Location

Ostrovní 13, 110 00 Praha 1, Czech Republic
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Languages

Czech
Slovak

Website

http://www.vaclavhavel.cz

Name of collection

Václav Havel Library

Provenance and cultural activities

Václav Havel was a dissident and leading representative of the cultural opposition in communist Czechoslovakia, who was persecuted by the regime, in particular after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. His works were banned and he was directly victimized by the communist authorities, spending several years in prison. Therefore, his cultural contributions (plays, essays, etc.) and human rights activities (e.g. Charter 77, the Committee for the Defence of the Unjustly Persecuted) were seen as part of the opposition movement. Moreover, his cooperation with the underground (e.g. support for the arrested members of the Plastic People of the Universe) helped to connect various spheres of the cultural opposition in communist Czechoslovakia. Therefore, the collection of the Václav Havel Library reflects not only the activities of Václav Havel himself and his circle of “intellectuals”, but it also shows how broad Czechoslovak cultural opposition was – ranging from intellectuals to underground musicians.

The Václav Havel Library (VHL) was founded in July 2004. The establishment of the VHL was initiated by Václav Havel’s wife Dagmar Havlová. She was inspired by the American tradition of libraries founded by statesmen after their presidency as a testimony to their political activities and era. The sociologist Miloslav Petrusek and politician Karel Schwarzenberg were also involved in establishing the VHL, while more people and institutions have been important in adding to the collection. Since August 2014, the Václav Havel Library has been located on Ostrovní Street in Prague 1. The permanent exhibition of the VHL, “Havel in a Nutshell”, which introduces visitors to the life of Václav Havel through a collage of photographs and quotations, is also located in this building.

The aims of the VHL are “to employ educational projects, debates, readings, theatre performances, concerts, lectures and other cultural activities to introduce the general public and specialists to the historical importance of the struggle for human rights and freedom in a totalitarian period and the subsequent creation of a civic society when rebuilding democracy; to organize archival research, documentation and library activities focused on the work of Václav Havel, as well as documents and other items linked to him, including expert analyses of their influence on the life of society and how it views itself; to organize academic research and publishing activities charting ‘Havel’s world.’ ” Therefore, the VHL is not only an archive and library, but it also organizes conferences, lectures, and programmes for schools. It also publishes Václav Havel’s own works, in addition to books about him, his family and close collaborators and friends. It also confers the Václav Havel Human Rights Prize.

The library uses modern technology and websites to make contact with the younger generation, such as the library website, its Facebook profile, and its YouTube channel. The library makes increasing use of the real-time streaming of its events. The VHLʼs educational projects are focused on primary-school pupils, secondary-school and university students. The aim of these projects is “to use the legacy of Václav Havel to motivate the younger generation to reflect on issues concerning civic society, democracy and human rights”. Since 2017 the VHL has been making online educational resources accessible to schools.

Description of content

The Documentation Centre of the Václav Havel Library administers a specialist library of over 5,350 catalogued titles, photography archives, and written documents, the digital processing of which has reached close to 50,300 entries. The VHL contains Václav Havel’s writings in the form of essays, articles, correspondence, interviews, plays, and poetry. It also includes texts, photographs, and films documenting Václav Havel’s life and his cultural opposition activities. Texts about Václav Havel written by various authors are also an important part of the collection. In general, the content of the collection, especially items originating from the period before 1989, covers topics such as samizdat production, the democratic opposition, the human rights movement, artistic creation, and underground culture. An important part of the VHL is also the personal archives. The Václav Havel Library administers, for example, the archives of the photographer Oldřich Škácha, the screenwriter Pavel Juráček and Ivan M. Havel, scientist and brother of Václav Havel.

Content

graphics: 0-9
manuscripts (ego-documents, diaries, notes, letters, drafts, etc.): 1000-
other artworks (that cannot be classified by other filter categories such as paintings, sculptures, graphics, etc.): 100-499
paintings: 0-9
photos: 1000-
publications (books, newspapers, articles, press clippings): 1000-
video recordings (including oral history recordings): 100-499
voice recordings (including oral history recordings): 10-99
voice recordings (including oral history recordings): 1000-

Operator(s)

Knihovna Václava Havla, o.p.s. (Václav Havel Library)

Owner(s)

Knihovna Václava Havla, o.p.s. (Václav Havel Library)

Stakeholder(s) of the collection

Vidlák, Martin

Geographical scope of recent operation

international

Topics

Founder(s)

Date of founding

2004

Place of founding

Praha, Prague, Czech Republic
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Creator(s) of content

Collector(s)

Supporters

Fondation Zdenek et Michaela Bakala

Important events in the history of the collection

Exhibition: Havel in a Nutshell, 2009-

Featured items

Access type

completely open to the public

Publications

Bratinka, Pavel, ed. 2011. Faustování s Havlem: Úvahy o archetypu Fausta ... Hrou pokoušení. Praha: Knihovna Václava Havla.

Dušek, David, and Alena Přibáňová. 2016. Václav Havel - zápisky obviněného: diář Václava Havla 1977. Praha: Knihovna Václava Havla.

Freimanová, Anna, ed. 2013. Příležitostný portrét Václava Havla. Praha: Knihovna Václava Havla.

Freimanová, Anna, ed. 2015. Gauneři z Horních Počernic: Zpráva o premiéře Žebrácké opery Václava Havla v roce 1975. Praha: Knihovna Václava Havla.

Havel, Ivan M., Jan Heller, and Martin C. Putna. 2010. Dopisy od Olgy. Praha: Knihovna Václava Havla.

Havel, Václav. 2012. Moc bezmocných a jiné eseje. Praha: Knihovna Václava Havla.

Havel, Václav, and Anna Freimanová. 2012. O divadle. Knihovna Václava Havla.

Havel, Václav, and Anna Freimanová. 2014. Sám sobě podezřelý. Praha: Knihovna Václava Havla.

Havel, Václav, and Jan Hron. 2015. Perzekuce Václava Havla: Dopisy a dokumenty z let 1968-1989. Praha: Knihovna Václava Havla.

Havel, Václav, Lenka Jungmannová, and Jan Šulc. 2013. Antikódy. Praha: Knihovna Václava Havla.

Havlová, Olga, Anna Freimanová, and Jarmila Bělíková, eds. 2013. Síla věcnosti Olgy Havlové. Praha: Knihovna Václava Havla.

Lukeš, Zdeněk. 2016. Praha Václava Havla: Průvodce po stavbách spojených s životem dramatika, disidenta a prezidenta. Praha: Knihovna Václava Havla.

Putna, Martin C., ed. 2009a. Měli jsme underground a máme prd: Podzemní básníci o Havlovi. Praha: Knihovna Václava Havla.

Putna, Martin C., ed. 2009b. Spiritualita Václava Havla: České a americké kontexty. Praha: Knihovna Václava Havla.

Putna, Martin C., ed. 2011. Václav Havel: duchovní portrét v rámu české kultury 20. století. Praha: Knihovna Václava Havla.

Putna, Martin C., and Jan Hron, eds. 2010. Rozhovory ’36 ; Stříbrný vítr: výběr z tvorby Šestatřicátníků. Praha: Knihovna Václava Havla.

Romanová, Gabriela. 2014. Příběh Edice Expedice. Praha: Knihovna Václava Havla.

Rutová, Nina. 2011. Havel v kostce: 14 lekcí o jedné osobnosti a každé době pro učitele a studenty. Praha: Knihovna Václava Havla.

Author(s) of this page

Kůželová, Michaela

References

Knihovna Václava Havla. 2018. "Knihovna Václava Havla: Výroční zpráva 2017." Accessible at http://www.vaclavhavel.cz/docs/vyrocni-zprava-2017-cs.pdf.

Knihovna Václava Havla. 2019. "Václav Havel". Accessed January 17. https://www.vaclavhavel.cz/#scr4.

Knihovna Václava Havla. 2019. "Vše o knihovně". Accessed January 17. https://www.vaclavhavel.cz/#scr7.

Vidlák, Martin, interview by Kůželová, Michaela, May 09, 2016. COURAGE Registry Oral History Collection

COURAGE

connecting collections

Václav Havel Library