Spisovatelské instituce v období krize demokracie (1934–1939)

• Authors: Tomáš Pavlíček

Title variants

EN

Writers’ Institutions and the Crisis of Democracy, 1934–39

• Languages of publication: CS

Abstracts

EN

In this article the author discusses certain activist groups in the arts, which were established in Czechoslovakia in an effort to infl uence current affairs in the 1930s. Their shared feature was the recognition that democracy was in crisis. Unlike other politically oriented arts institutions, for example, the Levá fronta (Left Front), these institutions endeavoured to speak out as representatives of all writers and other artists, and also dynamically to shape literary life. The author describes the genesis of writers’ public engagement beginning in the late 1920s and the context. He discusses the key people and their ideologies, analyzes their public statements, outlines the responses to them and debates they raised in the press, and seeks to identify their relationship to each other. The first and best known of the groups, the Community of Czechoslovak Writers (Obec československých spisovatelů), was established, in late November 1934, in immediate reaction to the events known as the ‘insignia affair’ ( insigniáda ). The resistance of students at the German University of Prague to the forced transfer of the ancient insignia of Charles University to the Czech University soon led to large nationalist demonstrations and unrest amongst the Czech right wing. Left-wing arts institutions also became their target. The authors from the liberal democratic centre, around Karel Čapek (1890–1938), together with moderate left-wingers, including writers expelled from the Czechoslovak Communist Party and eminent figures such as the literary critic F. X. Šalda (1867–1937), as well as Communist intellectuals, agreed on a common anti-Fascist manifesto. Roman Catholic writers refused to participate. A total of 261 individuals and 58 different groups or institutions signed the manifesto, but animosity amongst certain groups prevented unity in the Community of Writers, and the manifesto tended to lead to further internal polarization. The next reports that the author has of the Community of Czechoslovak Writers come from 1937 and 1938, when it established international contacts at anti-Fascist congresses of people in the arts. But the Community did not come out with a public statement till the Munich crisis in autumn 1938. The Community at this point managed to unite members of all groups within it, in order, alone or together with other organizations, to address people outside the country, with rousing appeals for international solidarity with the threatened Republic of Czechoslovakia. After the signing of the Munich Agreement, in the atmosphere of the growing campaigns against First Republic politicians and the Left, the community of writers again began to atomize and this was reflected in the membership and activities of the Community. For various reasons the Roman Catholic, conservative, and ruralist writers quit the Community. On the other hand, some writers of the older generation became members. The planned merging with the Syndicate of Czech Writers (Syndikát českých spisovatelů) was called off and, with the German occupation that began on 15 March 1939, the Community became defunct. In the substantially changed circumstances of the Second Republic (1 October 1938 to 14 March 1939), however, alternative institutions were established, enabling writers to speak out on political affairs. The ephemeral existence of these institutions is also discussed by the author. The most important was the National Arts Council (Národní kulturní rada). It was linked to the ideology of the governing National Unity Party (Strana národní jednoty), whose programme called for restrictions on the arts and their subordination to government bodies in a traditionalist, nationalist spirit. The National Arts Council soon vanished from the scene, however, only to be replaced, in the last week of the Second Republic, by the Arts Council (Kulturní rada) of the National Unity Party, a predominantly political body intended to control the arts.

Discipline

• HISTORY: HISTORY

• Publisher: Institute of Contemporary History, Czech Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Soudobé dějiny (Contemporary History)
• Year: 2010
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 565-612

Contributors

author

Tomáš Pavlíček

• Soudobé dějiny, redakce, Ústav pro soudobé dějiny AV ČR, v.v.i., Vlašská 9, 118 40 Praha 1, Czech Republic