Czechmatediary

Do you know what I love the most about blogging with Czechmate Diary? I learn something new almost every day! For instance, take this example: did you know that Baltimore used to have a neighborhood called Little Bohemia? I had no idea this Maryland capital has traces of Czech heritage!

I guess the city is known for its painted screens (see image above), which seem to be a mark of almost every house. This popular art craze was started by a CZECH GUY, William Octavec, who in 1913 painted his first screen, illustrating goods for sale inside his store.

This eye-opening article was sent to me by one of you guys, so thank you! If you would like to read the whole story click here.

CZ: Vite, co se mi na blogovani s Czechmate Diary libi nejvic? Ze se neustale dovidam plno novych informaci. Napriklad toto: vedeli jste, ze Baltimore, hlavni mesto Marylandu, mival mestkou ctvrt zvanou “Little Bohemia”? A to neni vsechno! Toto mesto je pry take velmi zname svymi malbami na oknech skoro kazdeho domecku. Tento prazvlastni malirsky trend zacal v roce 1913 Cech William Octavec, ktery se rohodl pokreslit okna sve samoobsluhy obrazky zbozi, ktere bylo v krame k dostani.

Clanek mi poslala jedna ctenarka, tak ji za to vrele dekuji. Podrobnosti si muzete precist zde.

It has been 25 years since the most beautiful railway station in Central Europe was shamelessly destroyed by the Czech communist government. The Tesnovske station (formerly called Denisova station) was replaced by a horrendous highway which now runs right through Wenceslas Square – the heart of the historical center of Prague (see image below). How could the communists be so insensitive? Well, the railway station was not as productive as the very functional planned freeway – that is why. It fits perfectly with the communist ideology. “The communists considered historical buildings to be a backsliding architectural style. Such structures were symbols of bourgeoisie and the communists hated them,” explains Zdenek Lukes, the architectural historian. (more…)

Maybe you guys have already seen this World War II documentary but if you haven’t you definitely should. Tonight! “Into the Arms of Strangers” tells a story of a kindertransport, a train transport heading for England that saved the lives of over 10,000 Jewish children, from which many of them were Czech. In fact, one of the interviewed people was Eva Hayman from Celakovice, who was about 10 years old when she boarded that train never to see her parents again.

WARNING: This movie is a tear jerker.

CZ: Jestli jste jeste nevideli dokument zvany “Into the Arms of Strangers”, hned si ho dneska objednejte na Netflix, abyste na nej nezapomneli! Shlednuti tohoto filmu je naprosta nutnost. Vypravi se v nem o tzv. ‘kindertransportu’, zeleznicnim prevozu 10,000 zidovskych deti ze zemi jako je Nemecko, Rakousko, Polsko a Cechy, do bezpecne Anglie.

Jedna z  dotazovanych osob je pani Eva Hayman z Celakovic, ktere bylo kolem 10-ti let, kdyz do jednoho z techto vlaku nastoupila, aniz by se v budoucnosti opet shledala se svymi rodici.

VAROVANI: Film vas asi rozbreci

The second part of the history of Czechs in Ohio is here (you can read the first part here) and even though I do not live in Ohio myself, I was engrossed in reading (and translating!) it:

‘So Gustav Adam, the first Czech immigrant to Ohio, was dead and what happened then? The Czech immigrant torch overtook Jindrich Hladik from Prague and a few Czech Jewish men such as Leopold Levy from Smetanova Lhota u Pisku, Bernard Weidenthal from Vestice u Tabora and Zikmund Stein from Prague. Levy had a fabric store  and Stein opened up a little pub on  Seneca Street, while Hladik owned a food market. In 1849 inhabited Cleveland also a 22-year-old Abraham Weindenthal whose offspring became excellent journalists.

In 1852 arrived to Cleveland 16 new Czech families and their beginnings were not pretty. Since the women were accustomed going to the town bare-foot and with scarfs tied around their heads, the locals thought of them as Gypsies. (more…)

Everyone has heard of Cleveland, the second most industrial city in the USA. But not everyone knows that all of its machinery was built  by the Eastern European immigrants, including the Czechs.

Ohio in the 18th century was inhabited only by Indians, while the land itself was fought over by the French and the English. While those two nationalities were fearlessly fighting for the land, the Moravian christian missionaries (Moravian Brethren) were fighting for the Indian souls. Besides Christianity the missionaries taught the Indians about hygiene, various useful crafts and farming. About 100 years later the main Indian colony located on the Tuscarawas river was visited by a famous Moravian missionary, David Zeisberger. David befriended the Indian chief of the Netawatweese clan who adviced him to ride down the local river to find a new home for himself. (more…)

I meet a bunch of very interesting people through this blog. Just the other day I was contacted by Jan Hanzal who lives in the Czech Republic. Does that name sound familiar? No? How about if I mention the names of some great Czech movies like “Tri veterani“, “Slavnosti snezenek“, or “Prazska petka“??? Do those ring the bell? Well, Jan Hanzal was one of the camera men who shot those movies! Isn’t that cool??

Anyhow, ever since 1991 Jan has been working on his own projects, one of which is also an exciting multimedia historical project called “The Dark Star Quest“. Please read this introduction and make sure that you send it to other people who you think would be interested in it!

‘ The preparations for multimedia project “The Dark Star Quest” begun in May 2008, following the steps of the historical messengers sent out by Czech king Jiri of Podebrady in 1465. Roughly forty quest members, lead by Sir Lev of Rozmital and of Blatna, had the task to visit and gain the approval of the European Christian monarchs and rulers to begin the creation of the European Community. The proposed concept of this remarkable and futuristic idea can be considered as the image model of our current European Union.

On November 25, 1465 the Quest began its journey from part of Prague and from part of Blatna castle, across Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, England, France, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Slovenia and Austria to return to Czech the spring of 1467. (more…)

Hi folks!

In case you are STILL looking for Christmas presents here is an option :0):

CZ: Ahoj lidicky, jestlize STALE hleadate ten pravy darek pro nekoho k vanocum, tady je napad :0):
(more…)

One of you guys discovered this great video presentation on the transformation of Czechoslovakia since the end of the Cold War and its impact on international business. The presentation is done by a professor (Peter Petrik) who was born and raised in Czechoslovakia (today Slovakia) and who not only knows his history very well but can also give you some personal insight on it.

CZ: Jeden z vas, ctenaru, objevil vyborne video zabyvajici se transformaci byvaleho Ceskoslovenska od konce studene valky a jaky tato transformace mela efekt na mezinarodni obchod.

From Behind the Iron Curtain to Membership in the European Union from Slovak on Vimeo.

This one will make you laugh. The attachment bellow is a short article taken from a Czech magazine for children, written in 1960 (during  deep communism). Here is the translation:

“When you, my little pioneer, are going to be 30 or 35 years old, you will wake up into the world which will be completely different from today. The communist comrades in the USSR and in our country will have available many automated factories, agricultural jobs will be done through various industrial ways and we will work 6 hours a day. At this time our discovery crew will be reaching the deepest parts of space. All these great things will have a great impact on our everyday life: 250 million tons of steel, the abundance of all appliances, free public transportation, free food at the school and factory cafeterias, living in huge appartments free of charge, free or very inexpensive vacation trips and so on. This in not a beginning of some science fiction story in our magazine, it is a realistic 20-year program of the Communist party, something which is talked, written and thought about all over the world. The capitalist fame is quickly fading. After all, in 10 years the USSR will exceed the United States 2 and half times and in 1980 we will be ahead of the US in 10-folds. It is so beautiful to live in such world! (more…)

Jana, one of the avid readers of this blog, recommended to me a great Czech article about one’s psychological changes that come along with emigration. What a great topic since many of us are dealing with exactly that! This geographical transition can be the most difficult time in one’s life. In order to cope with a new environment one has to be ready to take risks, face many loses and be ready to possibly change some of his life attitudes and values. The author describes also the technical terms of the process where the first phase is called the getting-to-know-your-new-environment phase through which people usually sale with no problems. Most new things we come across during this time are exciting and interesting. This phase may also change into a so-called ‘honeymoon phase’, an euphoric feeling when one feels like he has arrived to some kind of a heavenly Promised Land. (more…)