Editorial Contents - THEO publishers

Editorial 

Dear Readers, 

I am very pleased to be able to introduce 

this issue devoted to the Czech 

technological heritage at a time when 

we are celebrating the three hundredth 

anniversary of the founding of 

the Czech Technical University, the 

oldest continuously operating university 

of technology in Europe. 

The Czech lands and especially 

Prague were known in the Middle 

Ages as an important centre for the 

crafts, science and arts. The reign of 

Charles IV in the fourteenth century 

saw the establishment of Charles 

University and the work of Matthew of 

Arras and Petr Parléř on the construction 

of Prague’s cathedral. Tycho 

de Brahe and Johannes Kepler did 

their scientific work in Prague at the 

turn of the seventeenth century under 

Emperor Rudolf II. Thus it was in 

keeping with tradition when Emperor 

Joseph I granted a request by 

Christian Josef Willenberg to be 

allowed to found a school of engineering 

in Prague. We regard this 

document, written in Czech and dated 

18 January 1707, as the founding 

charter of our university. In the 

eighteenth century Professors Willenberg, 

Jan Ferdinand Schor and 

František Antonín Herget laid the 

foundations for a true polytechnical 

university. In the early nineteenth 

century it was reorganized by František 

Josef Gerstner on the model of 

the École Polytechnique in Paris. 

Generations of professors and 

graduates of our school have taken 

part in the design and realization of 

the great technical works of this 

country and made many important 

contributions abroad as well. The 

Prague technical school nurtured 

Gerstner’s design for the first railroad 

on the European continent, and Josef 

Božek’s experiments with propelling 

a vehicle by steam power. Here 

Christian Doppler described the 

principle that laid the foundations for 

radar, the tools of cosmic exploration 

and the instruments that help us diagnose 

serious illnesses. Professors 

Josef Zítek and Josef Schulz created 

such Czech national symbols as the 

National Theatre, the National 

Museum and the Rudolfinum. The 

school, known since 1920 as the 

Czech Technical University in Prague, 

was the workplace of Antonín Svoboda, 

one of the world’s leading 

pioneers in computer technology, and 

Professor František Běhounek, wellknown 

physicist and polar explorer. 

The Czech lands once formed the 

industrial base of the Austro-Hungarian 

Empire, one of the great European 

powers, and the teaching and 

research activities of the Prague 

technical university were a large part 

of the reason for this. 

Between the wars Czechoslovakia 

was one of the world’s top ten industrial 

powers. Today we seek to follow 

in the footsteps of the great scholars 

who served at Prague’s technical 

university, to teach using modern 

methods at a high level of quality, and 

hold our own research activity up to 

the light of worldwide competition. 

This issue’s profile of the institution 

should make that clear. 

Václav Havlíček 

Rector, Czech Technical 

University in Prague 

Contents 

Prague Runs on Babylonian Time 

– the story of Prague’s astronomical 

clock, a tourist attraction and symbol 

of Czech statehood 

pages 4 – 7 

The “Golden Age” of Restoration 

– the development of Czech restoration 

activities, paradoxically hastened by the 

catastrophic flood in August 2002 

pages 8 – 11 

The Magic of Czech Railways 

– railway lines that are unique from 

a technical point of view or because 

of their route 

pages 12 – 15 

300 Years of the Czech Technical 

University 

– the tercentenary of an institution 

that served as a model for the Vienna 

Polytechnic 

pages 16 – 19 

Gallery 

– the insignia of CTU’s seven faculties, 

masterpieces of art and craftsmanship 

pages 20 – 21 

The Tatra 

– the story of a famous brand-name – 

vehicles whose revolutionary concepts 

kept causing great stirs 

pages 22 – 25 

Those Magnificent Men in their 

Flying Machines 

– the first Czech aviators and their 

modest beginnings in a field outside 

Pardubice 

pages 26 – 29 

Czech Intellects 

– the most ambitious Czech project 

in support of research, a product of 

the private sector 

pages 30 – 33 

Mosaic 

– interesting people and events 

in the Czech Republic 

pages 34 – 35 

Auto Parts for the World 

– the automotive industry becomes the 

driving force behind the Czech economy 

pages 36 – 38 

The Heart of Europe appears six times a year and presents 

a picture of life in the Czech Republic. The views expressed 

in the articles are those of their authors and do not necessarily 

represent the official positions of the Czech government. 

Material appearing in the magazine cannot be reprinted 

without the permission of the publisher. Subscription orders 

should be sent to the editorial office of the magazine. 

Publisher, in cooperation with the Foreign Ministry of the 

Czech Republic, Theo Publishing. 

Editorial office: 

J. Poppera 18, 530 06 Pardubice, Czech Republic 

Editor-in-chief: Pavel Šmíd, Art editor: Karel Nedvěd 

Chairman of the Editorial Board: Zuzana Opletalová, Director 

of the Press Section of the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs 

and spokesman for the Minister of Foreign Affairs 

Members of the Editorial Board: Libuše Bautzová, Pavel 

Fischer, Vladimír Hulec, Robert Janás, Milan Knížák, Martin 

Krafl, Eva Ocisková, Tomáš Pojar, Jan Šilpoch, Petr Vágner, 

Petr Volf, Marek Skolil 

Translation by members of the Department of English and 

American Studies, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University, Brno 

Lithography and print by VČT Sezemice 

ISSN 1210–7727 

Internet: http://www.theo.cz 

Publisher’s e-mail:pavelsmid@theo.cz 

3

4 

Prague 

Runs on Babylonian Time 

A planetarium, a puppet 

performance and 

a calendar – the astronomical 

clock on Prague’s 

Old Town 

Square is all three at 

once. The theatre performance 

lasts only 

a minute. The same 

procession of puppet 

mimes has been played 

out time and time 

again for centuries. 

Around the astronomical 

clock it’s standing 

room only, but the 

crowd is enchanted. Is 

there any visitor to 

Prague who has missed 

the Old Town astronomical clock and 

its procession of apostles appearing as the 

hour strikes? This legend-enshrouded attraction 

mounted on the southern wall of 

the Old Town city hall and dating from 

1410 draws tourists as surely as the Eiffel 

Tower in Paris or Big Ben in London. 

Astronomical clocks – horologia in 

Latin – are large-scale public clocks that 

appeared in cities throughout Europe from 

the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries. 

Municipalities outdid each other in their 

attempts to create clocks that offered 

April, by Josef Mánes; painting for the calendar 

dial of the Prague astronomical clock 

something original 

beyond the mere act 

of recording the correct 

time. But the 

Prague astronomical 

clock outdoes them 

all. It is a planetarium, 

a calendar and a puppet 

theatre with a message 

about the meaning 

of life. The clock 

itself shows four different 

times simultaneously. 

It is the only 

one in the world to 

record the time by the 

ancient Babylonian 

system. Googling the 

Prague astronomical 

clock brings twenty-one thousand hits, all 

of them different. They include information 

from astronomers, astrologers, heritage 

experts, technicians, artists, philosophers 

and of course clockmakers. 

The most interesting part of the clock is 

its astronomical part, showing the positions 

of the heavenly bodies in the skies. 

Beneath it is a circular calendar with 

twelve allegorical paintings of the individual 

months. Animated figures intended to 

entertain and instruct the viewer are situated 

around the astronomical part. Finally 

In Front of the Astronomical Clock; woodcut by J. Řeháček after a drawing by Antonín Gareis, 1868 

there are the figures of the twelve Apostles, 

who move past in procession at the 

beginning of each hour. 

When it was constructed, the astronomical 

part of the clock, the astrolabe, was 

a state-of-the-art embodiment of current 

knowledge about the stars, linked to the 

mechanical capacities of the age. It shows 

the current position of the Sun and Moon 

in the heavens, in relation to both their 

apparent paths in the sky as well as the 

zodiac to which they are fixed. The Moon, 

in the shape of a half-silvered sphere, is 

turned by its own mechanism in such 

a way as to indicate its current phase. But 

from a modern point of view the astronomical 

dial has a basic flaw – it is based on 

the mistaken medieval belief that the Earth 

is the centre of the universe. Hence the

The space in front of the astronomical clock on Prague’s Old Town Square, almost always filled with crowds of 

tourists waiting for the clock to strike 

Sun rotates round the Earth. “It certainly 

doesn’t belong to the modern age,” says 

Professor Michal Křížek of the Institute of 

Mathematics at the Czech Academy of 

Sciences. But when the astronomical clock 

was designed, in 1410, there was no other 

alternative to the then current notion of 

how the universe was ordered. The first 

man to propose a heliocentric model of the 

universe, Nicolaus Copernicus, was only 

born in 1473. And for a long time after that 

the Church continued to insist that Copernicus’ 

theory was heretical. So today’s 

viewer has to make do with the geocentric 

model. But this is irrelevant. To the untrained 

eye, everything happens the way 

the astronomical clock depicts it as 

happening. The positions of the Sun and 

Moon correspond to this. And in any case 

precision isn’t one of the astronomical 

clock’s strong points. “Pendulums were only 

Craftsmanship 

[It] is a spark of the divine wit 

a special gift of God done with 

masterly taste. 

Jan Blažej Jičínský 

on the Prague astronomical clock 

(1589) 

introduced into clock mechanisms by Christian 

Huyghens in the seventeenth century. 

The Prague astronomical clock is regulated 

by rotating blades. And they have to be 

adjusted twice a week,” notes Křížek. 

In addition to the positions of the Sun 

and Moon, the astronomical dial of the 

Old Town clock indicates four types of 

time. These are shown by the golden Sun, 

circling the zodiac. It is attached to an arm 

with a golden hand and together they indicate 

the time. Normal Central European 

time is picked out by the position of the 

golden hand over the Roman numerals on 

the background. “The astronomical clock 

can’t be adjusted for summer time, so 

during the summer season tourists hear 

only four strokes of the bell at five in the 

afternoon,” points out Křížek. 

5

6 

The position of the golden hand over the 

outer black ring with Arabic numerals 

shows Old Czech time. This system is 

unusual in that the day begins at sunset, 

which is considered zero hour. Because 

the time of sunset varies from day to day, 

zero hour in Old Czech time changes too. 

Babylonian time is indicated by the inner 

ring with Arabic numerals near the curved 

golden lines. In this time system the day 

and night are divided into twelve equal 

parts. Hence, aside from the spring and 

winter equinoxes, the length the hour 

during the day and at night differs. The 

hour on each successive 

day differs in 

length both during the 

day and at night. 

Finally, sidereal time 

is indicated by a small 

hand with a small, 

five-pointed star. 

Jan Ondřejův, known 

as Šindel, who succeeded 

Jan Hus as Rector 

of the university in 

Prague in 1410, is generally 

regarded as the 

designer of the mathematical model for the 

whole mechanism. Several facts speak in 

favour of this hypothesis. Šindel wrote 

a total of nine astronomical works, of which 

four are devoted to astronomical devices. 

The actual mechanism itself, with its many 

gears, whose teeth are hand-filed, was undoubtedly 

the work of Mikuláš of Kadaň. 

Even today the precision of some of its 

parts is remarkable. It is hard to imagine 

how this was achieved in the fifteenth century, 

with the primitive technical means 

then available. 

Memento mori – Remember that 

you are mortal! This is in fact the main 

message of the astronomical clock. The 

mechanical figures were created in an age 

when the salvation of one’s soul was the 

individual’s central concern. This was linked 

with a widespread anticipation of the second 

coming of Christ and the Last Judgement. 

The vision of Hell and fear of eternal 

damnation filled people with a sense of 

great horror. Every hour, or to be more precise 

one minute before it strikes, if the 

astronomical clock is correctly regulated, 

a splendid spectacle begins – a procession 

of the Apostles, symbolizing the Second 

Coming of Christ and the Day of Judgement. 

As they pass by, the Apostles are 

accompanied by Death, who is situated 

beneath them and is 

ringing the death 

knell. This is meant to 

convey the message 

that this very hour 

might be the final one 

for any of us. Death 

nods his head, as 

though to encourage 

those who are wavering. 

So far no one has 

emerged from life 

alive. The miser with 

his moneybag waves 

a stick to beat away threats to his wealth, 

though in fact there is no way he can take 

this with him to his grave. But Death does 

not react to his attempt to bribe him. The 

man of vanity preens before his mirror, 

but his body too will turn to dust. Behind 

Death there is the figure of a Turk holding 

a lute, a reminder of the centuries-long 

presence of the Ottoman Empire in the 

Central European region. After the passage 

of the last Apostle the windows shut, the 

cock crows and there is only silence. 

It takes a few seconds for the audience to 

realize that the performance of the Last 

Judgement has ended. Tension is released, 

children and adults break out in smiles. If 

there are some enthusiastic foreigners 

among the viewers, the end of the procession 

is greeted with a spontaneous 

The man responsible for the present sculptural ornaments – the twelve Apostles and the figures on the façade 

– was the sculptor and woodcarver Vojtěch Sucharda (1884–1968). 

round of applause, drowning out the sound 

of the clock as it strikes the hour. 

Many legends surround the astronomical 

clock, the best known of which is about 

a certain Master Hanuš, said to be its creator. 

According to this legend, the town 

councillors had him blinded so that he 

would not repeat his feat elsewhere and 

rob Prague of its unique glory. In response 

to this act of savagery, Hanuš is said to 

have damaged the clock so that it would 

not run smoothly for very long. Historians 

say there is not a shred of truth in all this. 

It is a fact that many times in its long history 

the astronomical clock was not in 

working order, but that was usually due 

to a lack of maintenance. In May 1945 

the retreating German army damaged 

the clock in the course of their shelling 

of the centre of Prague from the left bank 

of the Vltava River. 

Another legend claims that when 

the astronomical clock stops an evil fate 

will await the Czech nation. At least twice

in the history of Prague the decision was 

taken to sell off the clock’s metal gears as 

scrap, but on neither occasion was this carried 

out. Each time a skilled clockmaker 

was found who was able to repair it and so 

protect the town from destruction. But in 

fact for clockmaking firms the chance to 

repair the astronomical clock is a matter of 

prestige, so they always compete for the 

privilege. Thanks to them, Prague and 

indeed the whole world is still able to 

admire this remarkable historical object 

with its unique share of original parts. 

Those who are unable to make it to Prague 

can at least visit Brussels and have a look 

at the model of the astronomical clock in 

that city’s Mini-Europe park, where every 

member state in the European Union has 

placed a miniature model of its most 

distinctive national monument. 

Alice Olbrichová 

Photos: editorial archives, ČTK, 

CzechTourism 

Karel Žbánek, Managing Director of the clock manufacturing firm Hainz, producer of clock parts as part 

of preparations for the reconstruction of the clock mechanism of Prague’s astronomical clock 

7

8 

The “Golden Age” 

of Restoration 

It all started with the intelligent investment 

of fifty florins. The beginning 

of restoration and conservation 

work in Czech archives and libraries 

can be dated to 1869, 

when the archives adjunct 

at the Prague Municipal 

Archives, Josef Emler, asked 

the city council for 

funds to repair damaged 

manuscripts in the collection. 

The city council approved 

the sum of fifty florins, 

and the work was 

carried out by a bookbinder 

from Prague’s New Town, 

Eduard Fleissig. Repair work continued 

to be done in subsequent years 

by Vladimír Bukovič, generally regarded 

at the time as the city’s greatest 

expert in restoration work, who 

also began conservation work on the 

manuscripts of the public records of 

the Kingdom of Bohemia. 

In 1911 Bukovič began to work for 

the Prague Municipal Archives; supported 

by the municipal archivist, 

Josef Teige, he established a conservation 

division. In later years this 

also developed into a centre for research 

and for the testing of conser- 

A printed book from 1618 after renovation 

The restorer Michala Parmová and conservator 

Jan Volgner defrosting and drying documents in the 

drying room of the National Technical Museum 

in Prague 

The National Library in Florence in the wake of the 1966 flood 

vation substances. It was also in 

1911 that a graduate of Charles University, 

Václav Vojtíšek, 

became adjunct to the Prague 

Municipal Archivist. He 

worked closely with Bukovič 

and was soon recognized 

as the leading theoretician in 

the field of the protection of 

archival materials and their 

conservation. Thanks to his 

efforts, a conservation division was 

established at the Bohemian Provincial 

Archives in 1924. 

A further conservation division was 

introduced in 1936 at the Archives of 

the Ministry of the Interior. In the 

1950s the three largest Czech archives 

were merged to form the Central 

State Archives in Prague. This 

institution initiated cooperation with 

conservation and restoration units at 

the National and University Library 

in Prague as well as with various 

district archives. The modest material 

and technical facilities and even such 

factors as temperature and humidity 

levels and air circulation in the depositories 

where archive materials were 

stored slowly improved, along with 

public awareness of the need for systematic 

attention to the physical condition 

of archival materials.

Restoration studios of the National Archives in Prague 

Help for Florence 

Rather paradoxically, it was the 

catastrophic floods in Florence in 

1966 that marked a turning point in 

the development of the field of restoration 

not only in this country but 

also abroad. On this occasion, many 

priceless manuscripts, books and 

other printed material, parchment 

documents, maps and plans stored in 

the city’s libraries and archives were 

damaged or completely destroyed. 

The Central State Archives in Prague 

immediately offered its help to the 

National Library in Florence in preserving 

the collections affected by 

the destructive floods. Its generous 

offer was accepted and for the next 

two years archival restorers from Prague 

undertook four trips to Florence. 

The experience they gained when 

working with their foreign colleagues, 

especially those from Italy 

and Great Britain, was then reflected 

in changes they introduced into their 

conservation and restoration practice 

back home. 

Renewing Iraq’s heritage 

One of the most interesting examples 

of the work of Czech restorers 

Restoration course in the Kurdish town of Irbil in Iraq (above and in the centre); the new restoration unit of the Iraq 

National Library and Archives in Baghdad (below) 

Science 

In the science of the conservation 

and restoration of archival materials, 

the latest results of scientific 

research and the most advanced 

findings in the humanities mingle 

with the restorer’s sensitivity and his 

skill as a craftsman. 

abroad is the cooperation with the 

Iraqi National Library and Archives 

in Baghdad. This began in 2003, 

when the institution’s premises were 

twice engulfed in flames during the 

capture of the city. Some of the documents 

that were not destroyed in the 

fires later suffered water damage 

when a water main in the room where 

they were temporarily stored burst. 

They included very valuable fonds 

from the Ottoman Archives, dating 

from the beginning of the nineteenth 

century to the 1920s. As part of the 

Czech “Help for the renewal of the 

heritage of the Iraq Republic”, 

experts trained twenty Iraqi restorers 

and a new micrographic unit was set 

up for the Iraqi National Library and 

Archives in Baghdad. The second 

phase of help brought the provision 

of a unit for the restoration and conservation 

of books and archival materials 

and the development of a specialized 

course in practical restoration 

techniques. On the basis of a project 

prepared by restorers at the National 

Archives, the Gema Art Group fully 

equipped the restoration and conservation 

unit and had it delivered to the 

Iraqi city of Irbil. After the course 

finished, the facilities were taken 

down and reshipped to Baghdad. 

9

10 

Today they serve the Iraq National 

Library and Archives in Baghdad, 

where Iraqi restorers have launched 

systematic efforts to preserve the 

country’s archival heritage. 

The Golden Age of restoration 

Training of specialists in restoration 

and conservation began in 1954 at the 

Specialized Secondary Graphic School 

in Prague. From the 1960s to the 1980s 

many of its graduates became key figures 

in the development of the field. 

In 2000 the Institute of Restoration and 

Conservation Technology was opened 

at Litomyšl, the only institution in the 

The building housing the Central Military Archives and 

Architecture Archives of the National Technical Museum 

in Prague 8-Karlín at the time of the August 2002 floods 

Czech Republic enabling students to 

obtain a higher education in the field 

of “conserving and restoring archival 

and library fonds”. In 2005, as the 

Faculty of Restoration, this became 

part of the University of Pardubice. 

The efforts of generations of Czech 

archivists and conservators have 

borne fruit in the past fifteen years, 

which have seen the construction or 

refurbishing of 58 buildings belonging 

to state archives as well as two 

large municipal archives. The construction 

of an archive complex in the 

Prague district of Chodovec, which 

houses the National Archives, the 

District State Archives in Prague and 

the Archives of the city of Prague, 

marks the logical culmination of this 

trend, one that is also reflected in the 

current construction of buildings for 

the Moravian Archives in Brno. 

Frozen documents 

In August 2002 disastrous floods 

similar to the one in Florence back in 

Consultation between students and an art historian, Faculty of Restoration, University of Pardubice 

1966 affected much of the Czech 

Republic. Archives, libraries, museums, 

galleries and other cultural and 

scientific institutions were hit. The 

situation in Prague 

was particularlycatastrophic. 

One example 

can stand 

for all. The 

buildings where 

the Central Military 

Archives 

and Archives 

of Architecture 

and Building 

of the National 

Technical Museum 

in Prague 

were located 

suffered the most destructive floods 

since 1890, when water levels rose by 

30 cm (1 foot). In August 2002 they 

rose by 4 metres (13 feet). 

The archives, collections and libraries 

of whole institutions were severely 

hit, affecting documents and 

A book dating from 1555 before restoration 

memorabilia ranging from cardboard 

models of buildings (the Architecture 

Archives of the National Technical Museum) 

through military court records 

(the Central Military 

Archives) 

and collections 

of photos (the 

Archives of the 

Czech Academy 

of Sciences) to 

rare nineteenthcentury 

graphic 

prints (the National 

Library in 

Prague). 

After the flood 

subsided, individual 

items were 

washed in water 

to clean off the mud. A small portion 

of the archival materials, books, photographs 

and glass negatives was 

then left to dry out in the air. The 

advantage of this drying method is 

the relatively small damage caused to 

the materials in question; the dis-

advantage is the time it takes and the 

space that is needed as well as the 

danger that mould might develop. For 

this reason it was decided that after 

they had been cleaned the remaining 

materials would be put in polyethylene 

bags, labelled and then quick frozen at 

a temperature of minus 20 to 25 degrees 

Celsius (minus 4 to 13 Fahrenheit). 

This way they would be stabilized, 

allowing time to work out and organize 

the optimal solution. Intensive work 

was undertaken in the refrigeration 

plant at Mochov, Mochovské mrazírny, 

to freeze around 2,000 cubic metres 

(71,000 cubic feet) of books, manuscripts, 

incunabulae, maps, plans and 

other archival materials. 

The preservation of a portion of 

the damaged documents was entrusted 

to the Ministry of Culture, which set up 

a Methodological Centre for Conservation 

at the Technical Museum in Brno. 

But the amount of material was too 

vast for it to handle alone, so many 

institutions began to dry the frozen 

documents and restore then on their 

own in cooperation with private restorers. 

This was the path chosen by the 

National Library and the Prague Municipal 

Library as well as by the badly 

affected National Technical Museum. 

So it was “thanks” to the flood that 

these institutions expanded their restoration 

divisions considerably. 

The guarantor for the preservation 

of around 1,200 cubic metres (42,000 

cubic feet) of archival documents is 

the National Archives. The process of 

renewal has been broken down into 

The public records of the Kingdom 

of Bohemia and typical damage 

several steps: first comes the drying 

of the frozen documents, then microbiologically 

contaminated documents 

must be disinfected and finally the 

selected archival documents are restored 

and conserved. 

In 2003 the process of drying the frozen 

documents was put out to tender. 

The winning bid came from Belfor 

Czechia, which deals with cleaning 

up after fires and damage caused by 

water; in 2005 it began drying operations 

in newly constructed premises 

in the small town of Jirny, near Prague. 

Important documents and archival 

materials are dried using vacuum 

methods, less important documents 

by exposing them to warm, dry air. 

Because virtually all the frozen documents 

are contaminated with bacteria 

and mould, disinfection is an absolute 

necessity. Documents are disinfected 

with Etoxen gas in two special 

chambers in the National Archives. 

The process of drying should be 

finished by the beginning of 2009, 

but the subsequent restoration will 

take much longer. 

In 1932 one of the founders of the 

discipline, Václav Vojtíšek, wrote as 

follows in an article entitled “On the 

Conservation of Archival Materials”: 

“The science of conserving archival 

materials is one that is wide-ranging. 

It cannot be tied down to a strict 

system; instead one has to think 

deeply about it, carry out research 

and experiments and gain an understanding 

of the various means that 

are available.” This definition still 

holds true today. 

Michal Ďurovič 

Photos: National Archives, 

Faculty of Restoration, University 

of Pardubice 

Restoration techniques: mechanical cleansing (left) and on-site restoration (right), Faculty of Restoration, 

University of Pardubice 

11

12 

The Czech Republic has one of the 

world’s densest railway networks. 

Some of these routes have become part 

of Czech culture itself, influencing 

society over generations. Among the 

most famous lines are the Sázava River 

Pacific, the Šumava Black 

Cross and the little train with 

the “mostest”: the Kořenov 

cog railway. 

The Sázava River Pacific and 

the “tramping” movement 

The Sázava Pacific holds 

the place of honour on our 

list of the most popular railway 

routes, closely associated 

with the peculiar Czech 

phenomenon of “tramping”. 

However, the original purpose 

of the track had little in 

common with its later role as a means 

of getting away, of getting out of the 

city and back to nature. 

The Magic 

of Czech Railways 

The section from Vršovice to Modřany 

was put into operation on 16 November 

1881. It first functioned mostly 

as a spur line for the local sugar factory. 

For almost fifteen years it was 

debated whether it made financial 

The Sázava Pacific below the chateau 

at Zbraslav 

Trains run by the Sázava Pacific Club, founded in 1998. Today this NGO has twenty active members, 

most of them engine drivers and Czech Rail employees. 

sense to extend the line in the direction 

of Dobříš and Konopiště, with their 

rich woodlands and famous quarries. 

The green light was given in 1895. 

The lines to Dobříš and Čerčany 

were built by several construction 

firms over a period of four 

years. The last segment from 

Vrané nad Vltavou to Jílová 

near Prague was opened in 

May 1900. But the old sugar 

beet and lumber line was 

transformed with the changes 

in lifestyle following the 

First World War. 

“Tramping” was a movement 

that became popular 

after the war. Freedom, 

romance and dreams of the 

Old West: those were the 

bywords by which young 

people declared their independence 

from the old bourgeois generation. 

The railway, with its puffing 

steam locomotives and rough-hewn

Period illustration of the Volary – Český Krumlov – Černý Kříž line 

cars, made this romantic 

ideal possible. Young people 

rode the train out to the 

countryside, to their “settlements” 

in the woods and 

meadows along the Vltava 

and Sázava Rivers, and later 

the Berounka. 

Times have changed; the 

spartan settlements have long 

since become luxury resorts. 

But the romance of the Sázava 

Pacific lives on, though it 

no longer runs on steam. 

From the window of the train 

you can see the chateau at 

Zbraslav with its exhibition 

of sculptures. On a wooded hilltop lie 

the remains of a Celtic settlement. The 

American war movie The Bridge at Remagen 

was filmed on one of the bridges 

across the Vltava River. The train goes 

all the way to the chateau of the Colloredo-Mansfeld 

family at Dobřiš. 

The branch from Davle climbs up 

the valley of the Sázava River before 

coming to the one-time Mecca of the 

tramping movement: the station at 

Luka pod Medníkem. The train doesn’t 

stop there, but our story does. 

Period postcard – greetings from Černý Kříž 

The colourful history 

of the Black Cross 

Few railways have been as much 

affected by the Communist era as the 

line known as the Black Cross. 

In the early days of rail, when the 

Empress Elizabeth Line was switching 

from horse-drawn to steam power, 

and the Franz Josef Line from Vienna 

to České Budějovice, Plzeň and Cheb 

passed through the lowland regions 

Tourism 

“To travel by train… 

is to see life.” 

Agatha Christie 

English mystery writer 

(1890–1976) 

of southern Bohemia, a local 

spur called the Šumava Line 

was built. 

The highlands of the 

Šumava Mountains had 

always presented a natural 

barrier separating the Bohemian 

basin from the valley 

of the Danube River. In the 

late nineteenth century the 

railway was spreading at an 

ever-greater tempo, aided 

by a progressive Austrian 

law favouring the building 

of local lines, as well as 

a regional Bohemian law favouring the 

construction of rail lines into poor regions. 

Not far from the railway station 

at Volary they built a railway junction 

and station known as Černý Kříž 

(“Black Cross”). 

The Šumava was one of the poor 

regions the law was designed to benefit; 

with the enthusiastic backing of the 

local people and groups of investors 

a rail line was built into the Šumava. 

After overcoming various complications, 

a historic link was made between 

Bohemia and Bavaria. A dream had 

been fulfilled, and it benefitted the re- 

13

14 

gion for many years. Paradoxically, the 

war of 1939–1945 contributed to the 

local track’s prosperity after a subsequent 

period of stagnation. The line 

through Černý Kříž saw its heyday 

during the war, when express trains 

between Passau and Prague were routed 

through Černý Kříž and Nové Údolí, 

even though the track was designed as 

a local mountain route only. 

After war’s end in 1945 there 

was a gradual decline in passenger and 

freight traffic in the direction of Haidmühle. 

The Communist takeover, the 

creation of a border zone and finally 

the building of the impenetrable Iron 

Curtain in 1951 killed the line. It stayed 

dead for fifty years. 

During the years of so-called “normalization” 

after 1968, the line to Haidmühle 

was torn up on the German side. 

On the Czechoslovak side, 1989 saw 

the beginning of a return to what once 

was. The lovely Šumava region was 

again open to the world, and thanks to 

its long inaccessibility, natural scenery 

and wonders found nowhere else were 

preserved there. Automobile traffic in 

the Černý Kříž area is limited, and tourism 

in the region around the station 

blossomed. Thanks to the Šumava line, 

The Kořenov cog railway: the engine and passenger carriages on the Jizera Bridge 

A nostalgia-tinted journey through the Czech countryside on the Sázava Pacific 

this is no longer a sad, remote and 

deserted place but a romantic little train 

station in the forest, bearing the bleak 

but evocative name of Black Cross. 

The little cog railway 

that could 

Everyone who has travelled through 

the Jizerské Mountains on this local 

line will agree that it is an unusual 

experience. The train goes through the 

mountains from Železný Brod to Tanvald 

via the valley of the wild Kamenice 

River on a route built in 1875. Nineteen 

years later Tanvald was connected 

to Liberec by a route 27 kilometres 

(17 miles) long leading through Jablonec 

nad Nisou through difficult terrain 

on the Jizerské Mountains’ southern 

slopes. There are five tunnels along the 

way, totalling 770 metres (253 feet) in 

length, as well as many bridges, the 

largest of which is a 29-metre- (95feet-) 

high stone viaduct with eight 

arches bridging the Smržovka River. 

Few other railways can boast as 

many “mosts” as this one. The Czech 

Republic’s only cog railway, going 

from Tanvald to Kořenov in the Jizerské 

Mountains, is the steepest line in

the country, with the longest single-track 

tunnel and the most eventful postwar 

history. Its double set of cogs allows 

it to overcome a difference in elevation 

of 235 metres (770 feet) in the seven 

kilometres (4.3 miles) between Tanvald 

and Kořenov. 

On the route there are three cogged 

segments a total of 4.43 km (2.75 

miles) in length. On the longest of 

them, between Dolní Polubný and 

Kořenov, there is the steepest grade in 

the Czech Republic – 5.8 percent. The 

railway was built between 1899 and 

1902 by the Berlin firm Vereinigte 

Eisenbahnbau und Betriebsgesellschaft. 

The continuation of the line from 

Kořenov to Jelenia Gora in Poland (the 

former Prussian Hirschberg) was built 

by the Royal Prussian Railway. Both 

sections began operating in 1902. 

After World War II, traffic was discontinued 

on the line between Kořenov 

and Szklarska Poreba on the Polish 

side. Later, in 1958 to 1962, a costly 

reconstruction was carried out on the 

Tanvald – Kořenov line. In 1991 and 

1992 the Kořenov – Szklarska Poreba 

line was reopened after 47 years. In 

1992 the Tanvald – Kořenov cog railway 

line and its facilities was named 

a cultural monument by the Czech 

Republic’s Ministry of Culture. 

In the days of the Austrian State Railways: the Jizera 

Bridge and Hirschberg – Grünthal passenger train 

A ride on this enchanting Czech railway 

offers unforgettable natural scenery 

in any season of the year and prompts 

us to wonder at the ingenuity of our 

predecessors who built this railway 

a hundred years ago without the technology 

we have today. 

Thanks to our predecessors, and 

the keepers of their heritage 

Many railway lines in what is today 

the Czech Republic first appeared as 

local lines built on an ad hoc basis. 

1 2 

3 4 

They were built by both established 

firms and newly-founded companies 

under an Austrian Imperial law “On 

Extending Advantages to Local Railways” 

(1880 to 1893). During the subsequent 

era of independent lines (1893 

–1914), those who were interested in 

the railway business and could convince 

officials of the suitability of their 

project received significant financial 

support from the state or the province. 

By 1906 more than 2,000 kilometres 

(1,250 miles) of new railway track had 

been laid, most of which can still be 

travelled today. 

If these railways were built by our 

ancestors, they are preserved today 

thanks to a few hundred enthusiasts. 

A characteristic feature of their enthusiasm 

for railways is the hands-on 

labour they put into keeping up and 

operating both well-known and lesserknown 

lines, and even a few narrowgauge 

and miniature railways. Lumír 

Běhal of the NGO Sázava River Pacific 

adds, “We’re never going to make 

hundreds of thousands of crowns. The 

reward is in the recognition of people 

who are aware of our work, support us 

and have become our fans and regularly 

attend our events. We believe that in 

this day and age it makes sense for our 

association to preserve and pass down 

something tangible, real and exceptional 

to those who come after us.” 

Jiří Kučera 

the monthly magazine Stavitel (a division of Economia) 

Photos: Karel Pryl, Sázava Pacific, 

Czech Rail, VTS Tanvald, period photos lent 

by Arno Kasper, Petr Kurtin, Werner Krause 

1. In the days of the Austrian State Railways: 

the station at Grünthal 

2. In the days of the Austrian State Railways: 

the station at Unter Polaun with a passenger train 

3. During the First Republic: a passenger train 

climbing from Dolní Polubné to Příchovice 

4. A “special” for the great Berlin photographer 

of trains Carl Bellingrodt at the Prichowitz stop 

(1939) 

15

16 

300 Years 

of the Czech Technical University 

They service an experimental 

nuclear reactor. They 

bring to life “agents” – independent, 

communicating robots. 

They are helping to 

develop an automobile that 

can itself see where it should 

go and warns the driver 

about changes in the traffic 

situation. They are developing 

control modules for 

pilotless planes, devices for 

sophisticated land navigation 

and computers that coordinate 

the activities of rescue 

teams engaged in cleaning 

up after natural and other 

catastrophes. All of these 

projects are the work of the 

large “family” of exceptionally 

gifted experts found at 

the oldest institution for the 

training of engineers in 

Europe, the professors and 

students of the Czech Technical 

University in Prague. 

A short look at the history 

of the institution takes us 

back exactly three hundred 

years, to 18 January 1707, 

when Emperor Josef I issued 

a rescript that led to the foundation 

of an engineering 

school in Prague. Christian 

Joseph Willenberg, an engineer 

and former soldier in the 

French army, was behind this: 

in a letter to the Emperor in 

1705 he had expressed a willingness 

to teach the art of 

engineering (“the art of fortification”) 

in return for a lifetime 

annuity and had sought 

Václav Klaus, President of the Czech Republic, receiving 

an honorary doctorate (2006) 

Christian Josef Willenberg’s letter to Joseph I, in which he expressed the wish to teach 

the art of engineering and asked for the Emperor’s support. The “Engineering School” 

traces its origin to the Emperor’s agreement with the project (18 January 1707). 

the support of the ruler for 

his proposal. In his rescript 

Josef I instructed 

the Czech Diet to negotiate 

with imperial engineer 

Willenberg in the interests 

of the kingdom on the 

conditions for teaching 

that he had proposed. But 

limited financial resources 

kept the Diet from even 

beginning any negotiations. 

So ten years later the Emperor 

Charles VI reminded 

the Czech Estates of 

this document. The Estates 

took up the matter with 

“great vigour”, and on 

9 November 1717 named 

Willenberg professor. In 

accordance with his wishes 

they issued a special 

ordinance instituting the 

teaching of engineering, 

using the term “professorship 

of engineering”, in the 

beginning, too, “Ingenier 

collegium” and “Institutum 

fortifactorium”. 

Two hundred years 

ago the school made 

another significant advance 

when reforms 

were introduced and it 

set off along the path 

towards what we would 

now consider a modern 

institution. This was the 

work of František Josef 

Gerstner, a professor of 

mathematics and mechanics 

at the university in 

Prague. In 1806 he 

implemented his proposal 

for an engineering 

Horst Störmer, winner of the Nobel Prize for physics, delivering a lecture 

at ČVUT on “Small Wonders: The World of Nanoscience”

ČVUT buildings: (left) the “monoblock” of the Faculties of Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering, (right) the 

seat of the Rectorate, the Computer and Information Centre, the Klokner Institute, several departments and the archives 

school oriented along polytechnic lines. 

His model was the French École Polytechnique 

in Paris. The Prague Polytechnic 

was the first such institution in Central 

Europe, serving as the model for the Vienna 

Polytechnic, which was only founded 

nine years later. 

In 1920 the name of the institution was 

changed to the Czech Technical University 

in Prague (ČVUT) and individual schools 

(faculties) were established. From 1922 

there were seven of them, providing 

instruction in eleven engineering disciplines 

and two other fields. The repressions 

carried out against students and 

teachers as well as further political measures 

introduced after the Communist coup 

on 25 February 1948 hindered development 

in the spirit of the democratic traditions 

that the institution had hitherto fostered. 

Among other things, this meant the 

introduction of Marxist-Leninist ideology 

as a part of studies. The forty-year-long 

period of Communist rule, when higher 

education institutions were deprived of 

The Department of Cybernetics, Faculty of Electrical Engineering: research into camera recognition of objects 

Education 

The Czech Technical University 

in Prague – with its 23,000 students, 

seven faculties and three billion 

crown annual budget – is the oldest 

tertiary-level technical institution 

in Europe, this year celebrating its 

tercentenary. 

conditions fostering the growth of real 

personalities and were unable to keep in 

touch with the development of science and 

technology outside the Communist bloc, 

came to an end with the collapse of the 

Communist regime in Czechoslovakia 

following 17 November 1989. 

The newly found freedom, accompanied 

by a rather ruthless free-market environment, 

meant that the university had to 

renew itself and at the same time catch up 

with the rest of the world. The basic question 

was whether the institution would be 

able to find the proper balance between 

three priorities – to make optimal use of 

state funding, to seek outside financial 

resources and to turn its research potential 

into a source of income. 

One important step along this path is the 

ČVUT Media Lab, established at the university 

by Professors Michael Valášek and 

17

18 

Vladimír Mařík. Its aspiration is to act as 

a seedbed for talent by providing a creative 

environment for talented students. 

The two professors were joined in their 

enterprise by three engineers working for 

industry: Vojtěch Pražma, owner and Managing 

Director of Modelárna LIAZ Liberec, 

Jaroslav Doležal, National Executive 

for Honeywell, Czech Republic, and Miroslav 

Václavík, Managing Director of the 

Textile Machines Research Institute Liberec. 

“Our aim, among other things, is to 

provide talented students with an alternative 

to part-time jobs outside their discipline, 

so that for example during the 

summer vacation they work on their research 

– writing articles for journals, developing 

prototypes and so on,” says Mařík. 

The statutes of the foundation count on 

long-term support from their commercial 

partners; sponsors will have access to the 

results of projects, except where patent 

details are concerned. According to Doležal, 

the inspiration for the foundation 

came from similar “laboratories” that have 

functioned successfully at American universities. 

The first projects and grants for 

the students have been prepared, and discussions 

are now being held on the foundation’s 

next stage, moving from its 

existence on paper to the actual creation of 

research laboratories. These are planned 

for the technological park at Zlatníky. 

The ČVUT Media Lab could not have 

been established without long-term cooperation 

between Maík’s Department of 

Cybernetics and leading international 

firms. Researchers here are developing 

a system for Bosch for optical control of 

wheel centring; for Samsung they are work- 

The team servicing ČVUT’s VR-1 Vrabec reactor 

(Department of Nuclear Reactors, Faculty of Nuclear 

Sciences and Physical Engineering) 

ing on a camera that can distinguish different 

human faces. Similarly “utopian” is 

the project for Toyoto that Mařík’s team is 

currently engaged on. This involves computer-based 

“vision” for a moving vehicle 

in which a camera records what it sees on 

the highway (when it is foggy or raining, 

for example, it can make out the dividing 

line), while the control system evaluates the 

data and communicates with the driver. 

ČVUT is also cooperating with the United 

States Air Force Research Laboratory 

on how to control pilotless planes, and with 

the United States Army on the development 

of independent robot units used, for 

example, for work in dangerous terrain. 

Demonstrating the I4Control system, with car 

movements controlled by eye movements The Pioneer mobile intelligent robot 

Agent technologies – independent robot units used, for example, for work in dangerous terrain 

(Department of Cybernetics, Faculty of Electrical Engineering) 

ČVUT’s nuclear reactor 

Such autonomous systems are self-reflective, 

can orient themselves, know what 

they have to do, can seek help, and so on. 

In the Czech Republic the university 

cooperates in the production of devices for 

airplane panels and airplane diagnostics 

for Czech Airlines, provides technology 

for nuclear waste storage and carries out 

research on diesel motors (Bosch Jihlava). 

One whole area has to do with the part 

played by the Department of Radio Electronics 

at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering 

in the development of receivers for 

the European navigation system Galileo. 

Many Czech firms are dependent on satellite 

navigation. In Litovel farmers use it 

for determining the location of combine 

harvesters and for checking the state of 

fertilizers in the soil as well as its productivity. 

The Institute for Research into 

Forest Ecosystems uses satellite navigation 

to check the state of individual trees in 

the Beskyd Mountains, as does the Administration 

of the Krkonoše National Park. 

“To have a Galileo receiver before it 

comes into general use – this is planned 

for 2012 – is the great wish of a lot of 

firms. It’s perhaps surprising that it was 

developed here, in a country that people 

might think had little experience with 

satellite technology. But I must point out

that the cradle of Czech expertise in this 

field, and the place where the Czech receiver 

for this system was born, was right 

here, in our department,” points out Professor 

František Vejražka. 

ČVUT offers many facilities for carrying 

out research and education. In the 

Troja district of Prague it has been running 

a nuclear reactor for training purposes for 

more than fifteen years. This is a lightwater 

facility with a water basin using 

enriched uranium fue; more than 250 students 

study here each year, taking part in 

various research projects. The VR-1 type 

reactor, named Vrabec (“Sparrow”), was 

visited last year by Nobel Prize winner 

Horst Störmer, who lectured there on “the 

miraculous world of nanoscience”. 

Research is being carried out at ČVUT 

in a number of cutting-edge fields. One of 

the great success stories of Czech medicine 

is the optimization of artificial lung 

ventilation, the subject of research work 

by Karel Roubík from the Faculty of Biomedical 

Engineering. At the International 

Engineering Fair in Brno in 2006 the Gold 

Medal went to the I4Control system, 

which was developed at the Department of 

Cybernetics and enables control of a per- 

1 

2 

Replacement of fuel rods in ČVUT’s 

nuclear reactor 

sonal computer through movement of eyes 

or head. The Czech media were fascinated 

by the prototype of a linear internal combustion 

engine developed at the Faculty of 

Electrical Engineering. The university is 

home to all kinds of student activities and 

offers a wide range of sports and cultural 

facilities. One of the student initiatives, for 

example, led to a polar expedition to the 

Spitzbergen Islands that tested material 

and navigation instruments for a potential 

expedition to the South Pole and later 

climbed the highest peak in Greenland’s 

“Switzerland”, Mt Forel (3391 m. / 11,125 

feet above sea-level). 

After the sensitive restoration and modernization 

of the university’s most historic 

building, the Bethlehem Chapel, it is 

now proceeding to the gradual refurbishing 

of its twenty-five other buildings in 

Prague. The lecture rooms of the Faculty 

of Nuclear Science and Physical Engineering 

are being returned to their original 

appearance, period details included (for 

example the blackboards and the machinery 

for raising and lowering them); in the 

university’s buildings on Charles Square 

the renovation team even discovered and 

has conserved the medieval latrines. 

The university has not only educated 

a long line of experts who now work 

abroad – this year it awarded an honorary 

doctorate to Josef Kittler, now a professor 

at the University of Surrey – but it also 

welcomes international students, whose 

needs are taken care of by its International 

Student Club. 

The Czech Technical University offers 

far more opportunities for study than can 

possibly be named here. This year’s celebration 

of the three hundredth anniversary 

of its foundation has been planned in 

grand style. 

And this is fit and proper, for there is 

much to celebrate. 

Filip Hrdina 

Photos: A. Kolros (ČVUT Prague), 

ČVUT archives, ČTK 

1. A Toyota robot playing on the trumpet, 

1. Robot El from robot the Toyota ceremony jouant toca for de el the clarín; la conferral trompette: del otorgamiento of cérémonie an 

de del honorary la título remise de doctorate doctor du doctorat honoris on Shoichiro d’honneur causa Toyoda, al àseñor M. Šoičiró 

Toyoda, Shoichiro President président of Toyoda, Toyota de presidente (2006) la société de Toyota (2006). (2006) 

2. 2. Un Journée Day día of games, lleno remplie de from juegos, de jeux the del underground au lapidarium musée lapidaire 

souterrain subterráneo lapidarium de at de l’ETHET ČVUT 

la ČVUT 

19

20 

1 2 3 

4 5 6

7 

8 

9 

10 

Gallery 

Insignia 

of the Czech Technical University 

1. Faculty of Mechanical Engineering 

2. Faculty of Civil Engineering 

3. Faculty of Electrical Engineering 

4. Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and 

Physical Engineering 

5. Faculty of Architecture 

6. Faculty of Transportation Science 

7. Rector’s sceptre 

8. Obverse side of the Rector’s chain 

9. Reverse side of the Rector’s chain 

10. Vice-Rector’s chain 

Photos: Vlasta Chválová, Jan Hojdar, 

Silvia Lešikarová 

21

22 

An unknown word to many, but for 

those interested in technology and motor 

vehicles the name Tatra stands for the 

famous Czech brand of automobile, with 

its inventions, sporting achievements 

and over 150 years of uninterrupted 

history, making it one of the oldest motor 

vehicle manufacturers in the world. 

Production of means of transport 

in the Moravian town of Kopřivnice 

dates to the year 1850, when Ignác 

Šustala started a small family firm 

making coaches and carriages designed 

with an original construction. The 

1880s brought fundamental changes 

in the field of transport. Uncomfortable 

travel by horse-drawn vehicles 

was gradually being replaced by railway 

transport. Kopřivnice 

was not to be left behind: in 

1882 Šustala began manufacturing 

railway goods wagons, 

followed five years later 

by railway motor coaches. 

Railway carriages were made 

in Kopřivnice until 1950, by 

which time some 70,000 had 

been produced. 

The Tatra 

The year 1897 was a milestone in 

Tatra’s history. That year it made the 

first personal automobile in Central 

Tatra 11 convertible, 

interior of the Tatra Technical Museum 

The Präsident, the first automobile 

to be manufactured in Austria-Hungary 

Europe, the “Präsident”. The vehicle 

was called a “horseless carriage”; it 

was driven by a water-cooled Bens 

engine with a volume of 2714 cm 3 and 

power of 6.6 Hp. It had two speeds and 

could reach up to 25 km/h (15 mph). 

A year later, in 1898, the Präsident 

made the trip from Kopřivnice to Vienna 

to take part in the world’s fair there. 

It travelled 330 km (205 miles) in 14.5 

hours, at an average speed of 22.7 km/h 

(14 mph). In Vienna it attracted a great 

deal of interest on the part of the public 

and of industry. That same year Tatra 

made its first freight automobile, driven 

by two of the same engines that 

were used in the Präsident. 

In 1923 Hans Ledvinka, an ingenious 

designer who had taken part 

as an apprentice in the production of 

the Präsident, came up with 

a design that marked another 

turning point in the history 

of auto making in Kopřivnice. 

His unforgettable Tatra 11 

was driven for the first time 

by an air-cooled, 1026 cm 3 , 

27 Hp Boxer engine and 

amazed the automobile world. 

It introduced several “firsts” 

1897 – production of the Präsident: with its water-cooled four-cylinder, rear-wheel drive, 6.6 Hp engine it could attain speeds of up to 25 km/h.

The Tatra 11 (1925), a landmark in chassis construction and the forerunner of all subsequent models 

in auto construction – a central loadbearing 

pipe, independently-driven 

axle shaft and independent suspension. 

The robustness of the design allowed 

the vehicle to move over very rough 

terrain and it is still used today in the 

production of freight-hauling vehicles. 

The T 11 came to dominate production 

at Tatra (despite initial scepticism and 

the objections of motor 

specialists), and its aircooled 

engine gained 

worldwide renown. Later 

it would prove its worth in 

many victories at international 

motor sports 

events in which Tatras 

beat the cars of famous 

brands with more powerful 

motors. Their reliability 

meant that Tatra automobiles 

were used on 

many expeditions all over 

the world, both before and 

after the war. Other models 

were produced with various types 

of engines and accessories specially 

designed for individual customers. 

In 1932, when the world-wide Depression 

had begun, the firm was not 

afraid to come out with a luxury car, 

the T 80, equipped with a water-cooled 

twelve-cylinder engine, a prestige 

item aimed at the very top of the market. 

This guaranteed that it would be 

used especially by government officials 

such as first Czechoslovak President 

T.G. Masaryk. Only 25 were 

manufactured, making the T 80 a rare 

and sought-after collector’s item. 

For a less-affluent clientele an auto 

called the T 70 was made, with a body 

The oldest surviving fire engine in the Czech 

Republic, an NW-type K (1909-11) 

almost identical to that of the T 80, but 

driven by only six cylinders. At that 

time (1933) Hans Ledvinka was working 

with his son Erich and auto designer 

Erich Überlacker on a small “peo- 

Traditions 

The chassis of the aerodynamic 

cars from Kopřivnice, their shape 

inspired by a streaking droplet, were 

far ahead of their time. 

Their revolutionary design had 

a world-wide influence. 

ple’s car” with an air-cooled motor 

situated in the back. They created the 

prototype V570, followed by a production 

car called the T 77, the first 

mass-produced aerodynamic automobile 

in the world. If the T 11 impressed, 

the T 77 astounded. A huge luxury limousine 

weighing 1,700 kg (1.7 tons), 

powered by an air-cooled, 66 hp V8 

engine, it attained speeds 

of 150 km/h (93 mph) with 

the help of its aerodynamic 

body. Next to its 

contemporaries, with their 

boxy corners, protruding 

headlights and running 

boards, the T 77 looked 

like an apparition from 

another world, drawing 

stares of amazement wherever 

it went. Traffic jams 

and even accidents were 

caused by drivers distracted 

by the sight of it. 

But the T 77 was only 

the beginning. In 1936 the Tatra 87 

came out, the first vehicle with a chassiless 

body. The vehicle’s engineering 

was exquisite, 330 kg (725 pounds) 

lighter than the model that preceded it. 

The T 87 was produced until 1953, 

when it was replaced by the Tatra 

T 603. The T 87 was used around the 

23

24 

world: famous owners included Stalin, 

Wernher von Braun and the famous 

Czech travellers Miroslav Zikmund 

and Jiří Hanzelka. The latter duo of 

engineers took their line-model car on 

their journeys across Africa and South 

America in 1947–1951. Their automobile 

was put to the test under the most 

extreme conditions: for the first time 

in history the Nubian Desert was crossed 

in a car. Zikmund and Hanzelka 

wrote about their experiences and 

observations in numerous articles and 

books translated all over the world. 

All of the automobiles described 

above can be seen at the National 

Museum of Technology in Prague, 

including the original car belonging to 

the two famous explorers. But not 

only there: the Tatra Technical Museum 

in Kopřivnice, part of the Regional 

Musuem in Kopřivnice, offers the 

most complete collection of Tatra 

automobiles in the Czech Republic. 

Here you will find passenger cars, including 

a functional replica (made in 

1973–1977) of the original Präsident, 

ordinary and luxury cars, racing cars 

and freight-moving, military and fire- 

fighting vehicles. Also on display is 

the chassis of a T 602 racing car that 

was involved in the tragic accident of the 

Tatra factory race driver Bruno Sojka 

at the ECCO HOMO race in 1951; 

a T 607 Monopost racing car made in 

1951 for Formula 1 competition; the 

only Tatraplán convertible manufactured 

with a Sodomka body, presented to 

Josef Stalin in 1949 for his seventieth 

birthday; and, for fans of diesel 

technology, an air-cooled eight-cylin- 

Advertisement for the Tatra 87, famous for taking the travellers Jiří Hanzelka and Miroslav Zikmund 

on their trip round the world 

der model from 1943. The display of 

chassis, various types of engines and 

the “specials” still provoke admiration, 

especially in view of the date 

they were made. The exhibits give 

a good idea of the principles of the 

Tatra engineering concept. 

Then there are the pre-war lorries, 

especially the exploration vehicles 

used on famous and not-so-famous 

expeditions. Among the most interesting 

are two special T 805 motor 

homes from 1959 in which engineers 

Zikmund and Hanzelka made their 

second, “Asian”, trip around the 

world, which took five years; and a T 

815 6x6 GTC exploration vehicle 

which twenty years ago travelled over 

150,000 km (93,000 miles) through 62 

countries round the world. 

The exhibition also includes a T 815 

racing lorry in which Karel Loprais 

won the Paris-Dakar Rally in 1988. 

This vehicle represents the present- 

The Tatra 80, a limited-production luxury car; this example in the National Technical Museum was build for the first Czechoslovak President, T.G. Masaryk.

1 

3 

The Tatra 77, the first car in the world with 

an aerodynamic chassis 

day successes of Tatra lorries in the 

world’s most gruelling cross-country 

race. Loprais first entered the Paris- 

Dakar Rally in 1986, employing the 

driving and mechanical skills he acquired 

as a test driver for Tatra and 

abroad. Of seventeen starts in the 

competition he won six times; five 

times he took second place and once 

he finished third. Among the world 

lorry elite Loprais is known as Mr 

Dakar; here in the Czech Republic he 

was awarded the title Racer of the 

Century. Despite his age (58 years) 

Loprais is preparing to return to the 

African desert once again and com- 

2 

4 

pete for the top spot. In this year’s 

rally the “Loprais Legend” got another 

boost from his nephew Aleš, who 

drove his Tatra to a third-place finish 

in his category. 

The vehicles, chassis, engines and 

other items found on display at the 

museum are testimony to the enormous 

daring of the firm’s designers 

and the talent, determination and will 

of all its employees to blaze new trails 

in the highly-competitive automobile 

industry. 

The traditional Czech Tatra continues 

to live on in the bodies of the 

modern “eighteen-wheelers”. Their 

frame, and their heart, are still based 

on the same 1923 design that made 

Tatra one of the best and most durable 

utility vehicles in the world. 

Radim Zátopek 

Curator, Tatra Technical Museum, Kopřivnice 

www.tatramuseum.cz, www.tatra.cz 

Photos: The Regional Museum 

in Kopřivnice, Tatra 

1. The Tatra Jamal 

2. The Tatra 4x4 

3. A Tatra at this year’s Paris-Dakar Rally 

4. Karel Loprais, driving a Tatra, won six of his 

seventeen races in the Paris-Dakar Rally, came 

second five times and third once. This year his 

nephew Aleš came third. 

25

26 

Those Magnificent Men 

in their Flying Machines 

In late 1908 sensational news from 

France arrived in the Czech lands: the 

American Wilbur Wright had achieved 

a flight of more than 120 km. The next 

year, on 25 July 1909, the French aviator 

Louis Blériot made his famous 

flight over the English Channel. 

These stories awoke great interest 

in the science of aviation. A few foreign 

inventors came to 

Prague to demonstrate 

human flight before 

large audiences, but failed 

to get off the ground. 

And then, on 16 April 

1910, out of the clear 

blue sky came the news 

that one “Engineer Kašpar” 

(a Czech) had made 

a flight of approximately 

two kilometres. 

Jan Kašpar was born 

on 20 May 1883 in Pardubice. 

He studied en- 

gineering at the Imperial 

and Royal College of 

Mechanical Engineering 

in Prague. He was fascinated 

by bicycles, automobiles and 

motors. In 1908, at the time of the first 

successful flights of Count Zeppelin’s 

airships, he went for training in Ger- 

Portrait of the Czech flier 

Ing. Jan Kašpar (c. 1910) 

Eugen Čihák in Pardubice (1912) 

many at the firm of Basse & Selve, 

which made aluminium parts for the 

zeppelins. With its owner Walter Selve, 

Kašpar took part in automobile and 

motorboat races. 

In 1909 Kašpar went to work for the 

automobile firm Laurin and Klement 

in Mladá Boleslav, the precursor of 

today’s automobile giant Škoda Auto 

Mladá Boleslav. Here he was joined by 

his cousin Eugen Čihák, two years 

younger, also a motor 

vehicle enthusiast. 

On 1 July the two 

returned to Pardubice, 

where they soon learned 

that Blériot had conquered 

the Channel. The 

idea was born to construct 

an airplane. By 

early March 1910 a 

wooden hangar was 

standing in Pardubice, 

and inside of it a monoplane 

ready for trials. 

The trial runs didn’t 

work out. The airplane 

was too weak, and at 

the beginning of April 

there had still been no 

success. But Kašpar didn’t give up. He 

went to Paris and with his own and his 

father’s money bought an airplane already 

built, a type XI, production num- 

Tens of thousands of spectators followed Kašpar’s air shows; 

Prague, 14 August 1910 

ber 76, made in the factory of Louis 

Blériot. The machine was delivered to 

Pardubice in early April, and at the 

military parade grounds outside of 

town the first attempts were made to 

get off the ground. At first the airplane 

would only make short jumps, but on 

16 April Kašpar succeeded in making 

a real piloted flight. He thus became 

the first Czech flyer. According to an 

oft-cited (but less than reliable) legend, 

the flight was helped by a chance bit of 

luck: a cow grazing on the field caused 

Kašpar to swerve from the planned 

direction, and thanks to this the plane 

got off the ground. 

He practised flying during the following 

weeks. For a time he parted company 

with Eugen Čihák, who with his 

brother Hugo began to build his own 

airplane. Their decision was probably 

motivated by a dispute over who was 

to pilot the plane. On Sunday 19 June, 

Kašpar demonstrated the airplane

efore the public in his native Pardubice. 

Around 22,000 pairs of eyes saw 

him flying in the air for four minutes. 

This was followed by successful exhibitions 

in other Czech towns. 

In July 1910 the Čihák brothers 

began trying to fly an airplane. They, 

too, failed with their own construction 

and decided to buy a Saulnier airplane 

from France. It was delivered to Pardubice 

in mid-September 1910, and that 

same month Eugen conducted his first 

successful flights. However, on 1 

October the airplane burned after an 

accident. 

Meanwhile, Kašpar wanted to fly 

with a passenger, but the original Blériot 

plane was not built for this purpose. 

So in 1910 he began building 

a new airplane. He stuck with Blériot’s 

proven model, but the new airplane 

was larger and had a more powerful 

engine: a 65-horsepower Aerodaimler 

constructed by Ferdinand Porsche, 

Jan Kašpar 

a famous Czech native of Vratislavice 

nad Nisou. The engine was delivered 

to Pardubice from the Daimler Austria 

factory in October 1910 and was installed 

in the plane in the spring of the following 

year. The airplane, equipped 

with its powerful engine, was able to 

carry the occasional passenger, and 

achieved some notable successes. Its 

most famous feat was the flight from 

Pardubice to Prague on Saturday 13 

May 1911, when it travelled for a then- 

History 

“Early morning, 16 April 1910, 

the parade ground at Pardubice. Jan 

Kašpar has put on a thick sweater 

and turned his cap round so it won’t 

be carried off by the wind. Soon 

virtually every boy in the town will 

be doing the same.” 

Břetislav Ditrych 

Czech writer 

(born 1942) 

writing about the first air flight 

in the Czech lands 

unbelievable hour and twenty-three 

minutes. Kašpar, as pilot, navigated by 

following the railway line. Prague was 

obscured by clouds, but he picked up 

the Vltava River and made a good 

landing at the Chuchle racecourse. The 

longest-distance flight in the Austro- 

Hungarian Empire (120 km) ended 

with the pilot changing into formal 

attire and going into Prague for the 

wedding of a friend. 

More public exhibitions followed. 

Kašpar made a flight from Prague to 

Mělník carrying a passenger, the 

journalist Jaroslav Kalva. It seemed 

that his successful career as an aviator 

would continue, but this was not to be. 

In 1912 Jan Kašpar quit flying. Since 

the beginning of the year he had been 

having problems with the engine, 

while income from public exhibitions 

was falling and no longer covered the 

27

28 

Eugen Čihák with a copy of a Saulnier 

air show’s steep operating costs. Kašpar 

continued to work at the Aviation 

Cooperative in Pardubice (founded in 

April 1911), the successor of which, 

the Pardubice Eastern Bohemia Airclub, 

is the oldest still-operating aviation 

association in the Czech Republic. 

In 1913 Kašpar began to build a new, 

modern airplane, but it was never completed. 

May saw the death of Kašpar’s 

father František, who had been a great 

supporter of his son’s aviation activities. 

Jan Kašpar was left with the duty 

of taking care of the family property, 

and his once-renowned career as 

a barnstormer faded into memory, 

though over the years he continued to 

maintain an active interest in flying. 

That same year, 1913, he donated his 

famous Blériot to the National Muse- 

Eugen Čihák as supervisor at the Czechoslovak State Airlines’ Prague-Kbely airport (c. 1935) 

Public show by Ing. Jan Kašpar at Čáslav on 20 May 1911, a week after his famous flight 

from Pardubice to Prague 

um of Technology in Prague. At the 

end of the First World War in November 

1918, he took up his aviation career 

again by joining the Aviation Corps, 

the first Czechoslovak air force. But 

there was no suitable position for him 

there, and in February 1919 he returned 

to civilian life. He became the coowner 

of a steam-powered sawmill. He 

was not much of a businessman and 

had no success there. He fell into debt 

and lived alone, in isolation. 

“At the beginning of 1927 Jan came 

to see his cousin Eugen in Prague. 

They had a long private talk. Perhaps 

they recalled their childhood and their 

first public airplane flights before 

thousands of thrilled onlookers. Maybe 

they talked about the war. Jan had served 

with a military railroad company; Eugen 

with his pilot’s license was accepted 

into the dirigible corps in Wiener Neustadt, 

but he was disappointed with 

service in the technical personnel.

Kašpar’s Blériot XI at the time of his first attempts to fly in Pardubice in April 1910 

Neither of them ever managed to get 

back into flying. The illustrious pioneers 

were forgotten; there was no 

place for them in the new era, and the 

military gave preference to experienced 

war pilots,” wrote Břetislav Ditrych 

of the magazine Reflex. 

Jan Kašpar died under curious 

circumstances. On the last day of 

February 1927 he doused the floor of 

his office at the sawmill in petrol and 

wrapped his head in a shawl soaked in 

the flammable liquid. In the morning 

he was found unconscious. He died 

two days later, on the night between 2 

and 3 March 1927. The medical report 

gave the cause of death as pneumonia. 

We left the Čihák brothers back in 

early October 1910. When they lost the 

Saulnier in an accident, they began to 

build two copies, with different engines. 

Eugen began to fly these planes 

in the spring of 1911, but problems 

with the engines slowed testing. The 

Čihák brothers lost another plane in 

August 1911 to a hangar fire. They 

rebuilt their remaining plane to carry 

a 50-horsepower Gnome engine. This 

plane, probably with the original Saulnier 

tail wings, made its first public 

demonstration in late 1911. 

In Jičín Eugen was to fly alongside 

Kašpar, but Kašpar got lost on the 

flight from Pardubice and crashed. 

Eugen and his cousin Jan went on to 

perform in Mělník and Prague. 

In 1912 Jan Kašpar was almost done 

flying, while Eugen Čihák got his 

“second wind” and was doing one air 

show after another. But his income, 

too, failed to cover costs, and he seems 

to have paid off the difference from 

rental of farmland he had inherited 

from his father. He continued barnstorming 

through Bohemia and Moravia in 

1913, flying a fine new airplane called 

The Swedish pilot Mikael Karlson carrying out a trial 

flight at the Aviation Fair in Pardubice in the original 

Blériot XI model Thulin A – 95 years after Kašpar’s 

Pardubice-Prague flight 

the Rapid built by himself and his brother 

Hugo. The next year saw the public 

losing interest in such exhibitions. 

Čihák tried coming up with new ideas; 

he launched “circuit flights”, visiting several 

towns in the course of a single day 

thanks to his ability to “shift by air”. 

In August 1914 world war broke out, 

putting an end to private flying in the 

Austro-Hungarian Empire. Čihák volunteered 

for the air service but remained 

for only a short time; he was 

injured in an automobile accident and 

transferred to the Imperial chasseurs. 

He went with them to the Italian front, 

where he was wounded. 

After the war Eugen Čihák ran 

a road transport service, but he still 

found himself drawn to aircraft. His 

bother Hugo, who was an office worker 

for the Czechoslovak State Airlines, 

helped him to get the job of airplane 

mechanic and later supervisor at 

the airports in Kbely and Ruzyně. 

When the German occupation began in 

1939, he went back to the road transport 

business. 

In the 1950s Čihák enjoyed a new 

season of fame. He was invited to give 

public talks and appeared on radio; 

newspapers wrote about him. He got 

a chance to fly again in a small airplane. 

He died in March 1958. 

The heroes of Czech aviation were 

symbolically commemorated on 4 June 

2006 by the Swedish pilot Mikael 

Karlson. Ninety-five years after Kašpar’s 

flight from Pardubice to Prague, 

Karlson thrilled spectators at the Aviation 

Fair in Pardubice by taking off in 

the original Blériot XI Thulin A. 

Pavel Sviták 

Photos: author’s archives, ČTK 

29

30 


“If you ask what kind of people are most 

needed at the present time the answer is 

simple – inventors, people who see 

something where others see only a blank. 

Individuals who reveal the astounding 

reality hidden behind the ordinary, who 

go beyond what is boring and useless to 

discover what is useful, who find what is 

provable within what seems unprovable. 

The scope for enquiry open to inventors 

is as endless as the universe. They are the 

source of fascinating biographies, deserve 

to be praised. Sometimes they are coddled, 

sometimes ignored. And sometimes 

somewhere in between. I reserve my comments 

on what the situation is like at the 

present time in this country.” 

Jiří Čížek of the University of Waterloo receiving 

the Unipetrol Patria Award for a citizen of the Czech 

Republic who has had a successful career abroad 

from Arnošt Lustig, Honorary President of Czech 

Intellect (2006) 

The Media Award of the Czech Intellect Foundation Fund being presented 

by Václav Kasík, General Director of Czech Radio, to Vladimír Kořen 

of Czech Television 

Logo of the Czech Intellect competition, the Czech 

Republic’s most ambitious project in support of 

Czechs engaged in scientific and technical research 

With these words, the writer Arnošt 

Lustig launched the first “Czech Intellect” 

competition for inventors in 2002. 

As Honorary President of the competition 

he gave his blessing to the country- 

’s most ambitious project in support of 

Czech intellects engaged in scientific 

and technical fields. This initiative – 

a product of the private sector (with no 

input from official academies or state 

bodies) – has developed into a major 

media and social event in the course of 

the past five years. 

Speaking about the beginning of 

the Czech Intellect initiative, its project 

The National Award of the Czech government being 

presented to the mathematician Jaroslav Kurzweil by 

the Minister of Education, Miroslava Kopicová 

The Škoda Auto Invence Award for a discovery or outstanding achievement 

in recent years being presented to Oldřich Jirsák of the Technical University 

of Liberec by Martin Jahn, of Škoda Auto

The gala evening, occasion for the presentation of the 2006 Czech Intellect awards 

manager Iva Sladká stressed that the idea 

to create the competition did not come 

from the state: “The public relations and 

marketing firm Caneton realized how little 

is done to popularize science and research 

in this country, and that to a certain 

extent scientists are unappreciated and 

even disparaged in Czech society. So we 

came up with the idea of finding a way to 

reward scientists, and the best means of 

doing that would be publicly, in cooperation 

with the media. We wanted to show 

the public the outstanding accomplishments 

of our scientists and to support and 

promote the importance of science and 

research for society as a whole.” 

Society 

“The world is not linked just by 

latitudes and longitudes, continents 

and oceans, but also by people, who 

help to better our existence through 

their actions.” 

Arnošt Lustig 

Czech author, Honorary President 

of the Czech Intellect project 

(born 1926) 

A “Czech” Nobel Prize 

“From the beginning our aim was for 

the award to become recognized as a kind 

of domestic equivalent of the Nobel 

Prize,” explains Vratislav Kopačka, 

whose task it is to work with the media. 

“From the beginning the project has 

depended on sponsorship from leading 

industrial firms. Škoda Auto, Unipetrol 

and the Post Office Savings Bank were 

there at the beginning, and they have continued 

to support us ever since. The turning 

point – and this made us very happy – 

was when people from the government 

phoned us and we began discussions with 

Winners of the 2006 Czech Intellect awards 

The National Award of the Czech government for lifetime achievement in the area of research and development: Prof. Jaroslav Kurzweil 

of the Institute of Mathematics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, for research into mathematical integrals 

The Invence Award (Škoda Auto) for a discovery or outstanding achievement in recent years: Prof. Oldřich Jirsák of the Technical University 

of Liberec, for the NanoSpider, used for the preparation of nanofibres 

The Patria Award (Unipetrol) for a citizen of the Czech Republic who has had a successful career abroad in recent years: Prof. Jiří Čížek 

of the University of Waterloo, for key contributions to the development of quantum chemistry 

The Industrie Award (Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade) for the most outstanding innovation in technology or production: the Linet 

company, for its Image, a universal hospital bed 

The Doctorandus Award (Siemens) for an innovative approach by a student in a doctoral degree programme: Štěpán Obdržálek of the 

Department of Cybernetics at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the Technical University in Prague, for work on computer recognition 

of objects in images 

The Gaudeamus Award for a student in a Bachelor’s or Master’s programme: Petr Kubíček of the Brno University of Technology, for the 

reconstruction of the small historical sports aircraft M2 Skaut 

The Naděje Award (Post Office Savings Bank) for the most outstanding achievement of a secondary-school student: Ivana Petrová from 

the grammar school in Říčany, for her research on cell fragmentation 

The Media Award (Czech Intellect Foundation Fund), awarded to a journalist: Vladimír Kořen of Czech Television, for the TV series 


31

32 

them on possible forms of cooperation. It 

was clear that at the highest levels they 

were aware of the need to popularize science 

and research, that without investment 

in research things would stagnate, 

that the local intellectual potential is very 

substantial and that it can’t be ignored.” 

So in addition to each of the seven categories 

in the competition, which are funded 

by individual sponsors, a prestigious 

National Award was added. The prize 

goes to a scientist selected on the basis of 

his or her lifetime achievement and 

includes a grant funded by the Czech 

government amounting to 1,000,000 CZK 

(about 33,000 EUR) – the highest sum for 

any category in the competition. The 

Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade has 

also created a prize, given for the best 

innovation in production and technology. 

In order to ensure that the competition 

covers the widest possible spectrum of 

scientific research and technical development, 

the rules for participation are fairly 

open. “Anyone can submit a nomination 

in the competition, but the scientific work 

“Science in the Streets”: the Hydrogenix 2, developed 

by students and teachers at the VŠB – Technical 

University of Ostrava 

“Science in the Streets”: a performance by the Association for Youth, Science and Technology 

The “Science in the Streets” project: experimenting with static electricity 

in question must be accompanied by two 

recommendations from independent 

experts in the field. Hundreds of scientific 

works pass through the pre-selection 

phase, and their quality is assessed by 

a jury composed of members of the prestigious 

Czech Intellects Club. This comprises 

previous winners of the prize, Rectors 

of Czech higher education institutions, 

leaders in industrial scientific 

fields and so on,” explains Iva Sladká. 

“The ranking of candidates is not made 

public, only the name of the winner. What 

do the scientists do with the prize money? 

Most of them buy computers or something 

that enables them to more forward with 

their research – an expensive component 

for some apparatus, or something like 

this. I was surprised by Prof. Čížek, who 

won the Patria Award last year for his 

outstanding contribution to the reputation 

of Czech science abroad. He divided 

the prize money between two hospitals: 

half went to the hospital where his father 

had worked, the other half to the one 

where his mother had been employed.” 

The climax of the competition comes 

with the gala ceremony at which the most 

famous Czech artists and leading figures 

in the government present the awards to 

their counterparts in the world of science. 

Czech Television broadcasts this ceremony 

live in prime time, regularly attracting 

more than a million viewers.

Young Czech Intellects 

The category for the country’s youngest 

scientists has aroused great interest ever 

since the competition began. Many talented 

young scientists have been nominated, 

and often the results of their research far 

surpassed the expectations of the organizers. 

“For example, one was an eighteenyear-old 

inventor who had already patented 

his discovery in Japan and the USA,” 

pointed out Sladká. “Last year’s winner, 

Ivana Petrová from the grammar school at 

Říčany, was also exceptional: her work on 

the causes of infertility (she did research 

on the fragmentation of eggs and the ways 

this could be prevented) went far beyond 

what one might expect from research done 

by a secondary-school student. The high 

professional quality of our youngest 

scientists led us to develop a project 

entitled ‘Young Czech Intellects’. Open 

for scientists up to the age of eighteen, it 

was held this year for the first time. Our 

modest hope is that, in time, some of the 

winners of the Young Czech Intellect 

awards will become laureates of the 

Czech Intellect award. Young people often 

idealize actors, singers or athletes, but the 

profession of scientist seems to be lacking 

in prestige. We wanted to inspire young 

people to take up scientific careers.” 

An ideal tool for increasing the popularity 

of science among young people is the 

accompanying “Science in the streets” 

project. How it worked last year is de- 

“Science in the Streets”: students of the Faculty 

of Mathematics and Physics at Charles University 

– many times world champions in robot golf 

– at the Museum station of Prague’s Metro 

scribed by its organizer, Blanka Müller. 

“In the streets in the centre of Prague 

people could examine the Hydrogenix, 

a hydrogen-powered vehicle, experience 

what it was like to be weightless, ‘create’ 

a small earthquake or view the surface of 

the Sun through a telescope. It’s estimated 

that over the course of two days almost 

150,000 people took part 

in this interactive event. 

In addition, it was widely 

reported in the media.” 

A reporter from the daily 

Mladá fronta Dnes commented 

on the interest of 

very young people in the 

event. “Children were 

especially attracted to 

the pneumatic rocket 

launcher, which employed 

a very simple principle 

to demonstrate how 

rockets are launched. The 

astronomer in charge of 

the telescope was pleasantly 

surprised when 

a five-year-old girl was 

able to name all the planets 

in the solar system.” 

This year the event will 

be extended to take in 

Plzeň and Brno. 

Nobel laureates 

“The ‘Czech Intellect’ project wouldn’t 

have been possible without the enthusiasm 

and drive of the members of the project 

team,” says Kopačka. “The project 

itself brings a lot of excitement to the 

firm, but by its very nature is remains 

a non-profit undertaking. I myself get 

a lot of pleasure out of working on a project 

that is seen in such a positive light by 

society.” Iva Sladká speaks particularly 

Demonstrating the Baby Car solar 

vehicle, produced by ČVUT in Prague 

highly of the feedback from the scientists 

who have been given the award. “For me 

personally, for example, the reaction of 

Prof. Čížek was very rewarding. He’s one 

of our leading scientists, and has even 

been nominated for the Nobel Prize for 

physics. But many times after receiving 

the award he got in touch, offering us all 

kinds of help and making available all his 

contacts, among them some Nobel Prize 

laureates. This led to very fruitful and 

very prestigious cooperation for us.” 

The project has inaugurated a unique 

form of cooperation with several recipients 

of the scientific world’s top award. 

Last year the organizers announced their 

plan to invite several Nobel Prize winners 

to Prague in 2007. At the concurrent European 

Forum for Science and Technology 

in Prague the idea was praised by the 

Nobel Prize winner Claude Cohen-Tannoudji: 

“This would be very useful. Nobel 

Prize winners seldom see each other, yet 

they do in fact have in common a certain 

influence, which could be of great benefit 

to science. This year’s forum convinced 

me that you’re excellent organizers, and 

I was pleasantly surprised 

by the concept – it’s 

a splendid idea to bring 

together around one table 

leading scientists, European 

politicians, bankers 

and industrialists.” The 

organizers’ idea has borne 

fruit. This year’s conference, 

“Science and the Future 

of Europe”, will have as 

guest lecturers two Nobel 

Prize winners, Sir Harold 

W. Kroto (University of 

Sussex), who was awarded 

the prize in chemistry, and 

Pierre-Gilles de Gennes 

(Collège de France), who 

received if for physics. 

The “Czech Intellect” 

organizers’ second plan is 

to link science and industry. 

“It’s often hard for even 

very good scientific results to find an industrial 

application, for the very simple reason 

that most scientists aren’t managers,” 

says Sladká. “That’s why we established the 

Agency for Private Investment in Research 

and Development. Its aim is to link private 

investors with research projects that haven’t 

managed to receive funding from public 

sources. We offer to help firms that are looking 

for new products to manufacture or 

better technology in their search for suitable 

scientific researchers.” 

Jaromír Straka 

Photos: Caneton, ČTK 

33

34 

Fabia II – 

Elegance and Roominess 

This year Škoda is introducing a new 

model of the Fabia, the country’s 

most popular automobile. Though the 

Fabia II uses the same chassis as the 

earlier models, changes in the shape of 

its body have given it greater elegance 

and a roomier interior. 

Commenting on the design changes, 

the daily Hospodářské noviny found 

these words of praise: “Its shape 

reminds one of the British Mini – 

especially in the version with a white 

roof… The Fabia is even more striking 

when seen from behind: it appears to 

be narrower, slightly introverted but 

not aloof.” The car comes with four 

petrol and three diesel engine options. 

The basic four-cylinder models are 

more powerful than before, with 70 

horsepower, while the most powerful 

petrol option boasts a 1.6 litre 105 

horsepower engine. 

“Škoda plans to produce fewer than 

100,000 of the new Fabias this year,” 

announced Detlef Wittig, Chairman of 

Škoda Auto. He added that the Škoda 

Yeti, an SUV vehicle whose design 

concept debuted at the auto salon in 

Geneva, is now being tested in the 

field, and that the firm is very interest- 

ed in alternative fuels. “We’re focusing 

on biofuels and compressed 

natural gas,” said Wittig in an interview 

with the Czech daily Mladá fronta 

Dnes. 

The Most Beautiful 

Czech Car 

“A car that has aerodynamism in its 

very name”, “the most beautiful 

Czech car”, “the work of a brilliant 

chassis designer” – these and similar 

superlatives have been used to describe 

one of the rarest cars in automobile 

history, the Aero 50 Dynamik. 

Sometimes this vehicle is known by 

the nickname “Arizona”. This is 

because there are only two known 

examples. One is in the collections of 

the regional museum in the eastern 

Bohemian town of Vysoké Mýto, 

while the other turned up in Arizona. 

The vehicle was built between the 

wars by Josef Sodomka’s Vysoké 

Mýto chassis-manufacturing firm, 

established in 1895 to produce carriages 

and sleighs. This year, when the 

city is celebrating its 700th anniversary, 

the car will be put on show as part 

of the exhibition “Sodomka’s Vysoké 

Mýto”. “For the whole month of June 

the city will be caught up in the world 

of the automobile in honour of Sodomka, 

and with the help of period costumes, 

performances and exhibitions 

we’re going to try and recreate the 

atmosphere of the interwar period,” 

explains Jiří Junek, Director of the 

Vysoké Mýto Regional Museum. The 

rare example of the Aero 50 Dynamik 

in Vysoké Mýto is now undergoing a 

complex restoration process that aims 

at achieving maximum authenticity. 

Partial funding for the project is 

coming from the Ministry of Culture. 

Václav Hollar 

Retrospective 

This year marks the 400th anniversary 

of the birth of the famous Czech 

engraver Václav Hollar, who lived in 

London from 1637. An exhibition in 

the Moravian Gallery in Brno presented 

ten of his works, the most arresting 

of which were the cycle depicting 

women’s clothing entitled Ornatus 

muliebris (1639) and graphic works in 

which women embody the four seasons. 

Hollar reached his artistic peak 

in Antwerp, where he was invited to 

collaborate with Anthony van Dyck on 

his famous Iconography, a collection 

of portrait prints of the most distinguished 

men and women of the age. 

All the exhibits in Brno came from the 

Moravian Gallery’s own collections. 

State-of-the-art 

Control Centre 

Since February 2007 air traffic over 

the Czech Republic has been managed 

from the most modern control centre in 

Europe. The Integrated Air Traffic 

Control Centre at Jeneč near Prague was 

established in 2003. The airspace above 

the Czech Republic is heavily used by 

air carriers; last year in July a new 

record was set when almost 64,000 

planes touched down at Prague’s 

Ruzyně airport. The Prague control 

centre is popular with air carriers 

because it has kept delays in the Czech 

Republic’s airspace to the minimum.

Deaf Skiers Triumph 

in Salt Lake City 

The Czech Republic was represented 

at the 16th Winter Deaflympics by 

a team of women skiers. In all the ski 

disciplines the two Czech down-hill 

skiers – Tereza Kmochová and Petra 

Kurková – had impressive results. 

The nine medals they won in the 

Alpine skiing events turned these 

competitions into a mostly Czech 

affair and put the Czech Republic in 

third place overall, behind Russia and 

the USA. 

Tereza Kmochová won five and 

Petra Kurková four medals. After 

returning home, Kmochová recalled 

how she had begun skiing. “When 

I was two-and-a-half I put on plastic 

skis for the first time and tried to slide 

and move about, and I liked it, I was 

able to slide further and further and 

faster and faster. When I was threeand-a-half 

I skied down the hill behind 

our house, where my parents used 

a rope to teach me how to turn. And 

then they simply let go of the rope.” 

Yale Honours 

a Czech Economist 

The Yale Economic Revue recently 

named the twenty-nine-year-old 

Czech economist Tomáš Sedláček one 

of the world’s top young economists. 

Sedláček has worked as an adviser to 

former President Václav Havel and 

former Minister of Finance Bohuslav 

Sobotka, and is currently the chief 

macroeconomic strategist for ČSOB, 

one of the largest banks in the Czech 

Republic. Since last September he has 

been studying at Yale in the prestigious 

Yale World Fellowship Programme; 

after finishing he will return to his 

position at the ČSOB. The article on 

the winners of the award is entitled 

“Young Guns: Five Hot Minds in Economics”. 

These individuals were 

selected by the university journal on 

the basis of having made significant 

contributions to the field of economics, 

whether in academia, private 

industry or government. 

Return of a Legend 

The motorcycle importer Pavel 

Brída has decided to revive what was 

perhaps the most popular “people’s” 

motorcycle in Czech history, the 

Pionýr (“Pioneer”), which was 

manufactured during the Communist 

era. In 2005 his firm Motoscoot 

signed a licensing agreement with 

Jawa Týnec, thus becoming an 

official member of the “Jawa family”. 

Working together the two firms 

developed the prototype for a moped 

that is now being marketed in the 

Czech Republic as the New Pionýr. 

“In view of the past and the fame of 

the Jawa brand, we decided on 

a 1950s retrodesign, adding to it an 

outstanding engine that meets the 

strictest EU norms. The result is 

a motorcycle that is offered at 

a reasonable price and comes with 

Mosaic 

top-quality warranties,” says Brída. 

The moped is being manufactured 

under licence in China and assembled 

in the Czech Republic. From the first 

idea (which was to resurrect this 

highly successful small moped to 

mark the fiftieth anniversary of when 

it first went into production) to the 

actual manufacture of the first 

mopeds took only six months. 

Czech Catches 

Giant Fish 

Recently the well-known Czech 

angler Jakub Vágner managed to make 

a record catch. On his latest expedition 

to the Amazon he caught an arapaima 

weighing 106 kilograms (235 pounds). 

Arapaima gigas is the world’s largest 

species of freshwater fish; according 

to Vágner, the one he caught set a new 

record. As is his custom, he released 

the fish back into the water. 

“It’s the largest individual of this 

freshwater species that’s ever been 

caught with a rod,” said Vágner after 

returning from a month-long expedition 

that took him to Ecuador, Peru 

and Bolivia. 

Vágner claims his feat marks the 

peak in sports fishing. “This is a fish so 

strong that you can’t even compare it 

to a human. When you get it into shallow 

water, you have to grapple with it 

like in Greco-Roman wrestling.” 

It is a matter of principle for Vágner 

to return the fish he catches to the 

water. He promotes the idea of “catch 

and release”. In the case of the arapaima, 

he is very proud that he was 

able to document the unique occasion. 

And what is more, the photos were 

not taken by a professional photographer 

but by a Native who had 

never done anything like this before. 

Members of the expedition are now 

working on the preparation of a 

feature film devoted to the lives of 

Indians in the remote areas of the 

rainforest as seen from the point of 

view of European civilization. 

35

36 

Auto Parts for the World 

Economic growth in the Czech 

Republic is powered to a great extent 

by the automobile industry. The 

Škoda Auto brand is among the top 

sellers in six European countries: the 

Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, 

Bulgaria, Lithuania and Bosnia and 

Herzegovina. Only Toyota and Volkswagen 

are doing better in this regard. 

But the auto industry includes not 

just the automakers but also its subcontractors. 

Here the Czech Republic 

has a unique position: there is not 

a single part of a Czech car that is not 

made in the Czech Republic, and 

Czech parts are used by every major 

automaker in Europe. The Czech 

Republic is among Europe’s most 

important producers of lights, tyres, 

windscreens, locks and brakes. Auto 

parts manufacturers employ some 

120,000 workers in the Czech Republic. 

Significantly, they are located not 

just in the big industrial areas but 

help bring prosperity to smaller 

towns as well. 

The manufacturing process at the Brisk Tábor 

The majority of the original auto 

parts factories were taken over by the 

foreign investors who came to the 

Czech Republic in the 1990s with 

Volkswagen, owner of the Škoda 

plant in Mladá Boleslav. 

Other foreign investors (especially 

Japanese) have built brand new factories 

to supply the assembly plant in 

Kolín in Central Bohemia, where the 

small cars Toyota Aygo, Peugeot 107 

and Citroen C1 are made. Now Korean 

parts makers are coming; Hyundai is 

building its first European factory in 

Nošovice in the country’s northeast. 

And there are still companies that make 

auto parts for the whole world but have 

remained under Czech ownership.

Ideas and spark plugs 

Among the most important onehundred-percent 

Czech manufacturers 

of auto parts is Brisk Tábor. It is 

Europe’s third-biggest maker of 

spark plugs and glow plugs, and 

number six worldwide. This southern 

Bohemian company made 50 million 

spark plugs last year (up from 9 million 

in 1992). One of the reasons 

Brisk has been successful is its own 

development. Technicians at Brisk 

have not only quickly met the demands 

of Western automakers; they 

have sprung a few surprises of their 

own as well. They scored a big success 

in Brazil with their spark plugs designed 

for engines using fuels with 

a high alcohol content. Multi-spark 

plugs of the Premium line are used in 

motor sports and other fast cars. They 

also make spark plugs for engines 

that run on natural gas. 

It is an honour of sorts for Brisk 

that its products are imitated abroad. 

Pirate copies recently caused the firm 

many headaches, but owner and 

Managing Director Mojmír Čapka 

says that the worst is past. Everywhere 

the cheap fakes were being 

sold people soon recognized the difference 

in quality. Businessmen who 

valued their good name soon returned 

to the original Brisk. Spark plugs 

have to be changed regularly. They 

are delivered to automobile assembly 

lines (in the case of Brisk mainly to 

VW, Russian makers and the Renault/Dacia 

group) and for replacement 

parts to service stations, petrol 

Economics 

There is not a single important 

auto manufacturer in Europe that 

does not use auto parts from the 

Czech Republic. 

stations and auto parts stores. Around 

20 percent of Brisk’s production goes 

to the automakers, the remaining 80 

percent for parts. 

The company employs some eight 

hundred people. Most production 

goes for export; Brisk delivers to 56 

countries. The firm has an especially 

strong position in Russia, where it 

began in 1995. At present Brisk holds 

around 40 percent of the market 

there, meaning over thirty million 

spark plugs. Production at the Tábor 

factory also includes sensors for various 

measuring instruments such as 

tachometres. 

Brano – opening wide the gate 

The largest solely Czech-owned 

auto parts company is the Brano 

Group. Its General Director Pavel 

Juříček was the Czech Republic’s 

Businessman of the Year for 2006, 

and will represent the country this 

June at the world final of the competition 

in Monte Carlo. According to 

37

38 

the jurors, Juříček is an 

example of the American 

dream under Czech conditions. 

He began as a skilled 

metalworker; today his firm 

employs 2,400 people. He 

works in a highly competitive 

environment, achieving 

above-average profits. He is 

also active in the business 

community, serving as Vice- 

President of the Czech Automobile 

Manufacturers Association. 

He is on the Board of Directors 

of the Czech Chamber of Commerce 

and is Chairman of the Regional Economic 

Council in Liberec. He is also 

a university lecturer. 

Pavel Juříček was never satisfied 

with the diploma of a skilled tradesman; 

instead, he kept on adding to his 

education. At the Brano firm he 

began as a technician in the pressing 

room. He did calculations, worked in 

the machine shop and served as Chief 

Engineer. In 1992 he became Production 

Director. Besides technical subjects 

he also became interested in 

Production hall at the Brano Group 

Pavel Juříček, owner and General Director of Brano 

Group, was named Entrepreneur of the Year in 2006 

in a competition organized by Ernst & Young. 

economics, studying in Rotterdam 

and Vienna, and 

finally earning a doctorate in 

economics in Ostrava. When 

he took up the post of General 

Director at the Brano 

Group, the firm was grossing 

420 million crowns 

a year, of which about half 

came from auto parts. 

The Brano company’s 

most famous product used to 

be mechanical door locks, 

long a stock item in Czech shops and 

the origin of the firm’s advertising 

slogan “Brano zavírá samo” (“Brano 

locks itself”), with its play on words 

with the company name (brana is 

the Czech for “gate”). Today’s Brano 

group makes heating elements, 

sirens, pumps, pedals, hinges for auto 

doors and trunks, emergency brake 

handles, shock absorbers and automobile 

jacks. Auto parts now make 

up 95 percent of its annual sales, 

which total 4 billion crowns. 

Petr Korbel 

Photos: archives of Brisk Tábor 

and Brano Group, ČTK

Editorial Contents - THEO publishers

Transform your PDFs into Flipbooks and boost your revenue!

Delete template?

Save as template ?