http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/TheCzechRepublic

Advertisement:

The Czech Republic (Czech: Česká republika), also known as Czechia (Czech: Česko), is a country in Central Europe, established in 1993 after the Velvet Divorce of Czechoslovakia, with a population of 10.5 million people. Even though it was formerly part of the Soviet Bloc (not the Union), it is doing quite well economically and popular ideas about backwater Eastern European countries largely don't apply.

With a history of Reformation predating Martin Luther and John Calvin (utraquists and Unity of Brethren ) and subsequent recatholisation, most of the population today is atheist (or agnostic) with a Catholic minority (and even smaller Protestant and other minorities).

The official language is Czech, a Western Slavic language. It is mutually intelligible with Slovak, and, as with all Slavic languages, quite easy to learn if you know another Slavic language. (In the case of Czech, this is particularly true of the third major West Slavic language, Polish, which is almost but not quite mutually intelligible. Beware false friends between Slavic languages.note Especially between Russian and Czech, where usually neutral Eastern Slavic words have often taken on negative meanings in Western Slavic languages.) Czech is one of the few phonetically written languages, which means that words are written pretty much exactly how they sound. The Czech sentence "Strč prst skrz krk" (meaning "shove your finger through your neck") is considered one of the most difficult tongue-twisters on Earth. (Czechs are also, possibly, the nation that invented those weird tea-leaves above letters, called diacritics, which definitely help Czech in being a phonetically written language.)

Advertisement:

Just like the Central African Republic and the Dominican Republic, it is one the few countries that has "Republic" in its colloquial English name. CzechiaCzech Česko is now the official short form name in English and is slowly becoming more widely used - Google Maps now uses it.

One of the reasons for this name is because Czech Republic refers to the country formed in 1993, but Czechia refers to all the countries the Czech nation resided in, dating back to the 7th century. (I.e. similar to the difference between Italy and 1946-onward's Italian Republic).

Very famous for its beer, the Czech Republic has the highest beer consuption per capita. The first monastic breweries in the area started operating in the 12th century. The most well known international brands are Pilsner Urquell (Plzeňský Prazdroj) and Budweiser Budvar (Budějovický Budvar), but there is also a number of small local breweries. However, wine is also grown, particularly in Southern Moravia. The Czech Republic is one of the northernmost wine-growing countries, with the first vines introduced in the 14th century by Charles IV. But foreigners rarely learn this, because Czechs tend to drink all the produce themselves.

Advertisement:

When Czechs are mentioned in anglophone fiction, expect an inevitable Czech/Check/Cheque pun.note For example, a young Czech immigrant is getting picked on by some of the other students and is trying to hide from them, so she asks the teacher, "Could you cache a little Czech?" More obnoxiously, when Ian Hislop settled a libel case filed by Robert Maxwell , he famously said, "I've just written a fat cheque to a fat Czech."

It is also notable for being one of the most libertarian nations in Europe with very loose gun laws, even looser drug laws (all recreational drugs are decriminalized in personal-use quantities, and possession of smaller commercial quantities is equivalent to a parking ticket), and major movements towards privatization and deregulation (except where that conflicts with EU directives).

The Czech Republic has one of the densest railway networks in use in the world. Trainspotting is a fairly popular hobby, usually involving photography; the other is complaining about the company České dráhy (Czech Railways). The quality of the tracks is, indeed, somewhat lacking behind Western Europe, but compared to e.g. the USA, like most of Europe the Czech Republic is a public transport paradise. A modern Czech train got a role in Casino Royale (2006). Trains appear quite often in Czech films as well, e.g. in Closely Watched Trains.

Czechs are also very fond of "nature", hiking, mushroom picking, cycling, canoeing down rivers and so on. About a third of the country's area is covered in forests, although only a very small part of that is primeval. There is a large number of nature programs on TV (and some of the most popular radio programmes had to do with following the lives of animals and birds), various scientific pursuits are fairly popular, and there is a Czech research station in Antarctica .

History

A word of forewarning: Czech history (like most of history) is full of unrememberable dates. Many of the dates worth remembering involve the number 8. Some Czechs therefore feel superstitious about years that end in 8.

Before there were Slavs, there were Germanic tribes, and before there were Germanic tribes, there were Celtic tribes, which is where the name Bohemia for the Western part of the country originally comes from . And before the Celts, there was the closely related Knovíz Culture, which archeological forensics reveals to have been a Cannibal Tribe. The first Slavic consolidated state in the approximate area was Great Moravia , which is where the name for Moravia comes from, more or less.note Not really, because it's actually the name of a river, Morava, but, well, let's simplify things. It was the Slavs of Great Moravia that Cyril and Methodius created the not-yet-Cyrillic alphabet for. (And it hasn't been in use in the area for centuries.)

After the fall of Great Moravia at the beginning of the 10th century, the centre of power in the region shifted to Prague and the Přemyslid dynasty. There was the usual early medieval period of frequent infighting and dynastic disputes, interrupted by power wrangling with the neighbouring countries (especially Germany). The most famous ruler from this early period is St Wenceslas (Václav in Czech), who was immortalised in the anglophone world by the song Good King Wenceslas, but actually wasn't a king.

It was only Premysl Otakar I who gained a hereditary royal title in 1198. This, obviously, gave the country and the dynasty some added weight in international dealings. Chivalric lifestyle (the original) flourished. The Přemyslid kings also invited German settlers to help tame the wilder areas of the country, which lay foundations to the large German minority in the following centuries. Lots of castles were built, providing future filmmakers with a wide choice of shooting locations.

With Václav III's murder in 1306, there were only female Přemyslid heirs left, and with medieval politics being what they were, there was some fighting between their husbands before the reign settled with the Luxembourg dynasty. Charles IV , Czech king and Holy Roman Emperor, widely considered the greatest ruler of the Czech lands, was the second of that dynasty on the Czech throne. He founded the university in Prague and many other medieval monuments present in the country today, and made Prague into the cultural centre of the Holy Roman Empire.

It was also during his reign that the first religious dissenters started working in the country; during the reign of Charles' son Václav, the most famous of them, Jan Hus , gained prominency to such an extent that the Catholic church first excommunicated him and later (in 1415) burned him at the stake for heresy. His Czech followers were not pleased with that turn of events. That displeasure eventually grew into full on armed rebellion against the Prague city council; Václav apparently had a stroke when he heard, his brother the Roman Emperor Sigismund was not welcome in the Czech lands anymore and the Hussite Wars followed.

There was, eventually, a settlement that allowed Czechs to follow some of their beliefs with the rest of the Catholic church ignoring them. note After the more militant side not satisfied with this solution received a thorough beating in the Battle of Lipany in 1434, Sigismund came back as Czech king (and died a few years later). Later in the 15th century, the Czech nobility elected one of their own, Jiří z Poděbrad , as Czech king; he's notable for being the only one to be elected so, being the only non-Catholic on the Czech throne, and trying to start a peaceful union of (Christian) European nations against the Turkish threat.note Some Czechs now like to claim that idea was a predecessor to the European Union, except that a) it was more like the UN in concept, anyway; b) everyone else ignored him because he was not Catholic. Czech history does tend to come across as "we never get what we want even though we're right," to the point that Czech popular culture frequently pokes fun at it.

After yet another king died prematurely in 1526, the Austrian branch of the Hapsburg dynasty succeeded on the Czech throne, and stayed there until 1918 note although the last couple of them didn't even bother being crowned Czech Kings specifically. The last time Prague was a cultural centre was during the reign of Rudolf II (which is also the time when the famous legend of Golem takes place). After more political (and religious) tensions, Czech people once again resorted to defenestration against officials in Prague in 1618, starting the Thirty Years War (which, unlike the Hundred Years' War between England and France, did indeed last thirty years). After another Czech Famous Defeat in the Battle of White Mountain, the Hapsburgs consollidated their power by proclaiming Catholicism as the only religion allowed in the country and all the Protestants who could afford to do so emigrated (often to Poland). This left the country without whole generations of intellectual elites and open to recatholisation and influx of foreign nobility. This is the period when chateaus and palaces were built, providing a different kind of wide choice of filming backdrops for future filmmakers.

Another side effect of these events was the fact that at the end of the 18th century, Czech language was largely the language of peasants. Attempts to revitalise it and start a new Czech culture eventually, throughout the 19th century, led to attempts at greater political authonomy as well, which however did not materialise until independent Czechoslovakia was formed after WW1. During the war, many Czechs were forced to fight for Austria against their will, so when Czechoslovak legions were formed on the Allied side, naturally many Czech soldiers surrendered so they could join their national cause.note This started the 20th century trend of global events landing Czechs on the side they did not necessarily want to be.

A collection of a number of different ethnicitiesnote (Czechs/Bohemians, Moravians, Slovaks, Germans, Hungarians, and Ukrainians, and several stateless minorities like Jews or Romani), Czechoslovakia was formed after the Treaty of Versailles, but its diversity made it unstable. While it was economically (and culturally!) successful and notably retained a democratic system when many European nation states formed after WW1 fell into various totalitarian practices, the Germans and Hungarians wanted the self-determination doctrines paraded by America but not delivered at Versailles. After the First World War, people in other countries like Britain started to feel sorry for the Germans, who weren't maltreated in Czechoslovakia but didn't have any political autonomy. This sentiment was hijacked by Those Wacky Nazis and used as an excuse to take control of Germany, then the German-populated Sudetenland in autumn of 1938 which was given to Germany on the basis of the Munich Agreement, a pact signed by Germany, Italy and United Kingdom, France - two of Czechoslovakia's closest allies at the time. This allowed Hitler to step over the large border fortification system unscathed and proceeded to take the rest of the Czech lands in March 1939. Slovakia split into a fascist state.

Prague was comparatively untouched by the war. The Czech people were not. Hundreds of thousands went to the death camps, and the Lidice massacre, one of the most notorious war crimes of the war, took place as revenge for the assassination of Reichsprotektor Reinhard Heydrich. As Slavs, Czechs were considered sub-human and useful only for labour by the Nazis. note For example, after an incident with students, all universities were closed and young people of certain age were all sent to work for the Reich. The International Students' Day was designated in memory of these events. Like in the rest of Nazi-controlled Europe, the previously numerous Jewish population was nearly exterminated. However, other Czechs were actively fighting on the Allied side outside of the country. For example, Czechoslovak pilots fought with the RAF in WW2, and there was a number of Real Life Ace Pilots among them.

After World War II the Germans and Hungarians were expelled en-masse and Subcarpatian Ruthenia was annexed by the Soviet Union. In 1948, the Communists seized power through a coup d'etatnote An embarrassing moment in history, because it became possible through bad planning on the side of people who wanted to stop the growing communist power!, and dissident elements, including the Church(es), were quickly purged. Czechoslovakia was a founding member of Comecon (Soviet bloc economic organization) and the Warsaw Pact.

Readers who do not wish to come across as ignorant are strongly advised to remember that Czechoslovakia was never, ever part of the Soviet Union proper, only the so-called "Soviet bloc". Never using the adjective "Soviet" in reference to things Czech(oslovak) is a vital part of remembering.

In the 1960s, the atmosphere slowly thawed, leading to a surge in culture. In 1968, a Slovak reformist, Alexander Dubček, came to power and started a short period of liberalization, the Prague Spring, which lasted a few months until other Warsaw Pact countries (except Romania) invaded the country. When the Czech army was told they were being invaded, they ran to fortify the Western border, because invasion from their allies was inconceivable. Popular protest, at first almost universal, slowly died down; Jan Palach's 1969 attempt to rouse people did not have the desired effect.

In 1989, as part of Hole in Flag, the Velvet Revolution took place, the Communists were overthrown, and Czechoslovakia became a democracy. note In another recall of 20th century history throughout the 20th century, the popular protests that led to the regime's downfall started on November 17th, the International Students' Day, during a student memorial observation of the incidents from WW2. Three years later, the Czech and Slovakian halves separated in the "Velvet Divorce", with much of the national property note such as the Su-25 ground attack aircraft being split 2:1 for the Czechs because of their larger population.

The Czech Republic joined NATO in 1999, The European Union in 2004 and the Schengen Area (open borders inside Europe) in 2007. As of 2018, the currency is still koruna česká (the Czech Koruna, CZK). note Do not confuse with Koruna Česká, the small Czech monarchist party you're not very likely to come across.

Prague and other cities

Prague is the capital of the country and a global city. Despite the global status, it's far less expensive than most European cities of its stature (even notoriously cheap Berlin is more expensive). Being—as mentioned above—relatively untouched by the bombs of World War II, Prague is a popular place to film, particularly when an "old Europe" feeling is required. The Barrandov Studios are a particularly popular filming location for Hollywood movies such as xXx, Blade II, Mission: Impossible and The Bourne Identity. The cheapness also attracts tourists; Prague is a popular destination for Americans (and Canadians and Australians...) looking for a good time on a budget while still being able to say they went to Europe, as well as other Europeans (including, to the annoyance of many Praguers, British stag parties) looking for a short trip without expending too much on transportation or things when you get there. It is also a major European cultural centre. And the only city in the country with a metro.

Prague has a population of approximately 1.2 million people, which, of course, means there's a good 9.3 million Czechs who live somewhere else, for example in Brno (pronounced with two syllables, as in "Brur-no"), the second largest city and the capital of Moravia. Brno maintains a rivalry with Prague. It tends to be the more industrial of the two, usually holds the largest trade fairs in the country and has a major racetrack. It is, however, also another cultural centre, with its own National Theatre (formed three years after the one in Prague). It is also quickly becoming a more cosmopolitan city, possibly faster than Prague. Its historical centre is smaller than in Prague, but there are some notable examples of Modernist architecture, such as the Villa Tugendhat, to be found in Brno. Thanks to the closeness to the border with Slovakia and a number of Slovak students, you are much more likely to hear the Slovak language in Brno than in other Czech cities like Ostrava (originally noted for being the "black" - coal-mining - city, but becoming greener in recent years), Plzeň (noted for its beer and industry), Liberec (originally a very German city, these days noted for the transmitting tower and hotel on Jetěd ), etc.

Famous Czechs

The Czech Republic and its predecessors in fiction

Czech Popular Culture

The Czechoslovak New Wave is considered the golden age of Czech cinema. Films such as The Shop on Main Street and Closely Watched Trains are associated with this era.

As already mentioned, Jára Cimrman is a looming presence over Czech culture. Czechs love to quote idiosyncratic lines and everything Cimrman serves very well for that purpose, as well as other works by Zdeněk Svěrák and Ladislav Smoljak. Other favourites are e.g. Bohumil Hrabal, Saturnin or The Good Soldier vejk.

The vast majority of foreign TV Shows and films are dubbed, and all that are shown on television are subbed. Most movie theatres have both subtitled and dubbed screenings. The channel ČT2 sometimes shows subbed shows and movies meant for a narrow audience.

Regular & musical theatre is also widely popular, and even smaller cities often have their own theatre companies, thanks in part to state subsidies of the arts. This is, of course, always somewhat precarious with political changes, but it means that actors can find relatively stable work outside film, and like in the rest of Europe, most Czech actors therefore have some theatre experience.

Some video games have been developed in the Czech Republic, such as Mafia, Hidden & Dangerous, Vietcong, Operation Flashpoint, Original War, ARMA, Euro Truck Simulator, Hero of Many, Kingdom Come: Deliverance (which actually draws on some of the medieval history described above), and Attentat 1942 (about the German occupation and the assassination of Heydrich).'

Music in the Czech Republic is infinite. The saying "Every Czech is a musician" appears to be true. This is in part thanks to a unique system of local art schools that offer far more substantial education in the arts than after-school leisure activities in other countries do; the majority of students in those schools pursue music. There are many classically trained Czech musicians, and even those who go on to produce popular music often have at least some basic classical training.

The Czech Flag

The flag's white and red colours allude to the arms of Bohemia, the dominant region in the nation and home to the national capital of Prague; due to its similarity to the flag of Poland, a blue triangle was added at the hoist side. The flag itself was used in Czechoslovakia and was retained by the Czechs after Slovakia's separation.