1._THE_CZECH_REPUBLIC

- the Empire of Austria-Hungary collapsed after WWI and Czechs formed a new country with Slovaks –

the Czechoslovakia with first president Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk

- WWII was also destructive to the country – country was occupied by the Germans

- after the war ended, Czechoslovakia fell under the influence of the Soviet Union

- the country remained a Communist state until the peaceful revolution in 1989 -> the Czechs and Slovaks split ->

-> 1993 - the country we call the Czech Republic was put in the map

important dates in the Czech history

- 9th century - the Great Moravian Empire

- 10-14th century – Přemyslid and Lucemburk Dynasty rule

-1415 – the reformer Jan Hus burnt at stake in Konstanz, Germany

- 15th century – Hussite Wars

- 16th century – the Habsburg Dynasty gained the throne

- 1918 – Czechoslovakia was established, with the first president T. G. Masaryk

- 1938 – the Munich Agreement, the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia

- 1939 – 1945 - the Second World War was held

- 1945 – May Uprising in Prague, WWll ended

- about million Sudeten Germans expelled from Czechslovakia

- 1968 - „Prague Spring“was oppressed by the invasion of the Soviet army and the „normalization“

- 1989 – the Velvet Revolution, the Civil Forum was founded

- Václav Havel elected president

- 1st January 1993 – the Czech Republic was set up

- 1999 – the country joined the NATO and applied for EU membership

- 2004 - the country joined the EU

holidays

- 1st January – Anniversary of the Foundation of the Czech Republic in 1993

- 8th May – Anniversary of the End of the Second World War in 1945

- 5th July – Arrival of Slavic Missionaries Cyril and Methodius in 863

- 6th July – Master Jan Hus burnt at stake (1415)

- 28th September – St. Wenceslas Day – celebrating the patron saint of the country

- 28th October –Anniversary of the Foundation of Czechoslovakia in 1918

- Independence Day – is celebrated to commemorate the date in 1918 when Czechoslovakia was formed

- 17th November – The Struggle for Freedom and Democracy Day – remembers the students who protested both

- against the Nazis and Communism

famous personalities

-> sport

- Jaromír Jágr is famous ice-hockey player rand Dominik Hašek is famous goalkeeper

- Emil Zátopek is famous runner who managed to win three gold medals at the summer Olympics in Helsinki

- Roman Šebrle was the first decathlete ever to break the magical number of 9,000 points

-> music (composers)

- Bedřich Smetana is well known for his symphonic poem Vltava from the cycle My Country

- Antonín Dvořák, the author of Slavonic Dances and the symphony From the New World

-> art

- Karel Čapek is known for introducing the word “robot” in his play R.U.R.

- Milan Kundera reached international fame with his novels The Unbearable Lightness of Being and Immortality

- Jaroslav Seifert was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

- Miloš Forman is an Oscar-winning director

-> chemistry

- Professor Jaroslav Heyrovský was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for the invention and development of the polarographic method, a new branch of electrochemistry