plays, essays and memoirs.
The Velvet Revolution or Gentle Revolution was a non-violent transition of power in what was then Czechoslovakia, occurring from 17 November to 28 November 1989. Popular demonstrations against the one-party government of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia included students and older dissidents. The result was the end of 41 years of one-party rule in Czechoslovakia, and the subsequent dismantling of the command economy and conversion to a parliamentary republic.
The Czechs, or the Czech people, are a West Slavic ethnic group and a nation native to the Czech Republic in Central Europe, who share a common ancestry, culture, history, and the Czech language.
Charter 77 was an informal civic initiative in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic from 1976 to 1992, named after the document Charter 77 from January 1977. Founding members and architects were Jiří Němec, Václav Benda, Ladislav Hejdánek, Václav Havel, Jan Patočka, Zdeněk Mlynář, Jiří Hájek, Martin Palouš, Pavel Kohout, and Ladislav Lis. Spreading the text of the document was considered a political crime by the Czechoslovak government. After the 1989 Velvet Revolution, many of the members of the initiative played important roles in Czech and Slovak politics.
The Prague Hotel is located at 1402 South 13th Street on the southwest corner of South 13th and William Streets in the heart of the Little Bohemia neighborhood of Omaha, Nebraska. Designed by Joseph Guth and built in 1898, this building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.
The Czech-Slovak Protective Society (CSPS), which became the Czecho Slovakian Association, was an organization supporting the welfare of Czech and Slovak immigrants to the United States. The Czech-Slovak Protective Society started as an insurance services organization. It was once the largest Czech-American freethought fraternity in the United States.
Bohemian Hall may refer to:
The Bohemian National Hall is a five-story edifice at 321 East 73rd Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. Constructed between 1895 and 1897 in neo-Renaissance style by architect William C. Frohne. It was a Czech American social and culture center in New York City.
The C.S.P.S. Hall in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, USA was built during 1890-91 and expanded twice in the next two decades. It was a social and cultural center of the local Czech-Slovak Protective Society (C.S.P.S.). The building was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. In 2002 it was included as a contributing property in the Bohemian Commercial Historic District.
The Z. C. B. J. Hall, also known as Bohemian Hall or Zapadni Cesko Bratrske Jednota Hall, is an historic building located near Arthur, Wisconsin that was built in 1907. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 25, 1992. It historically served as a meeting hall for the Czech community.
Bohemian National Hall is an historic building located in the Broadway–Slavic Village neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in May 1975. The hall was built to serve the cultural and educational needs of the city's Czech community, and currently serves as host to Sokol Greater Cleveland and the Cleveland Czech Cultural Center and Museum.
Bohemian National Cemetery, also known as Oak Hill Cemetery, is a cemetery located at 1300 Horners Lane, Armistead Gardens in East Baltimore, Maryland.
The Western Fraternal Life Association, previously known as Zapadni Ceska Bratrska Jednota is a fraternal benefit society and financial services organization in the United States. The association has its roots in the Czechoslovak immigrant community of the 19th century. It was once the second largest Czech-American freethought fraternity in the United States.
The Grand Lodge Č.S.P.S. of Baltimore is the Baltimore, Maryland chapter of the Czech-Slovak Protective Society. The C.S.P.S. is a benevolent society that was founded to help Czech and Slovak immigrants integrate into American society. The chapter was founded in 1880 by Vaclav Joseph Shimek, who was also the publisher of the Telegraf, the owner of Bohemian Hall, and a six-time president of Sokol Baltimore.
Lucerna Music Bar is a concert club in Prague, Czech Republic. It is housed within Lucerna Palace.
The history of Czechs in Baltimore dates back to the mid-19th century. Thousands of Czechs immigrated to East Baltimore during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, becoming an important component of Baltimore's ethnic and cultural heritage. The Czech community has founded a number of cultural institutions to preserve the city's Czech heritage, including a Roman Catholic church, a heritage association, a gymnastics association, an annual festival, a language school, and a cemetery. During the height of the Czech community in the late 19th century and early 20th century, Baltimore was home to 12,000 to 15,000 people of Czech birth or heritage. The population began to decline during the mid-to-late 20th century, as the community assimilated and aged, while many Czech Americans moved to the suburbs of Baltimore. By the 1980s and early 1990s, the former Czech community in East Baltimore had been almost entirely dispersed, though a few remnants of the city's Czech cultural legacy still remain.
Jan Novák is a Czech-American writer, screenwriter and playwright. He writes in both Czech and English, frequently translating his work. He has received awards in both the United States and the Czech Republic. He has worked closely with such figures as Václav Havel and Miloš Forman.
The national symbols of the Czech Republic are flags, heraldry, cultural expressions and other symbols that represent the Czech Republic, Czech people and their history, culture and nationhood. There are six official symbols which are declared in the Constitution of the Czech Republic. However many other historical, cultural and geographical symbols of the Czech republic and Czech people do exist.
The American Czech and Slovak Association (ACSA), originally American Czechoslovak Society (ACS), was a Washington, D.C. based national organization with a mission to facilitate contacts and cooperation between people, institutions and organizations in the United States and the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and assist in the transition to democracy and market economy in Czechoslovakia after the Velvet Revolution, which ended Communist rule in the country. It was founded in 1990, and in 1994 it served as a foundation for the new American Friends of the Czech Republic (AFoCR).
Czechoslovak Genealogical Society International (CGSI) is a non-profit, volunteer organization dedicated to promoting genealogical research and interest in heritage among descendants of ethnic groups of former Czechoslovakia. Established in 1988 and based in St. Paul, Minnesota, CGSI is the oldest and largest society of its kind with more than 2,000 members from across the United States, Canada, and Czechia and Slovakia. Until its incorporation in 1991, it was known as Czechoslovak Genealogical Society and was a part of the Minnesota Genealogical Society.
