Founding documents of Homérosz Organisation

Homérosz, the first homosexual organisation in Hungary, dedicated to AIDS prevention and integration of the homosexual community into Hungarian society, was founded in 1988. The president and the representative of the organisation was Dr Lajos Romsauer, a psychiatrist and activist who had been representing homosexuality and the homosexual community in public forums.

The founding documents of the Homérosz Society stated two important issues. Given the discriminative policies of the late socialist state, the only way to establish a homosexual association was to connect the recent phenomenon of AIDS as a public health issue to homosexuality, because, according to the foundational document, homosexuals were more promiscuous than heterosexuals.

After the foundation of Homérosz, referring to the Hungarian news agency (MTI), leading western news agencies (Reuters, AFP, EFE, dpa) reported on the event and represented it as a part of the Hungarian political transition.

Languages:
- English
- Hungarian
Creator:
- Romsauer, Lajos
Year of creation:
- 1987
Featured item of:
- Homérosz Association - Háttér Society Archives

Founding statement of the Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Prosecuted (VONS), 1978.

The founding statement of the Committee for the Defence of the Unjustly Prosecuted (VONS) of April 27^th, 1978, signed by seventeen signatories on the Charter 77, who posted their addresses so that people could find them. VONS's goal was to track the cases of people who had been prosecuted or imprisoned for their opinions and beliefs or who had become victims of police and judicial arbitrariness. VONS, by means of numbered communications, familiarised the domestic and international public with these cases and asked the Czechoslovak authorities for remedy. They helped to provide legal representation and mediate financial assistance to the unjustly persecuted and imprisoned.

The impulse for the creation of VONS was, among other things, the events associated with the Railroad Ball in January 1978, in which the signatories of the Charter 77 wanted to attend to. However, three of them were detained by the state security. In support of them, the Defence Committee was formed by Václav Havel, Pavel Landovský and Jaroslav Kukal, who gathered documents for their defence and informed the Czech and foreign public about the whole case. The accusations were released after six weeks and the prosecution was halted. This was a great success for committee members and other dissidents, so VONS was founded in May 1978.

Location:
- Na Zátorách 6, 170 00 Praha 7 - Holešovice, Czech Republic
Languages:
- Czech
Creator:
- Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Prosecuted (VONS)
Year of creation:
- 1978
Featured item of:
- VONS Collection of Czechoslovak Documentation Centre

Four "Brecht Chairs"

A special exhibition piece in the Heiner Müller Archiv / Transitraum are four chairs designed by Karl von Appen in 1956 for Bertolt Brecht's production of the "Leben des Galilei" [Life of Galileus] at the Berlin Ensemble stage. In Müller's possession they were by no means used as just props or basic furniture. They were meaningful, because in Müller’s early years he had declared his dream to become a master student of Brecht (1898-1956). In his work, Müller his entire life was inspired and guided by Brecht's theatrical style. The fact that he came from the Berlin Volksbühne theatre, and in 1992 took over as director of the Berlin Ensemble, which had been founded by Brecht, should be viewed as a late homecoming and the fulfillment of his long held dream.

Location:
- Berlin Dorotheenstraße 24, Germany 10117
Year of creation:
- 1956
Featured item of:
- Heiner Müller Archive / Transitroom

Front-page of the Bratislavské listy samizdat

Front-page of the second issue of Bratislava Papers from October 1988. The collection contains copies of all issues (5 issues). On every front page there was an editorial appeal and table of contents. Some contributors published under their real names, others under pseudonyms (on the photo: -el je-, V. D. etc.).

Languages:
- Slovak
Creator:
- Čarnogurský, Ján
Year of creation:
- 1988
Featured item of:
- Bratislavské listy Editorial Office Archive

Fulgosi, Nikša, dir. A Hundred Beauties per Day, 1971. Film

In some film and television works, director and screenwriter Niksa Fulgosi developed a subversive critical discourse that has the features of opposition. Sto ljepotica na dan [A Hundred Beauties per Day] is one of three films from his critical- feuilletonist trilogy of 1971 (which also includes Sto kletvi na sekundu [A Hundred Curses per Second] and Sto zaduženja Betike Gumbas [The Hundred Duties of Betika Gumbas]). It was broadcasted in abridged versions "approved for presentation."

Sto ljepotica na dan is a satirical and multi-layered presentation of Yugoslav society, which presents the novelty of beauty contests in a humorous way. The film is characterized by the sharp social and political satire of socialist society; under the guise of an event, the author critically interprets the current social problems such as faulty administration, social differences, backwardness, low standards and so forth. The original film is held in the Documentation Centre of Croatian Television in Zagreb.

Location:
- Zagreb Prisavlje ulica 3, Croatia 10000
Languages:
- Croatian
Creator:
- Fulgosi, Nikša
Year of creation:
- 1971
Featured item of:
- Nikša Fulgosi Film Collection