BCSA COLFront sept_oct_nov16.qxp_BCSA 15/09/2016 16:42 Page 1 RevBRITISiH eCZECH wAND SLOVAK Published by the BCSA Issue 152 September/October/november 2016

Inside

What’s in a Name? Czechia or Czech Republic Page 2

Still Dancing after 20 years Page 5

A sinister story which still grips our imagination Pages 12-13

cubists come to blows Pages 14-15 BCSA Review 2-3sep_oct_nov16.qxp_ppCOL2/3 Jun/July09 15/09/2016 16:41 Page 2

BRITISH CZECH AND SLOVAK REVIEW

Czech passports are Lack of debate over Czechia eagerly sought provokes plenty of criticism Czech passports are in great demand since Czechia to replace the name of the pro-Brexit June vote. the Czech Republic? The Czech Embassy in London reports The news that the Czech receiving numerous enquiries from British Republic will be using official - nationals with Czech roots asking how they ly name of Czechia was can get a Czech – EU – passport. received with great interest A news site, actualne.cz reported that the outside the country – most embassy is receiving calls asking for British dailies reported the information on travel to the Czech Republic change in April – but with dis - after Brexit is evoked. Dual citizenship – belief in the Czech Republic British and Czech – seems to be the answer. itself, writes Angela Spindler- According to the news sources more than Brown. 100 requests for Czech citizenship have been “Czechia is not to replace the filed in the past two months alone. Czech Republic completely, Embassies of other EU member states in But made in the Czech Republic, in Bohemia, in Cesko, in but it will be its shorter alterna - Czechia? Politicians, public relations people and advertis - Britain are receiving similar requests. The tive,” Prime Minister Bohuslav London Embassy of the Irish Republic has ers in Prague seem to have hankered after a rebranding of Sobotka said in reaction to the Czech Republic into a simple one word description. asked for applications to be delayed as staff wide spread home criticism. have been unable to deal with all the requests. Czechia in English, translation of the Czech echy. He gave an assurance that the But discussion about the shortened name seems to be name change would not threat - symptomatic of other things. “You would think such an Magical church a en the allocation of the EU important decision would be the result of a broad public subsidies. debate,” wrote Jakub Patocka in The Guardian . vision from Slovakia Who wanted to simplify the “But it’s an attitude the people of the Czech Republic The Church of name of the country? will be all too familiar with. There has long been division Holy Spirit in While the country was basi - about the country’s identity. Even the break up of Žehra is a 13th cally a federation, consisting of Czechoslovakia, though said to be peaceful, left many century Gothic the Czech and Slovak regions, people on both sides feeling bitter. and Romanesque (leaving aside Moravia and It happened without a referendum, which was demand - building in the Silesia), the name of the coun - ed at the time in a petition signed by more than a million Slovak village of try was Czechoslovakia and Czechs and Slovaks – a huge proportion of the countries’ Žehra, in eastern there were no problems with combined population of 15 million. The breakup hap - Slovakia near the country’s title. But the sep - pened in an apparent breach of the Czechoslovak consti - Prešov. aration into independent Czech tution and was imposed without any mandate from the The photograph and Slovak Republics in 1993 people. “ by award-winning didn’t bring clarity to the nam - The Czech Republic’s Foreign Ministry has applied for photographer ing of the Czech part. the correct shortened name of the country, Czechia, to be Ladislav Struhár, Made in Slovakia is clear. added to the United Nations database. was part of an exhibition Magical Slovakia at London’s Europe House, in Still up in the air with a life-long love Smith Square. It Second World War hero, 93-year-old accurate, I simply loved it,” General was held to mark General Emil Boček took to the skies in Boček commented after landing. the opening of the a Spitfire at the end of July. It was As a teenager Emil Boček joined the Slovak Presidency of the Council of the more than seven decades after his last RAF as a mechanic. In September 1940, European Union. fling in the iconic flight, writes Jiří Hošek, he trained in Canada and from Czech Radio correspondent in London. The veteran flew from the Biggin Hill October 1944 he served as a pilot with Your shoes come Airport in Kent and spent 25 minutes in the RAF’s 310 Squadron. He carried out the air, piloting the aircraft himself for 26 operational flights before leaving from many parts a short while it was airborne. the air force in 1946. Shoppers in the UK are led to believe that “If I said I liked it, it wouldn’t be He continues to fly to this day. their expensive luxury shoes are made in western Europe. But the ‘Made in Germany’ and ‘Made in Italy’ labels are misleading, reported The Observer at the end of July. Many such shoes are produced in eastern Europe by poverty-stricken workers in sweatshops, says a report investigating the European shoe industry. Manufacturers use an ‘outward processing trade scheme’, where parts of the goods are exported to a low- wage EU country to be cheaply assembled and returned to the original country tax free. Researchers found factories in six countries – Slovakia, Romania, Poland, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania – belong to such schemes. Goods from Bata, Zara, Geox and a number of other brands are assembled in eastern EU countries . “In the summer the heat is unbearable so we have had the ambulance here six times this year because co-workers had heat stroke,” said one Slovak worker. Bata said the report, provided ‘interesting insights in the generally under-reported working conditions in eastern Europe.’

2 September/October/November 2016 BCSA Review 2-3sep_oct_nov16.qxp_ppCOL2/3 Jun/July09 15/09/2016 16:41 Page 3

News BRITISH CZECH AND SLOVAK REVIEW Economic and business highlights by Maria Hughes Voting to stay as companies look to future Births and H B Reavis, a Slovak property developer construction of a new plant near Nitra will not established in 1993, has sold 33 Central (King be affected by the outcome of the referendum deaths neck William Street) in the City of London to which had been taken into consideration prior to Wells Fargo, the world’s largest bank by the investment decision. capitalisation. The investment of £300 and neck million for its UK headquarters is seen as a An informal EU summit will be held in Slovakia and the Czech Republic were vote of confidence by Wells Fargo in Bratislava on September 16 to discuss the exceptional in 2015 – they saw no London’s future as a financial centre, future following the UK referendum, without decline in population unlike eight following the outcome of the EU with British prime minister; Slovakia other former Communist countries referendum. H B Reavis has two further sites currently holds the EU presidency. In the who are also all members of the EU, for office development at 20 Farringdon Czech Republic, a working group has been writes Edward Peacock. Street and 61 Southwark Street. The established to develop a draft strategy by the Lithuania, by contrast, lost 32,700 company also operates in the Czech people (many of them young and Republic, Hungary and Poland. end of September for talks on Britain’s departure from the EU. highly educated), a reduction of more than 1% of its population. All central At the end of July, Theresa May met Slovak and eastern European lands except the prime minister, Robert Fico, in Bratislava. He Avast Software, a Czech security software Slovaks, the Czechs and the Slovenes drew the British prime minister's attention to the company based in Prague, has made an offer to recorded falls, caused both by migra - 90,000 Slovaks working in Britain. She in turn buy out its rival AVG Technologies for an tion and a natural decline, with more recognised that the economic relationship estimated Kč 32 billion (£1 billion). AVG was deaths recorded than live births. All between the UK and Slovakia was ‘flourishing’ also founded in the Czech Republic but is now three of those exceptions, however, with a 37% rise in UK exports in 2015 and registered in the Netherlands. Together the two had increases below the EU average investment by British firms such as Tesco and companies will have about 430 million of 0.35%. Jaguar Land Rover. The chief executive of the customers worldwide – 260 million PC/Mac These figures come from Eurostat, British carmaker has confirmed that the users and 170 million Android users. the EU’s statistical arm, reported by the Transitions Online website and mailing list ( www.tol.org ). Brexit by decrees – you’re all In 2015 the number of deaths and live births in the Czech Republic were virtually the same, and there was a to blame president tells EU very small surplus of live births in Not only European Commission head Jean- He had said earlier that Britons had been Slovakia. Claude Juncker, but all senior representatives of deterred from EU membership mainly by its EU Germany had more deaths than live the EU are responsible for Brexit, Czech policy “supplying EU members with quite births last year, but also the third President Miloš Zeman told the Impuls radio absurd decrees,” such as those about the uniform greatest population increase in the EU station at the beginning of July, reported CTK. production of wax or ink for laser printers and (1.2%), due to immigration. The President Zeman specifically named the chair - uniform dimensions of tractor seats. largest increase was recorded in Luxembourg (2.3%), followed by man of the European Council, Donald Tusk and “No wonder that while the bureaucratic mad - EU Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini. Austria (1.4%). The EU top leadership bears collective men produce such decrees, being unable to The population of the EU as a whole responsibility for the EU and “no one can be protect the EU outer border against a migrant increased by two million, to 510.1 singled out from the responsibility,” he added. wave, you feel disgusted at such a leadership of million. This was due to immigration, “The EU was very, very passive, only the project that is otherwise splendid and that as the bloc showed a natural popula - giving useless advice to Britain that it should you leave it,” President Zeman said. tion decline overall (for the first time not leave, which angered many Britons,” “In my view, this is the real basic cause of the ever). There were 5.2 million deaths President Zeman said. Brexit,” he added. and 5.1 million births.

Bags less plastic waste Jana and Mirka are taller Finance a deep than Jane and Jenny Ian sEn gclaondn, plsasuticm bag puset ihaos pnlu mdmerteod psinsce mystery to most the introduction of a 5p charge last autumn. During Czech women are among the tallest in A survey by the Czech finance the first six months, 640 million plastic bags were the world, according to research ministry has found that 42% of used in seven major supermarkets compared to an published in the journal eLife , and are respondents were unable to estimated 7.64 billion bags in 2014. now ranked fourth highest in the world calculate 2% of Kč 100, reported In Slovakia, the Environment Ministry has (up from 69th in 1914) with an average fleet sheet’s final word. proposed that shops should charge and keep height of 168cm. Slovak women are If Czechs had been asked to records of plastic bags sold, from March 2017. ranked sixth (previously 26th). explain how it’s possible to make Each Slovak uses 466 plastic bags a year compared The average height of an adult 18-year- money if prices fall, their financial with the EU average of 200. An EU directive old woman in Britain has risen from literacy would have no doubt been suggests that annual consumption of light plastic 153.4cm to 164.4cm today. They are now even weaker. Short selling and bags should not exceed 90 per person by the end of ranked 38th in international league derivatives remain the domain of 2019 and 40 by 2025, or they will not be provided tables (previously 57th). finance specialists. free to shoppers. About a third of the explanation could Analysts Pavel Kohout and In June, the Czech government approved be due to genes, according to a Ondřej Jonáš reinforced this reality legislation which will make it illegal for shops to researcher at Imperial College London, by telling Czech media that mar kets give customers free plastic bags from 2018. One but that doesn’t explain the change over like stability. They know that mar - environmentalist said most supermarkets already time – good standards of healthcare, ket players love volatility when make a charge; the main effort needs to be in sanitation and nutrition are key drivers. they’re prepared for it; that’s how increased recycling, now 30% compared with 7% In comparison, British men have risen, real money is made. Hedge funds in 2000. Each Czech uses 400 plastic bags annually in terms of ranking, from 36 to 31; betting on Brexit by short ing stocks – among the least sorted types of plastic waste. Czechs from 24 to 10 and Slovaks rose to were rewarded with bumper pay - 17 from 20. outs, said the Financial Times . September/October/November 2016 3 BCSA Review 4-5 sep_oct_nov 16.qxp_pp4/5 jun/jly09 15/09/2016 16:40 Page 2

BRITISH CZECH AND SLOVAK REVIEW Remembering Alexander Dubček by Maria Hughes In the summer of 1969, I attended November 1990, the main hall of my first international summer what is now the Slovak Embassy school in Brno, thanks to the British was packed to capacity with over Council. 400 people eager to meet the guest A year on from the crushing of of honour, Alexander Dub ek. the Prague Spring, it was still possi - As honorary secretary, I had the ble to buy a new biography of TG privilege of standing behind him Masaryk in the local bookshop, an when he spoke. His humanity and A4 portrait photograph of the first modesty were quite clear to see, as president and also one of Alexander was the sense of joy we all shared Dub ek (pictured left) all of which I in those early days of change. kept for the next 20 years. I had come prepared with my After summer school, I travelled official photograph just in case to Bratislava to visit a Slovak stu - there was a chance that I might ask dent who stayed with us in London him to sign it. during the summer of 1968 before When he saw it, he bowed his returning home. The family villa head and said ‘to je historie’ before was in the Slavín district; he had adding his signature. Sadly the high been a school friend of one of gloss finish did not take well to the Dub ek ‘s sons who lived nearby. pen I offered, but for many years it When I returned there in 1986, this was displayed in my study along was not discussed. with the photo of Masaryk and also At the launch of the BCSA in one of Václav Havel. New head for Prague college by Ann Lewis

From left, Czech Ambassador Libor Sečka and Baroness Patricia Rawlings, chairman of governors at the English College Prague. They are pictured with the new head - master, Nigel Brown (right) at the ambassador’s garden party in support of the college he English College (ECP) in Prague Six years later, Nigel decided his vocation Czechoslovakia’s first post-Communist will have a new Headmaster this lay elsewhere, trained as a physics teacher ambassadors. The new Czech Ambassador, term, Dr Nigel Brown. Dr Brown was and then taught at British and US schools Libor Sečka, and his wife have kindly decided previously deputy head, but was cho - before moving to South Korea as Assistant to continue this tradition. sen by the governors against a slate of highly- Head of the North London Collegiate School Simon Marshall left The English College qualified external candidates. in Jeju. after three very successful years to take up the TNigel Brown has a fascinating intellectual On his move to Prague, he said: “I came to post of Headmaster of Bancroft’s School in and practical pedigree. With a first-class Prague as Deputy Head Pastoral in September Essex, an independent school supported by degree in physics, he moved to Imperial of last year. I instantly recognised the unique the Drapers’ Company. College London to do an MsC in history of the school and the efforts some key He left on a high note as the college cele - Environmental Technology, followed by a individuals made to establish a school firmly brated its best-ever results in International PhD at Leeds University on Transport and linking the UK and Czech Republic. GCSEs, and best results for 18 years and sec - Quality of Life. “I think ECP has a flavour distinct from ond best ever in the International There followed a variety of short-term con - many purely international schools that can Baccalaureate. tracts on issues all loosely connected by the sometimes exist only tangentially connected Congratulations to Simon and all the staff twin issues of Transport and Environment. to the local culture and historical context.” and students on those excellent results, and all This included station management in South Many of the ECP’s supporters in the UK good wishes to Nigel Brown as he takes up East London, installing the safety systems on were able to meet Nigel at the Czech the challenge. a water-powered funicular, environmental Ambassador’s Garden Party in June. This is I research in the Amazon and Saudi Arabia, an event that has taken place annually since Ann Lewis is Deputy Chairman of and skippering a community barge project on before the school opened in 1994, thanks to Governors, for The English College Britain's waterways. the initiative and foresight of Prague. 4 September/October/November 2016 BCSA Review4-5sep_oct_nov16.qxp_pp4/5jun/jly0915/09/201616:40Page3 T b e i t i c s f w w e c c w R F b W 1 w a M M o f t w w d b H c R f f f R h A w g i n h n h c o r i o a t n l v o i n a u o 9 n a u o a e D l e r e o a a h a t a a a i o u i o v

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Picture: Roger Hughes BCSA Review 6-7 THIS VERSION sep-oct-nov16.qxp_PP6/7 June/July09 15/09/2016 16:39 Page 2

BRITISH CZECH AND SLOVAK REVIEW

I was born in Olomouc (Czech Republic) where I spent most of my life. In 1998, I graduated at the Science Faculty of Palacky University in Olomouc. I have mostly worked as a sales representative in the Czech Republic. Between 1999 and 2000, I spent one year in the USA and later on (2003-2004) one year in Australia. Later on, I worked for a travel agency and spent a few months in Egypt. I have been in the UK since August 2012, working as a per - sonal care assistant for people with spinal cord injuries. I come from Moravia where we have special traditions and where folklore was kept for generations. I wrote this essay in memory of my grandmother and mother who have been inspirations for me since I was a child. Left: The founders of the Bata shoe company, Tomáš, Antonín and Anna Ba’ta Once Upon a Time in Moravian Wallachia by Eva Písková arrived in the UK three years ago with woman inside her finally woke up. Do not hard working, intense people living in tough a plan to stay one year as I have done worry. I am not going to do this. I am going conditions. My grandma used to narrate to before – in the USA – and Australia to compare the values of British people with me one story from her childhood which and then to go back home. What I did the values that my grandparents used to might explain why T. Ba a decided to shoe not expect was that I would have. I believe that the similarities between every single person in the world. Maybe he Iimmediately feel so comfortable here. I them are the reason why I feel so happy had a similar experience. enjoy travelling, exploring and even staying here. Does this still sound crazy? I know I My grandma s generation were not used to in different countries but I never had this am going to compare two very different wearing shoes every day when they were feeling before. I felt like it was my second countries and cultures, but there is one big children. It was first day of her first year in home and I did not know exactly why. link for me. Let me explain to you the link to school and she had got a new pair of shoes I had known some facts about British my grandmother s story and a story of one of for this occasion. She used to walk to the culture, I love the British sense of humour, the biggest Czech and world shoemakers school every day, around three kilometres. politeness and courtesy, but is it enough to Tomáš Ba a. She managed to get to the school in the new feel like this? I started telling my friends: “I When my grandmother was born in 1922, shoes and stayed there in the new shoes, but am possibly British who was accidentally Tomáš Ba a was already in his 40s. By this on the way back home she hung them up on born in the Czech Republic.” To be honest, I time he had dominated the footwear market the first tree as she was playing with her had not analysed what was the reason behind in Czechoslovakia and started expanding into sisters. She got happily home and then she my feelings (unusual for a woman) until I the international markets. What did they realised that she was missing something, her noticed your literary competition with one of have in common? The region where they pair of shoes, for her something unusual to its topics – links between the UK and the were born – Moravian Wallachia, and where wear at this time of year and probably a bit Czech Republic. T. Ba a started realising his dream. uncomfortable as well. Of course she got I started thinking what I could write about. What was typical for that mountainous and spanked at home. She went back to the tree Now you might probably think she is crazy, poor area in the easternmost part of the with her dad hoping that they would find she is going to write about her feelings in the Czech Republic, colonised by Romanian them. They did not. UK and back in the Czech Republic as the shepherds in the 16th and 17th century, was What would I say about my grandma first?

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BRITISH CZECH AND SLOVAK REVIEW

She was full of life and energy until the end years of their business, but he never gave up He also introduced a system of decentralised of her life. She was born in the small and by working hard he was building his management (workshop autonomy) which Wallachian village Rajnochovice as the last company. He believed that: “Bankruptcy is a increased power and responsibility of one of four sisters. Later on, she moved to matter of moral opinion,” and that “between employees working on the shop floor. the small town Napajedla where she lived all a rich bankrupt and a criminal there is no I remember my grandma used to say it her life. She stayed faithful to Wallachians difference.” was a prestige to work for Ba a. Not only for although she already lived in another region Tomáš Ba a enjoyed life. When he was the great benefits he had for his in that area. Napajedla was twenty young, he used to go to the “better society” employees and good salaries, but for the kilometers away from Zlín, the town which probably to get a little bit of their spirit. atmosphere of valuing and believing in was build by T. Ba a and which had influ - Once he spent all his money and banks were people, for his spirit that uplifted Czechs to enced all the area since. Even after T. Ba a asking him to pay his loans back, he started Europeans. Even though he was a tough died in 1932 and the company was reading Tolstoy s books and under his businessman and economist, he thought that: confiscated in 1945, you could feel Ba a s influence he was convinced that once he “A pile of gold coins is not a measure of spirit in the way my grandma s generation would pay off all his debts and earn enough success. Real wealth consists of education, thought and lived. money to buy a homestead, he would live moral principles, freedom, an open mind and My grandmother together with her simple life and do farming. No one knows reason. Self-discipline is the beginning of husband had a small business and owned an when he transformed into the real business - real life.” apartment building in Napajedla. Even man, but the reality is that he did not become The generation of my grandma believed in though the properties were confiscated by a farmer. these values and I believe in my grandma. communists in 1948, she never gave up. She By 1932, when Tomáš Ba a died in an air - Although she did not have an easy life at all, believed in honesty, hard work, and common plane crash, he had already been the head of she knew how to enjoy her time. Somehow sense. She enjoyed socialising with other a global company operating on four after I arrived to the UK, memories about people and followed the saying: “In healthy continents. The list of the countries where he my grandma started coming back more and body, healthy spirit.” She attended the sport opened his factories included England as more often and now I can see why. Values and educational organisation Sokol till she well. His company produced shoes in East of British people remind me of my grand - was in her 80s. She had a great sense of Tilbury, Essex from 1931 to 2005. That was ma s values which came from Wallachians humour and liked her afternoon coffee with a actually the first link between the UK and led by Tomáš Ba a. I know that the UK is a biscuit as well as looking after her house. the Czech Republic I was thinking about. I monarchy with its history and culture. The She did not like false people, laziness, bad found this information by chance chatting values here are built on a different basis. manners, women competitors, and men who with my friend who comes from Essex and Anyway, as I noticed the British believe in could not keep up with her. She was always his mother had been working for Ba a for good quality education, it is a free country ready to help people in need. She did like, forty years. with its Queen and royal family who admire and respect our first president Ba a was known for implementing not just indicates the moral principles and gives T.G.Masaryk, our first president after the management and business strategies to the examples in self-discipline. Bearing in mind Velvet revolution in 1989 Václav Havel, and areas where he built his factories. He built the number of foreigners in the country, the founder of possibly the biggest shoe all the quarters and towns around his people must be open minded and tolerant company in the world Tomáš Ba a. factories, providing his employees here. Moreover, I found few more parallels Tomáš Ba a was born in Zlín in 1876 to comfortable living with all the services between Wallachia and the UK. People in the family of a small shoemaker. At the time including heath care, schools, sport and both areas know the value of money, have a Zlín was a village with three thousand entertainment facilities. He started in his great sense of humour and are proud of inhabitants in a poor region. What was native village Zlín which he transformed into themselves. missing there in the financial and material a modern town with a lot of parks, trees and It might look like that I forgot about the way, was made up for by the people. The gardens. Zlín has been called the garden links and I am listing just similarities. For Wallachians gave to the Czech Republic and town since. He was a fan of modern me the biggest link is that we all are to the world the visionary and shoemaker architecture and among the buildings he built Europeans denominating similar values. It genius Tomáš Ba a. He gained his first are some jewels of functionalism for its time. does not matter if it is a big country like the knowledge and skills as a shoemaker from It was not just “Ba a s empire” that was UK or small region like Moravian Wallachia. his father who he worked for. His mother impressive, but his unique system of Some people in my country forgot about died when he was 10 years old and when he management and his belief in people. He these values during communism and it is not was 15, he followed his sister Anna to said: “Never look at the programme as much obviously easy to bring them back and keep Austria where he spent some time making as to the people who defend it. Human being them alive. But I believe that with regions shoes, but he did not succeed and came back is a programme.” Of course he demanded a such as Moravian Wallachia and historical home. His start was not easy. In 1894 he, high level of performance at work and personalities such as Tomáš Ba a we have a together with his brother Antonín and sister valued perfection, but he believed that every - good chance to catch up. Am I a dreamer or Anna, founded a shoe company in Zlín. They one should be his own boss and he supported a visionary? However, I wear Ba a’s shoes had almost gone bankrupt during the first this idea by paying employees profit sharing. and try to follow my grandmother’s spirit.

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BRITISH CZECH AND SLOVAK REVIEW Oxford study day looks at Czech World War II refugee crisis

Now that a new wave of migration has abandoned their normal practice of writing engulfed Europe, it may be appropriate to historical novels to espouse contemporary reflect on an earlier migration – that from themes as a response to the catastrophic Central Europe in general and events in a homeland suffering under a brutal Czechoslovakia in particular – which Nazi occupation. occurred in the years immediately preceding The day will end on a personal note when the World War ll, writes Dr Jennifer Taylor. Mrs Miranda Pinch, a descendant of the The Oxford University Department for novelist Ernst Sommer, will discuss her Continuing Education has organised a study grandfather’s work (arguably the first literary day on Anti-Nazi Refugees from depiction of the Holocaust). Her perspective Czechoslovakia to be held in Oxford on has been informed by her work on human Saturday December 3, 2016. This study day rights. will be of particular interest to readers whose families may originally have come from this region and who wish to learn more about the experiences of their forbears. Open to all – A 20th Century There will be four talks given by Migration – academics who specialise in the period. The Anti-Nazi Refugees from morning talks will cover the historical back- Czechoslovakia in Britain. ground and then focus on the degree of Oxford Study Day, support offered to refugees from December 3, 2016. Czechoslovakia by British agencies. No knowledge of Czech The introductory talk, by Dr Jana Buresova, will provide an overview of the necessary. Registration socio-political factors underpinning the flight required. of refugees from Czechoslovakia to Britain Oxford University Department and then consider the problems encountered for Continuing Education, Day by the exiles on first arriving in Great Britain. and Weekend Programme This will be followed by Professor Office, Rewley House, Charmian Brinson who will give a detailed 1 Wellington Square, Oxford, consideration of British humanitarian OX1 2JA. initiatives to alleviate the plight of the Radcliffe Camera, Oxford University Tel: 01865 270 368 refugees, including the British Committee Nicholas Winton and others. www.conted.ox.ac. for Refugees from Czechoslovakia (later the The afternoon will be devoted to literature. Czech Refugee Trust Fund) and the Czech Dr Jennifer Taylor will consider the work of uk/Q100-66 Kindertransport Movement, set up by two refugee authors who temporarily For those who let their children go A fund has been opened to pay for a memorial parents on one side, children’s hands on the to the Czechoslovakian parents who let their other, set in the door of a train. children go to England as refugees in 1938 and Called “The last farewell…” it is to be placed 1939, writes Lady Milena Grenfell-Baines. in the concourse of the main railway station in “Goodbye, be good, look after your brother or Prague, Hlavní nadraží, from where most of the sister. Be polite to your English guardians and Winton trains departed. write often.” l Funds are being sought to pay for the These were often the last words the children memorial. For electronic banking outside would hear from their parents – children who in the Czech Republic: Account name is the Kindertransport of 1938 and on the Winton Farewell Memorial – Pamatnik Rozlouceni. trains in 1939 were being placed in train car- Bank: Ceska Sporitelna, Pobocka Rytirska riages to carry them to safety to England – thus 536, 11000 Prague 129, Czech Republic. saving their lives. IBAN: CZ66 0800 0000 0042 4139 7369, We have wasted much time, waited too long BIC: GIBACZPX. to honour the memory, the selfless love and sacrifice of all who sent their chil- dren to a foreign land and into the arms of strangers, fearing they may never see them again and uncertain of what their own fate may be. Most of those parents perished in the Holocaust. We few who are still the living witnesses, our num- bers dwindling, must at the 11th hour put it right. As a permanent reminder of this brave action forged in despair – the courage of Above, the design for the Memorial all the parents who let their Window. Right, Eliška, Lady Milena children go – we plan to Grenfell-Baines’s great erect a memorial. It is to be granddaughter having her prints a window with the hands of taken for the memorial 8 September/October/November 2016 BCSA Review 8-9 sep-oct-nov16.qxp_pp8/9 June/july09 15/09/2016 16:38 Page 3

BRITISH CZECH AND SLOVAK REVIEW The view from Slovakia – as Britain gets ready to Forthcoming Events leave the EU See www.bcsa.co.uk for further information The Slovak Ambassador HE Ľubomír Rehák (pictured left) will be the Wednesday October 12, guest speaker at the 7-10.30pm, November 9, and BCSA’s annual dinner, BCSA Get Decemberto Know You 14. evenings. writes BCSA chairman Michael Roberts. Czech and Slovak National House, The dinner, the main 74 West End Lane, London NW6. event in the BCSA calendar, Tube: West Hampstead. is a chance to spend a fun evening with old friends, to make new friends and meet OrdinarySaturday People’s October Extraordinary 8, 6-8pm. like-minded people Stories. interested in the Czech and Slovak Republics. Tickets £18 Rudolf Steiner House and It will take place on . Friday November 25, at the Theatre, 35 Park Road, London NW1 6XT, Radisson Blu Edwardian Tel: 020 7723 4400. Nearest tube: Bloomsbury Street Hotel in Baker Street or Marylebone Station. London. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ Ambassador Rehák took ordinary-peoples-extraordinary-lives-tickets- up his appointment in 25153274120 London in August 2015, and his talk – coinciding with Saturday November 5, 4pm. Slovakia’s Presidency of the 20th Made in Prague Festival, Council of the EU during , Barbican Cinema. the latter half of 2016, and SaturdayErotikon November 12, 4pm with Britain having voted to leave the EU in its recent Regent Street I, Olga HepnerováCinema. referendum – will have a fascinating in the BCSA. Saturday November 26, 4pm, backdrop. Tickets are available on The dinner also offers a great Eventbrite. Go to opportunity for members to bring www.eventbrite.co.uk and search TheRegent Shop onStreet the High Cinema. Street, along guests who might be interested under BCSA/London. Sunday November 27, 2pm.

RegentFamily Street Film, Cinema CDs include all Tučapský’s Preludes Organised by the Czech Centre in London. Antonín Tučapský (1928- 2014) com- struggle between good and evil. His For details of three-week programme show- posed Preludes in London where he Fantasia quasi una sonata and his last casing Czech cinema and theatre see lived after leaving Brno in 1973. composition Concertino for piano and www.czechcentre.org.uk Canadian-born pianist Margaret Bruce, strings are well known and appreciated has now recorded all 24 Preludes and examples of his work. Tučapský’s other major piano works, on The CDs can be obtained through the two CDs, writes Marian Werner. CzechNovember National 9, 7.30pm.Symphony In his later compositions Tučapský Dvořak Society’s Record Service for £14.50, which includes postage and Orchestra, Libor “explored all facets of piano playing, conducting Smetana/Pešek technically and emotionally.” They are packing. Dvořak full of dances and folk tunes, and a rich The recordings will be also available with Natalie Clein cello. source of his Czech heritage. to members and guests attending BCSA Cadogan Hall, Sloane Square, London Tučapský describes the perpetual events for £12, payable only by cheque. SW3, two minutes from Sloane Square Temporary homes wanted for Tube Station. Box office tel: 020 7730 4500. RevitalisationNovember 10, of 6.30-8.30pm.British Portrait visiting students Sculpture: The Role of Franta A group of students from The English at an agreed time the following week- and Irena . College in Prague are planning to visit end. They will need instructions on Belský Sedlecká London for a week’s work experience how to find their hosts’ houses, and Peter Cannon-Brookes will talk about some during their autumn half-term. help with directions to their place of of the best known public sculptures in Their placements are chosen to suit work on the first morning. Hosts are Britain, all made by Czechs. their interests and are provided by sup- expected to provide breakfast but other Friends of Czech Heritage. porters of the college. meals are at their own discretion. Slovak Embassy, 25 Kensington Palace This year there has been a particular- To avoid any misunderstanding, the Gardens, London W8 4QY. ly high demand for the scheme and, accommodation is offered to the stu- while all the students have been found dents free of charge. The ECP students work placements, there are still some who choose to take up this opportunity Friday November 25. who are looking for are 18-19 years old, bright and lively. BCSA Annual Dinner accommodation. The students’ work Hosts always seem to enjoy having See this page, left, for full details experience runs for five days, from them to stay. Monday October 24 to Friday October If you think you may be able to help or Saturday December 3, 9.45am-5pm. 28. have any further queries, contact Ann Anti-Nazi Refugees from Students arrive the weekend before Lewis at [email protected] Czechoslovakia in Britain. at a time to suit their hosts and depart See page 8, left, for full details. September/October/November 2016 9 BCSA Review 10-11THIS ONESEP_OCT_NOV 2016.qxp_PP6/7 June/July09 15/09/2016 16:32 Page 2

BRITISH CZECH AND SLOVAK REVIEW November winds bring Czech films to the UK Peter Hames takes a look at films featuring in this year’s Made in Prague festival t is now 20 years since the Czech turns her into a virtual Jeanne d’Arc. This is After his success with Cesta ven (The Way Centre launched the first ‘Made in emphasised in the impressive black and Out), Petr Václav returns with a particularly Prague’ festival at the Riverside white wide screen photography by Polish bleak portrait of contemporary Czech reality Studios in Hammersmith. It is fitting director of photography Adam Sikora. in Nikdy nejsme sami (We Are Never Alone). that its latest version – the most Family Film, a second film by Slovenian It is an examination of the lives of two Iambitious yet – extends through both theatre director Olmo Omerzu, who attracted neighbours, one unemployed, disturbed, and and film with special performances by the attention with his P íliš mladá noc (A Night believing that he is suffering from a terminal Dejvické theatre (Petr Zelenka’s Theremin, Too Young), won the Best Feature Film disease, the other a prison guard who fears the Irvine Welsh adaptation A Blockage in award at Plze , and provides an excellent retribution from his ex-wards. Aggressive the System, and The Winter’s Tale). portrait of teenage behaviour while the and polemical, with an often black humour, There is also an extensive range of recent parents are away. An impressive mix of it is ultimately about wider issues – globali- film titles based at the Regent Street Cinema black comedy and domestic drama, it sation, privatisation, democratic failure – but and across a range of other venues through- provides some perverse combinations – totally avoids traditional Czech ‘humanism’. out November. The film selection marks one realist interaction is counter pointed by Home Care and The Snake Brothers (see of the most ambitious yet, with a wide range parents sailing the Pacific with their pet dog BCSA Review, issue 147 November/ of titles (mostly unseen in this country), – but it’s a challenging work revealing a real December 2015), like most of the other including many recent award winners such film-making talent. titles, focus on social issues, this time with as Rodinný film (Family Film), Domácí pé e Eva Nová is an award winning feature much of the alleviating humour that we have (Home Care), Eva Nová, and Kobry a užovky (Critics Award at Toronto) by Slovak come to expect. Slávek Horák’s Home Care (The Snake Brothers). documentary director Marko Škop and was based on his mother’s experience as a One of the most interesting titles now features an impressive performance by home care nurse and filmed largely in his acquired for British release is Já, Olga Emilia Vášáryová in the main role. An parents’ house near Zlín. Vlasta works as a Hepnarová (I Olga Hepnarova), a debut film ageing actress (62) finds that she is no longer home care nurse, discovers she has terminal directed by Tomáš Weinreb and Petr Kazda. wanted, loses touch with her profession, and cancer, and attempts a cure via alternative It is a reconstruction of the events that led a is forced to find work as a cleaner and shelf therapy. young girl to drive a lorry into a bus queue stacker. The film’s main emphasis, however, Examining her reactions on a in Prague in the early 1970s. Variously is on her attempts to re-establish relations number of levels, the film is in no way diagnosed as psychopathic and psychotic with the son she abandoned as a child. At downbeat, and has plenty of humour and (but never examined), she was the last times it is a Loachian-style social drama sophisticated characterisation. woman to be executed in Czechoslovakia. focussing on issues of employment and Jan Prušinovský’s The Snake Brothers is It is based closely on her letters and family breakdown but it is also an unusual also set far from Prague, where life in a available evidence, it raises a number of take on the theatrical profession. A clever desolate small town offers little hope for issues around the subject. However, it also performance by Vášáryová effectively Cobra and Viper (the two ‘snake brothers’). identifies closely with the central figure and, confronts the issues of both conscience and Viper seizes an economic opportunity while rather than give a primarily ‘realist’ portrait, ageing. Cobra (an unrepentant drug addict and thief) undermines it. Again, humour is a major constituent and the script cleverly develops the relationships between the two brothers (played by Kryštof and Mat j Hádek respectively). Also receiving a welcome screening is Št pán Altrichter’s Czech-German production Schmitke, in which an ageing engineer is sent to the former Sudetenland to service ageing wind machines. What begins as social drama turns into a sometimes comic sometimes sinister journey made with a genuine cinematic flair. The area of genre film is also well represented with Andy Fehu’s commercially successful Nenasytná Tiffany (Greedy Tiffany), with its story of a dangerous treasure yielding plant given added force through Leoš Noha’s clever performance in the central role. The slightly more conventional Polednice (The Noonday Witch) (shown at this year’s London Film Festival) tells the story of Eliška (A a Geislerová) and her small daughter as they return to a small and idyllic Picture: Courtesy Endorfilm 10 September/October/November 2016 BCSA Review 10-11THIS ONESEP_OCT_NOV 2016.qxp_PP6/7 June/July09 15/09/2016 16:32 Page 3

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Left: Karel Roden in Rodinný film . Above: Michalina Olszanska as Olga in Já, Olga Hepnarová country village to ‘find peace and quiet’. Much of the above suggests that Czech for a limited ‘foreign language’ market is Sharply directed by Ji í Sádek, it expertly and Slovak cinema is beginning to reassert increasingly cut-throat and all the while film mixes the horrors and tensions of everyday its aesthetic integrity. Given the return of festivals continue to perceive East-Central relations with the legend of the noonday Zelenka with last year’s Ztraceni v Mnichov Europe as a cultural bloc, there is only room witch familiar from Erben’s Kytice. (Lost in Munich) and Jan H ebejk’s expert for one ‘New Wave’ – and, at the moment, it The festival offers two documentaries – handling of this year’s U itelka (The is Romanian. Zkáza krásou (Doomed Beauty) by Helena Teacher) , there is much promising activity – To open the festival, there’s a special T eštiková and Jakub Hejna and Eva to say nothing of the already established screening of Gustav Machatý’s silent classic Tomanová’s Stále spolu (Always Together) . ‘wave’ of Slovak women directors – Zuzana Erotikon at the Barbican – with theremin and The first contrasts interview material with Liová, Mira Fornay, Iveta Grofová. piano accompaniment by Lydia Kavina and Lidá Baarová that T estíková recorded in the All of the films in this year’s Made in Thomas Angs – an experience not to be 1990s with documentary footage from both Prague season, organised by the Czech missed. There is also a special screening of Czech and German archives in an ambitious Centre, are worth the attention of a wider the Oscar-winning Obchod na korze (The attempt to recall the 1930s ambience of her British audience but, of course, this is Shop on the High Street) to mark its release legendary and controversial career. difficult to achieve. International competition on DVD and Blu-ray. September/October/November 2016 11 BCSA Review 12-13 Sep_Oct_Nov 2016.qxp_PP6/7 June/July09 15/09/2016 16:34 Page 2

BRITISH CZECH AND SLOVAK REVIEW AA storystory ofof ambushambush andand revengerevenge toldtold andand retoldretold The attack on Reinhardt Heydrich, the third man in the Nazi Reich after

Himmler, one of the most he dimensions of heroism, self-sacrifice and betrayal of those who were sent from dramatic episodes of World London to assassinate the Butcher of Prague and the bestial revenge unleashed by the War ll, has been the Nazis after Heydrich’s death was Tunprecedented even in war time. Two villages – Lidice and Ležáky – were razed to inspiration behind a number ground, the male inhabitants killed, the women sent to concentration camps, most of the children gassed in an of films and novels. extermination camp in the East and thousands of suspects were executed in Prague. The Nazi revenge, which Angela Spindler-Brown became known as Heydrichiáda in Czechoslovakia, has never been forgotten. It is as etched on the Czech people’s memory as is the attack on Pearl Harbour on the recalls them here. Americans. Operation Anthropoid, just released in the UK, is the Hrabal revisited by an English reader by Edward Peacock was wholly unprepared for the book of 19 short stories I’ve just unsuccessful attempts to stop his ram impregnating his ewes. A read by Bohumil Hrabal (translated from the Czech). Indeed, third tells of a grossly fat man who lies down to weed his garden Imy creative writing tutor impressed on us the need for short sto- and who talks endlessly about ‘fining’ salami, but he is so greedy ries to be taut, carefully structured affairs. that he always eats the salami before it has hung for the requisite Now I expect short stories to be, say, 2,000 words long, quick time. and to the point, unrepetitive, with only key details and with a A fourth tale is about a self-appointed expert and organiser who clever twist at the end. However, I had not read Hrabal before. appears at every village festivity and he insists on helping villagers Those of you more in the know will be smiling at this point. The in whatever they do but, unfortunately, his advice is usually wrong. title should have given me a clue: Rambling on: An Apprentice’s My favourite is a wonderful story of a feast shared by rival hunt- Guide to the Gift of the Gab. ing clubs. They have quarrelled over who should have a Sometimes little happens, the narrators ramble, on and on in sen- celebratory feast, to eat a boar that fled from the territory of one tences that often run for whole pages with multiple bizarre images group to be shot in the other’s (in a school, in front of the and adjectives tumbling over each other. They add up to a glorious children). They agree to have a joint banquet. The details of the depiction of life in the 1970s in the forest village of Kersko. They chase and of the feast are gleefully related, along with arguments often seem to be about men going to the pub. An array of over the menu and practical jokes played during the meal, which at eccentrics are lovingly described, along with cherished country rit- one point has a dangerous stand-off with both sides pointing guns uals such as those surrounding the killing of a pig. Hrabal wrote these stories around 1975 but they were not at each other. published in this form until after 1989 because some of the The last two stories become increasingly surreal – stream of stories were suppressed or altered on the instructions of the consciousness monologues in which I admired the writing even Communist censors. Why they found some of these tales though there was little narrative to follow. offensive is often hard to understand today: the portrait of a police- This translation was published by Charles University in Prague. man might be off limits (he is inordinately proud of his medals, It has several colour illustrations by Ji í Grus. There is an and so punctilious in his job that he loiters off-duty in the woods Afterword by the editor, Václav Kadlec, which gives some helpful at night to nab drivers leaving the pub, including his own son). background. But why forbid a story of a man’s pursuit (in two senses) of a There’s also a Translator’s Note by David Short in which he woman who is much taken with his coiffure, which he has speaks of the peculiar difficulties that abound in translating the carefully nurtured to resemble that of Ján Pivarník, the famous rambling style of these stories, and how he set about overcoming Slovak footballer of the day (who was not unlike Bobby Moore)? them. Successfully, in my opinion. We read of a hoarder of useless ‘bargains’, who gets the This edition appeared in 2014, and was reviewed at the time in narrator’s help in cutting up a sheep. Another story is a hymn to the issue 141 of the BCSA Review by Zuzana Slobodova in her article beauty of apple blossom, and a surreal account of a farmer’s Restoring Hrabal.

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latest attempt to tell the story of Heydrich’s death and what followed. A Czech British co-production, the feature film is directed by Sean Ellis, based on a screen play by Anthony Frewin. The parachutists Czech Jan Kubiš and Slovak Jozef Gab ík are played by British Jamie Dornan and Irish Cillian Murphy. Immediately after the news of Lidice’s fate, the German Nobel Prize writer, Heinrich Mann, exiled in the USA, wrote a novel about the massacre. In Hollywood Bertold Brecht and Fritz Lang made a film Hangmen Also Die! about those events in 1943. The Silent Village was shot in Wales by Humphrey Jennings the same year. It was a documentary style film where he ingeniously retells the story as if it was happening in Cwmgiedd, whose inhabitants re-enact the tragic events. Today his film is considered a classic British cinema work. Operation Daybreak, a British feature film directed by Lewis Gilbert, with Martin Shaw and Timothy Bottoms in Top left, a poster the leading roles of the parachutists, was advertising the first film made in 1975 and released worldwide. about Heydrich’s Atentat was made in 1965: it was the nefarious activities and his inevitable assassination, first Czech attempt to tell the heroic made in 1943. story in film. It was shot on authentic Top right, a still from the locations, utilising historical war time just released film, documents. It was based on the Anthropoid. (Pictured are recollections of witnesses who lived Cillian Murphy and Jamie through those events and were affected Dornan). Centre, taken by them. The film was directed by Ji í from Hangmen Also Die! Sequens. made in the USA. Jan Kaplan a Czech film maker based Left, Reinhardt Heydrich in London, made a television programme about the assassination in 1992, marking the 50th anniversary of Anthropoid will be the events. The documentary combined showing at the Regent German archive newsreel footage with Street Cinema, dramatic reconstructions. London, on October 23 To be released later this year is at 4.30pm and October HHhH, the latest film about the 24 at 8.30pm. assassination of the tyrant. Based on a It will also be showing novel by a Paris teacher Laurent Binet, at the Royal Spa life is breathed into the preparations by Centre Cinema, two Czechoslovakian parachutists who Leamington, on were going to put an end to the activities of the man whom even Hitler called ‘the October 22, 24 and 25 man with the iron heart’. at 7.30pm and on October 23 at 2.30pm. September/October/November 2016 13 BCSA Review 14-15COL THIS ONE sep_oct_nov 2016.qxp_PP6/7 June/July09 15/09/2016 16:33 Page 2

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The art incident of 1911 Ivan Margolius relates a complex tale of the confrontation that ensued between Prague’s early Cubist movement and the more traditional artistic establishment stable for four horses, shed and garden accessible directly from the café. On the very corner of the building was a carved stone with the head of a grimacing man. The building was demolished in 1949. The clientele were a bohemian, creative mix. The celebrated head waiter František Patera was also a patron for some and was much admired by the café goers for his generosity in serving drinks and coffee for nothing or on extended credit to artists who could not afford to pay. He was employed at the Café from 1907 until 1925. Café goers were known for the many pranks carried out there. At one time a group of friends stood outside wondering where to go next. One of them, the sculp- tor Jan Štursa, bought a sausage from a kiosk nearby, ate a bit and pushed the rest into the open mouth of the stone head: “You have the rest, you beast, stuff your- self!” But back on that evening in 1911 Kubišta came out to the corridor, over- looked by the café’s kitchen, without knowing Ullmann or what his summons was about. Ullmann, asking him to come closer, said: “A word in your ear! Was it you who wrote the article about Boronali in the P ehled?” So who was Boronali and what about that donkey? Well, the drama has its ori- gins in France. A year before, in March 1910, a young French art critic, Roland Dorgelès, decided to ridicule the emerging modern art scene by employing the service of a donkey, Lolo, borrowed from the ‘Au Lapin Agile’ cabaret based at 22 de la rue des Saules in Montmartre. Lolo obligingly completed a pre- prepared sky and sea scene with several brushes of his tail. Dorgelès called the finished painting Et le soleil s’endormit sur l'Adriatique (‘Sunset over the Adriatic’) and signed it as Joachim-Raphaël Boronali (Boronali was an anagram of Aliboron, the donkey in La Fontaine’s fable Les voleurs et l’âne). Several days later the painting was displayed at the 26th Salon des Indépendants, There Dorgelès also distributed The Manifesto of Excessivism written under Boronali’s Italian sounding name. The painter and sculptor André Maillos offered to buy the picture for the n Wednesday February 22, The setting of the incident was the huge sum of 400 francs. In comparison 1911 around seven o’clock in famous Café Union, located on the first Raoul Dufy’s paintings could be bought the evening the artist Josef floor of an old Baroque building, origi- for two francs then. Art critics discussed Ullmann and his wife were nally called ‘At the Ratzenbek’ on the the painting seriously, until Dorgelès standing in the stair corridor corner of Ferdinand Avenue (now revealed the joke to Le Matin newspaper. Ooutside the interior spaces of Café Union Národní) and Na Perštýn in Prague. It Back in Prague the publisher and and asked František Davídek, the café was the meeting place for Prague artists, gallery owner František Topi , also based owner, to bring out a fellow painter, writers and sportsmen; the avant-garde on Ferdinand Avenue, had borrowed the Bohumil Kubišta. The incident that group Dev tsil was founded there on infamous painting from Maillos and ensued was a farce birthed in the artistic October 5, 1920. displayed it in the gallery’s street window. tension brought about by the challenge of In the 1850s the café premises Crowds of spectators gathered around the the merging Cubist movement. And it consisted of 11 salons, two meeting window, the majority of which gleefully involves a donkey. rooms, two kitchens, a cellar, wood store, celebrated how the modern movement –

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called New Primitivism in Bohemia (before it was named as Cubism) – had been ridiculed. At the same time in January and February 1911 Mánes Artists Association, which had its own magazine Volné sm ry, held its 35th members’ exhibition of the Czech moderne. However, the magazine Dílo of the rival Union of Creative Artists under the editorship of Alois Kalvoda was the main proponent voicing the views of the conservative members of the Czech art establishment and described the works of the young modernist artists as ‘childish babbles and doodles’. The magazine sneered about how the modern art had transferred from the Mánes pavilion in the Kinský Garden to the Topi shop window on Ferdinand Avenue. Dílo gladly printed letters received from the bewildered public: “Several young men have learned, not even properly, the donkey’s art in Paris and now similarly attack their canvases as if possessed by the Holy Spirit…” Kubišta in response to these attacks on his young colleagues and the new art wrote an article called Boronali and Topi Images: Opposite page, ‘Own Portrait’, Bohumil Kubišta, 1918, linocut. Above, Boronali’s painting, in P ehled magazine which was published which can now can be seen at Espace culturel Paul Bédu, 8 Bis rue Farnault, 91490 Milly-la-Foret, on February 17, 1911. He said that when France. Below, Interior of the Café Union. looking at the Boronali’s painting it was In the end Ullmann was found guilty openly expressed their opposition to the obvious that it had been originally painted and sentenced to 24-hours imprisonment younger men’s creativity. It was a fight by a human who had possibly chosen later amended to a fine of 30 crowns. for life and death. colours which harmonised by chance and Subsequently a number of young artists Kubišta, unable to support himself as on top were several uncoordinated blots and architects left Mánes including an artist, recruited into the Austrian and smudges. He carried on: “We know Kubišta, Filla, Josef Šíma, Josef Go ár, Army in 1913 in order to receive a regular Kalvoda’s and Ullmann’s sketches and Pavel Janák and many others and income. He returned from the First World several reproductions from Dílo which established a new progressive Group of War – where he had fought as an artillery display also the same smudges brushed on Creative Artists although Kubišta decided officer near Pula in Croatia – to Prague an overpainted canvas. They are the so- not to join them. Their magazine was only to become ill with the Spanish flu in called ‘Moods’ that differ from Boronali Um lecký m sí ník which became the voice Prague’s Hotel Arcivévoda Št pán (which only by having some sort of vague form of of Czech Cubism. Dílo celebrated their was the previous name of the current landscape composition.” departure from Mánes and proclaimed Grand Hotel Evropa) where he was Kubišta was astonished by Ullmann’s that the association became thus staying. He was transferred to the military remark but confirmed his authorship of ‘healthier’ and mockingly commented that hospital on Charles Square where he died the article. Ullmann satisfied with his ‘the way toward the wide world is now at the age of 34 on November 27, 1918. answer pronounced: “I’m Ullmann and open to them’. In 1920 Jan Zrzavý wrote about take this for your article!” and pulled out Kubišta in his The Necessity of Criticism Kubišta’s work (incidentally Zrzavý of his pocket a prepared stock-whip, article published in Volné sm ry XVII/1, marvelled at Kubišta’s appropriate name possibly made out of a dog leash, and 1913 said: “In art it is necessary in all – Kubista): “Some of Kubišta’s work is lashed three times at Kubišta who did not circumstances to defend freedom of distantly similar to Picasso’s paintings. react. A policeman was summoned and expression in painting as well in criticism; But that is only an illusion. They have Ullmann confessed to his action that was thus any such terror would be preventable nothing in common except the surface, the witnessed by Ullmann’s wife, Davídek, and everybody would be given freedom to manner of problem solution, but their aim kitchen staff and the painter Emil Filla. bring and present his or her work to be and spirit are totally different. The young artists in the Café Union assessed by the most just and unbiased “Where Picasso cares only for the rallied round Kubišta in support; this was ruling, the ruling of progress and surface and its pictorial quality, Kubišta an attack not against an individual but development.” Years later Emil Filla goes into the depth and infuses spirit against their new convictions and their remembered the Mánes split was not just everywhere. His reality is spiritual almost art. Initially Kubišta invited Ullmann to a caused by Cubism. The older members mystical.” duel, although by then duelling was forbidden in Austro-Hungary, and his two seconds, Filla and theatre director Jan Bor were sent to arrange it. Ullmann refused to even come to the door of his apartment to respond to the duel invitation. Kubišta decided to take the dispute to the regional court. The proceedings took place on March 21, 1911 with a large number in attendance from both camps. Ullmann did not appear and was represented by an articled clerk, JU Dr Zhorský. Kubišta was present and his lawyer was JU Dr František e ovský. Zhorský argued that the 41-year old Ullmann was disturbed by the unjust criticism presented by his younger colleague, 27-year old Kubišta whom he did not know and in his agitated state had used the stock-whip which he had had on him ‘by chance’. However, the defence lawyer was unable to explain why the publicly acclaimed and admired painter had to resort to the stock-whip to defend his position and artistic honour. September/October/November 2016 15 BCSA Review 152 COLBACK sep_oct_nov16.qxp_COLBack June/July 09 15/09/2016 16:31 Page 1

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Editor: Angela Spindler-Brown Production: Christine Mayhew-Smith, Alex Mayhew-Smith Published four times a year. The British Czech and Slovak Review ISSN 1471-9525 is published by The British Czech and Slovak Association, 643 Harrow Road, Wembley, Middlesex HA0 2EX. Charity number 1049411. Internet: www.bcsa.co.uk, e-mail: [email protected]. The views and opinions expressed by contributors are not necessarily those of the BCSA. Reproduction of any part of the Review without the publisher’s permission is not permitted. Printed by ITIQ.