Czech Republic Quick Facts

The basic statistics and facts about Czech geography, population and politics.

Czech Flag

9 - 16 centuries
Czech Kingdom

1600s - 1918
part of Habsburg Empire

Geography Quick Facts

Name:	Czech Republic (Česká republika)
Regions:	Bohemia (Čechy), Moravia
Area:	78,864 sq km (30,450 sq miles)
Bordering countries:	Austria, Germany, Poland, Slovakia
Capital:	Praha (Prague) - 1,214,000 inhabitants
Major Cities:	Brno - 388,000 Ostrava - 327,000 Plzeň - 173,000

Politics Quick Facts

Government type:	parliamentary democracy
President:	Václav Havel (no party)
Prime Minister:	Miloš Zeman (ČSSD)
Chairman of Parliament:	Václav Klaus (ODS)
Leading Party:	ČSSD (Social Democratic Party) 32%
Leading Opposition Party:	ODS (Civic Democratic Party) 27%

1918 - 1938 Independent state - Czechoslovakia

1938 - 1945 Czech and Moravian Protectorate

1948 - 1989 Czechoslovak Socialist Republic governed by Communist Party

1989 uprising initiated by student demonstrations topples communist regime

Demographic Quick Facts

Population:	10,000,000 people
Language:	Czech
Nationalities:	Czech (94%), Slovak (2%), Romany/Gypsy (2-3%), Polish (0.6%), German (0.5%)
Religion:	atheist (40%), Roman Catholic (40%), Protestant (5%), other (16%)
Life Expectancy:	male 70.4 years female 77.3 years

Economy Quick Facts

GDP:	US$27,500 million
Currency:	Czech Crown (Kč) (app. US$1 = 30 Kč)
Major Industries	fuels, ferrous metallurgy, machinery and equipment, motor vehicles, glass, textile, chemicals, armaments
Agriculture:	grains, potatoes, sugar beets, hops, fruit, hogs, cattle, poultry, forest products

1993 - Slovakia breaks away from Czechoslovakia

since 1993 - Czech Republic

Czech Crest

Top 10 Figures of Czech History

1. Svatý Václav (St. Wenceslas - 900s)	Patron of the Czech lands. Peace-loving king opposing war with the Germans, killed by his brother Boleslav. According to legend he and his soldiers lie under the mountain Blan ík and will rise to help the Czech nation in the gravest hour of need.
2. Karel IV. (Charles IV.) (1316 - 1378)	Holy Roman emperor (1355-78) and founder of Charles University (1348). Under his rule, Czech lands were the political and cultural center of Europe.
3. Jan Hus (1372 - 1415)	Reform preacher and linguist, author of modern Czech spelling. Burned at stake for heresy. Inspired the Hussite movement.
4. Jan Žižka (d. 1424)	Successful military leader of the Hussite forces. Under him, Czech rebels defeated crusaders sent by the Roman emperor. Famous for directing battles even being blind.
5. Jan Ámos Komenský (Comenius) (1592-1670)	Famous educator and bishop of the Czech Brethren, sometimes nicknamed the ‘Teacher of the nations'. Wrote the first modern compendium of pedagogy. Was exiled during 30-Year War and worked on the educational systems of Sweden and Holland.
6. Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904)	World-famous composer. Spent several years in the United States, where he wrote his most famous symphony ‘From the New World'.
7. T. G. Masaryk (1850-1937)	Politician and philosopher. First president (1918-35) of the pre-war Czechoslovakia, founded at the end of World War I after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
8. Jaroslav Hašek (1883-1923)	Popular Czech writer and humorist, author of the ‘Good Soldier Švejk', a book translated into over 20 languages.
9. Karel Čapek (1890-1938)	Leading novelist and playwright of the ‘First Republic'. Coined the word ‘robot' in his play ‘R.U.R.'
10. Václav Havel (b. 1936)	First president of Czechoslovakia after the fall of communism. Human rights fighter and playwright.

Jára Cimrman (1865 - 1898 - 1915 - 1927)	A fictious figure from the turn of the century, attributed with most famous inventions. Cimrman was created in the late 60s by a group of Czech actors who produce plays in his name. Gained enormous popularity on the scale of Monty Python in Great Britain.

When this list was drawn up in 1999, I was going purely by instinct as to who the important people are. And now, in June 2005, I finally had a chance to see if my instinct was right, when Czech TV ran a national poll to find the greatest Czech of all time (see http://www.czech-tv.cz/specialy/nejvetsicech ). And by and large, I was correct. Only two of mine don't appear in the Czech TV top 10. They are St. Wenceslas and Karel Hašek who ranked 17 and 38 respectively. Jan Werich and Božena Němcová were very near the top of my list back then but I excluded them based on of how much interest they are to an international audience. Those who can read Czech, can read more about all the winners on these links.

There is also the greatest villains poll that might be of interest http://www.czech-tv.cz/specialy/nejvetsicech/padouch headed by the first communist president Klement Gottwald with the last communist president Gustáv Husák at number 10. Interestingly, the current president and former prime minister Václav Klaus famous as the chief architecht of the Czech privatization and a populist Eurosceptic made it to number 3 (although he's also at number 18 of the greatest Czechs) and Stanislav Gross (a prime minister from 9/2004 to 4/2005) is at number 2.

3 Famous people born in the Czech Republic

1. Madeleine Albright - American Secretary of State born in Moravia

2. Sigmund Freud - Austrian psychologist born in P říbor.

3. Tom Stoppard - English dramatist born in Zlín.

More famous people born in the Czech lands suggested by Jirka Hana:

Franz Kafka, Milan Kundera (writers)
Gustav Mahler (composer)
F. Porsche (automobile designer)
Georg Mendel (founder of the field of genetics)
K. Goedel, G. Gentzen (mathematicians)
Edmund Husserl (philosopher)

Some other famous people with roots in the Czech lands are John Kerry, the failed presidential candidate in the 2004 US elections and Ray Kroc (Croc), the founder of MacDonalds.

It is important to remember, however, that most of these people have their roots in the now nonexistent German or German Jewish community either in Prague or in Moravia and had very limited links to Czech culture (although Kafka made it to 55 and Freud to 98 on the greatest Czech poll).

Most important events in Czech history

Century by century and zooming in on the last 100 years. Also describes the importance of number 8 for Czech history of the last two centuries.

Century by Century Break-Down of Czech History

Century	Czech Lands	Rest of the World
up to 1100s	Celts, Germanic Tribes, Slavic Tribes, The Great Moravia, Přemyslids, introduction of literacy (Cyril and Methodius), introduction of (western) Christianty,	Tribes moving around, spread of Christianity over Europe
1200	Czech kingdom-Czech rulers obtain hereditary right to the title King, Přemysl Otokar II. Czech king controlling large parts of Central Europe	Wars, famines, crusades
1300	Charles IV., Charles University founded, Bible translated into Czech	Renaissance starting, 100-year war, Chaucer
1400	Burning of Jan Hus, 1^st defenestration, Hussite wars, Jiří z Poděbrad's peace mission	Joan of Arc, America discovered, invention of printing press
1500	Polish and Hapsburg rulers, arts and sciences flourish, new translation of Bible sets standard for Czech language	America being explored, Luther
1600	Comenius, 2^nd defenestration, big execution, exile, begining of thirty-year war, exile of Czech nobles, germanization	Shakespeare, revolutions, 30-year war
1700	Under the Hapsburgs, baroque and rather dull times	French revolution, rise of Napoleon, USA gains independence
1800	Fighting for more independence, national revival, toying with the idea of panslavism, still under the Hapsburgs, National Theater built (twice)	Fall of Napoleon, more wars and crystalization of modern nations
1900	New republic together with Slovakia, split with Slovakia, WWII, communism, fall of communism, split from Slovakia	WWI & II, Cold War, crises and conflicts

20^th Century in the Czech Lands

Period	Czech Lands	Rest of the World
1918 - 1938	So-called First Republic, time of economic prosperity and democracy	recovering from WWI
1938	Losing Sudetenland, Slovakia separated	gathering clouds, Austria Annexed by Germany
1939	Protectorate starts: annexed by Germany results: closed University	Preparing for showdown: non-aggression pact between Russia and Germany, Germany attacks Poland, Brittain and France declare war
1945	Prague insurgence (Pražské povstání), end of war, repatriation of Germans from Sudeten Land	Berlin falls, atomic bomb used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki
1948	Communists take over government (having won elections in 1946)	State of Israel proclaimed, Marshall Plan begins
1950s	Hard core communism	McCarthism in USA, Stalin's death, Korean War
1968	Following a liberal trend of the 60s so-called Prague spring ends in an invasion by allied forces	Martin Luther King killed, Vietnam war peaks (10.000^th plane shot down), R. Kennedy shot
1970s	"Normalization", Charter 77	Man on Moon, oil shock, end of Vietnam war, war in Cambodia
1989	"Velvet" Revolution	Communism not doing well world wide: fall in Romania, E. Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria and Poland, George Bush becomes president
1993	Split with Slovakia	Bill Clinton becomes president

The importance of number 8 in modern Czech history

1. 1918 - Foundation of Czechoslovakia after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

2. 1938 - Slovakia breaks off, start of the so-called ‘Second Republic'.

3. 1948 - Communist government takes power for 41 years.

4. 1968 - Prague reforms stopped by invasion of allied armies of East-Bloc countries.

5. 1989 - ‘Velvet' Revolution caused the fall of the communist government.

Czech National Prides

Famous writers, composers, politicians and other things Czechs are proud about.

Overview

Points of national pride	Beer, ice hockey, soccer, classical music, jazz, humor, women, Czech, ingenuity, history, science, film, architecture, Prague, food.
Culture	Literature: Jaroslav Hašek, Karel Čapek, Bohumil Hrabal, Ludvík Vaculík, Josef Škvorecký, Milan Kundera, Jaroslav Seifert, Václav Havel. Film: Miloš Forman, Jan Svěrák, Zdeněk Svěrák, Jiří Menzel. Music: Bedřich Smetana, Antonín Dvořák, Leoš Janáček, Bohuslav Martinů, Jiří Stívín, Luboš Andršt, Ian Hammer, Emil Viklický.
Important People	Karel IV., Jan Hus, Jan Žižka, Jiří z Poděbrad, J.A. Komenský, T.G. Masaryk, Václav Klaus, Václav Havel, Miloš Zeman
Past and current events	Founding of Charles University (1348), Burning of Jan Hus (1415), Battle of White Mountain - start of 30-year war (1620), National revival (19^th century), Foundation of Czechoslovakia (1918), Partial occupation by Germany (1938), End of Second World War (1945), Communist party takes power (1948), Invasion by allied forces (1968), Charter 77 (1977), Velvet Revolution (1989), Split with Slovakia (1993).

3 Famous Composers

Bedřich Smetana (1828 - 1884) Popular composer of last century. Like Beethoven composed some of his best works while completely deaf. His works include: Bartered Bride, Dalibor, The Kiss, My Country.

Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904 - see above) Other works: Slavonic Dances, Sabat Mater, Rusalka.

Leoš Janáček (1854 - 1928) Most famous Czech composer of this century. His operas include: Káťa Kabanová, Věc Makropulos, Liška Bystrouška.

5 Important Writers

Jaroslav Hašek (1883-1923) Writer and journalist. Wrote satirical short stories. During WWI took part in the Russian Revolution. Creator of "Good Soldier Švejk" a popular satire from WWI translated into many over 20 languages including English.

Karel Čapek (1890-1938) Writer, journalist and playwright. His 1928 sci-fi drama R.U.R. first used the word robot. His other works include War of the Newts, White Illness, The Macropulos Thing, Krakatit.

Bohumil Hrabal (1914-97) Major works: I Served the King of England, Larks on a String, Closely Watched Trains, Too Loud a Solitude.

Josef Škvorecký (*1924) Emigrated after 1968. Currently lives in Canada. Started and runs publishing firm 68'Publishers. Major works: The Cowards, Sins for Father Knox, Swell Season, Tank Platoon.

Milan Kundera (*1929) Emigrated after 1968. Currently lives in France. Wrote his last novel in French. Major works: The Joke, Unbearable Lightness of Being, Laughable Loves, Immortality.

Czech Mythology

Historical myths are often better known than facts. Here are three commonly known

Praotec Čech (Forefather Czech)

Czech tribes led by the father Čech stopped their journey at the Říp mountain (about 50 km north of Prague). There he beheld the "land of milk and honey" and decided to settle. His brother Lech had separated from his tribe earlier and became the founder of the Polish nation.

Přemysl and Libuše

Countess Libuše, Čech's grand daughter, ruled the Czech people after the death of her father Krok. She was gifted with prophetic powers and foresaw the founding of Prague. She resided at Vyšehrad and in one of her prophetic moments declared: "I see a large city whose fame touches the stars." She then sent builders into the woods where they found a man making a threshold (práh) which also gave a name to the new city (i.e. Praha).

Once, when presiding over her court, she made a decision between two brothers. The one in whose disfavor she had decided, proclaimed: "Sorry are the men who let themselves be ruled by a woman!" Libuše became angry and promised the men a firm rule by a man. She sent a delegation to her secret lover Přemysl to call him to become the king of the Czechs. Přemysl was a farmer and the delegation led by Libuše's horse found him plowing his fields. That's why he is known as Přemysl Oráč (the Plower). Thus the Přemyslid dynasty ruling the Czech lands for over 300 years was founded.

Šárka (Maiden War)

Some women, discontent with the rule of men, went away and founded a castle called Děvín, from where they fought men with great success.

One of the maidens, Šárka, lured Ctirad and his men, who had slain many women, into a trap by pretending to have run away from the women's castle. After Ctirad, having fallen in love at first sight, had celebrated this encounter and fallen asleep, women stole upon him and his men, who were overpowered and killed. Ctirad himself was executed at the wheel.

Men, angered by Ctirad's death stormed Děvín, the castle of the women fighters, and killed all women who resisted including Šárka.

Czech Geography

Elementary facts about Czech geography.

The Czech Republic is situated approximately in the geographical center of Europe and has an area of 78,866 sq. km. It is a landlocked country 326 km from the Baltic and 322 km from the Adriatic see. It shares borders with Germany (810 km), Poland (762 km), Austria (466 km) and Slovakia (265 km). The highest point of elevation is the peak of Mt. Sněžka (1,602 m above sea level) and the lowest point of elevation is near Holensko where the River Labe leaves Czech territory (117 m above sea level).

Czech Republic is divided into Bohemia (Čechy) and Moravia (Morava). The language and culture are similar, although some parts of Moravia are known for their specific accent. The Moravian culture is generally more friendly and laid back than that of the people in Bohemia. Moravia is also predominantly wine drinking while most beer is produced and drunk in Bohemia.

The capital of Bohemia is Prague (Praha) and the capital of Moravia is Brno, although it has no special administrative status.

Administratively Czech Republic is divided into regions (kraj) which in turn consist of counties (okres), each with an administrative center. The structure and powers of local government as well as the geographic layout of regions and counties is a topic of much political debate.

History, Art, Geography