Club / News / Program
Three candidates shortlisted for the 2023 Václav Havel Prize 05/09/23
The selection panel of the Václav Havel Human Rights Prize, which rewards outstanding civil society action in defence of human rights in Europe and beyond, has today announced the shortlist for the 2023 Award. Meeting in Prague today, the panel – made up of independent figures from the world of human rights and chaired by the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Tiny Kox – decided to shortlist the following three nominees, in alphabetical order: More
Three candidates shortlisted for the 2022 Václav Havel Human Rights Prize 06/09/22
The discussion among the seven-member jury helmed by the president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe centred on the importance of the issue of human rights during this tense period. The finalists include Vladimir Kara-Murza, a political prisoner and leading Russian democracy campaigner; Ukraine’s 5 AM Coalition, which gathers evidence of human rights abuses stemming from Russia’s invasion of the country; and Hungary’s Rainbow Coalition defending LGBTQIA+ rights. “This year’s selection reflects the central role that human rights play in the current European crisis,” says Michael Žantovský, jury member and executive director of the Václav Havel Library, which bestows the prize in cooperation with the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and Nadace Charty 77.
The Other Europe 27/04/22
Dear Friends, After three years we have completed the international project The Other Europe, during which, in cooperation with partner institutions, we have processed and made public recordings of interviews shot in 1987 and 1988 behind the Iron Curtain, and in exile, with important representatives of the opposition and the arts, as well as random citizens. Over those three years we have prepared video, audio and text of 106 interviews in speakers’ native languages and English translation. Despite public health restrictions in the Covid period, we have jointly prepared 16 international conferences and public presentations in six Central and Eastern European states. More
From Schuman to Havel – what next? 16/02/22
The Václav Havel Library is a proud partner of the project Beyond Robert Schuman’s Europe More
Program for March 2015<>
entry-free
An Evening with Eda Kriseová
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: March 2, 2015, 19:00 – 21:00
The novelist and former advisor to Václav Havel will read from her most recent book Duši, tělo opatruj (Soul, Cherish the Body). Among other subjects, she will discuss the inspiration for the characters in her short stories, novellas and novels, as well as the latest edition of her book Václav Havel. Vojtěch and Irena Havel will perform live music.
Abbé Libánský: Václav Havel and the Transformations of Czech Society in Photography I
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: March 3, 2015, 19:00 – 21:00
The series presents the work of documentary photographers whose work captured Václav Havel over many years.
The first evening will get underway with a projection by artist Abbé J. Libánský of images from Prague’s underground scene in the 1970s, an informal chronical of people pushed to the fringes of society, a world that Václav Havel also inhabited.
Journey to the Soviet Union
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: March 4, 2015, 14:00 – 17:30
Just a few days after his speech at the United States Congress in 1990, Václav Havel visited Moscow...
On 26 and 27 February 1990 he discussed the departure of Soviet troops with Mikhail Gorbachev, while a declaration aimed at overcoming the troubled past and establishing new relations between the two states based on the principles of justice, equality and sovereignty was signed. Almost exactly a year later a decision was made to dissolve the military structures of the Warsaw Pact (25 February 1991) and in July of that year the member states dissolved the pact. Part of the series Our return to the map of the world.
Prague Odyssey – The Future of the City as a Common Mission I
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: March 5, 2015, 19:00 – 21:00
A discussion series on the future of Prague as a successful, safe, healthy and competitive 21st century city.
In cooperation with the Prague Institute of Planning and Development.
Marie Rút Křížková: Listen and Respond
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: March 9, 2015, 19:00 – 21:00
Presentation of Slyšet A Odpovídat (Listen and Respond), the memoirs of Marie Rút Křížková, editor of the works of Jiří Orten and Charter 77 spokesperson.
The evening will be hosted by Ester Janečková.
Other speakers will include Mireia Ryšková and the Czech minister of culture, Daniel Herman.
The Revolt of Islam: the Middle East in turmoil
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: March 10, 2015, 18:00 – 20:00
Lecture and discussion organized by the Faculty of Social Sciences, the Italian Embassy in Prague and Václav Havel Library with a major Italian journalist Antonio Ferrari, who is a longtime special correspondent of the largest Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera in the Middle East.
Since the late 70s Ferrari has been a direct witness to many events that determined the next course of history, from armed conflicts, through revolution, to the political upheavals in Europe and beyond. In Prague, Ferrari will talk about his experience with radical Isla m in practice and about contemporary development in the countries of the Middle East. Lecture and subsequent discussion will be held in English. The program will start with signing ceremony of the Memorandum of Cooperation between the Institute of International Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University and the Italian Embassy in Prague in the presence of the Italian ambassador to the Czech Republic and Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences for Foreign Relations.
The Underground Phenomenon: Beatrice Landovská
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: March 11, 2015, 10:00 – 12:00
A series of lectures on the Czech underground as a social, political and historical phenomenon organised by the Historical Sociology department at Charles University’s Faculty of Humanities and the Václav Havel Library and headed by sociologist Nicolas Maslowski.
New Hope in Politics
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: March 11, 2015, 19:00 – 21:00
Another evening with Marek Orko Vácha, this time with guests Janem Čižinský (mayor of Prague 7), Matěj Hollan (3rd deputy mayor of Brno) and Zdeněk Papoušek (senator for the Brno-city constituency).
In the last elections it became clear that choosing from among established parties and politicians was not the only option. That when people come together with enthusiasm and application they can elevate people they know personally to important positions. Zdeněk Papoušek, for instance, received the most votes of all newly-elected senators. This may be evidence that democracy works and that there is still hope.
Tomáš Glanc: Psychedelic Poetics in Russia
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: March 12, 2015, 20:00 – 22:00
Altered states of consciousness were a subject of fascination for representatives of Russian Symbolism at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, or even earlier if we consider the significant role of opiates in the spiritual life of Anna Karenina from Tolstoy’s novel. Mikhail Bulgakov was another literary figure who masterfully described how the regular intake of morphine could turn reality on its head.
The psychedelic perspective is becoming of one of the most important narrative strategies in contemporary prose, as evinced by the work of writers in Czech translation: Vladimir Sorokin, Viktor Pelevin, Pavel Peppershtejn. Sorokin’s most recent novel Telurie, predicting a separatist local war in Europe, even takes its title from a reality-altering drug.
The second evening in Tomáš Glanc’s (Universität Zürich) lecture series Living Souls: Current Russian Culture and its Czech Connections.
Talks Across Borders – With Jörg Plath and Radka Denemarková
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: March 16, 2015, 19:00 – 21:00
Final evening in a three-part series following in the tradition of the “Talks on neighbourliness”, focused on Czech-German relations, initiated by Václav Havel in 1995.
Solutions were found to several thorny issues, or dialogue was sparked at least, and numerous Czech-German activities got underway. Nevertheless, in the Czech Republic awareness of events in Germany is vague – not only because of the language barrier but also due to the nature of the contemporary Czech media scene. These discussions aim to help fill in those gaps. Guests are Jörg Plath, a literary critic (Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Deutschlandradio Kultur) who has written on Czech literature for many years, and writer and translator Radka Denemarková.
Zuzana Jürgens, who has prepared the series in cooperation with the VHL, will moderate.
The evening is taking place in cooperation with Artefakt Kulturmanagement and with the support of the Czech-German Fund for the Future.
Contemporary Indians’ Idle No More! Protest
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: March 17, 2015, 19:00 – 21:00
Lecture by Charles University anthropologist Jakub Hutera.
In 2012 the Canadian government approved a law that in part deregulated the legal protection of the majority of the country’s lakes, rivers and large swathes of the coasts of three oceans.
This led to the radicalisation of indigenous inhabitants under the slogan Idle No More! The activists accused the government of planning to complete a policy of colonising the original inhabitants via industrial projects with disastrous consequences for the natural environment of Indian reservations and the health of local communities.
The new Indian political movement represents a noteworthy challenge toward finding closer links between adhering to fundamental human rights and the issue of environmental and sustainable development.
Magnesia Litera I
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: March 18, 2015, 19:00 – 21:00
Reading by authors nominated for some of the seven categories in the annual Magnesia Litera book awards. Three or four writers from various categories will read at the gathering.
Presented by Pavel Mandys from organisers the Litera civic association.
On Czech National Identity
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: March 19, 2015, 19:00 – 21:00
A meeting with author František Kautman.
The evening will take place in connection with the publication of O českou národní identitu (On Czech National Identity), an important work by František Kautman, a literary historian, critic, essayist, prose writer and poet who was also a Charter 77 spokesperson.
The book has just been issued by the Pulchra publishing house. A collection of Kautman’s short stories entitled Alternativy (Alternatives) will also be presented; it was ready for publication in 1968 but only brought out 46 years later, by the publishers Fra. Jan Šulc will host the evening and introduce other speakers.
Taiwan, Island of Literature
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: March 23, 2015, 19:00 – 21:00
In recent years, noteworthy literature written in Chinese in Taiwan since the 1960s has begun to reach Czech readers. The writers Lu Pching and Wu Ming-I will discuss literature, language and society in Taiwan, as well as their own work. Excerpts from the Chinese originals and Czech translations will be read during the evening, while a discussion will be chaired by leading sinologist Olga Lomová (Charles University).
Cabinet Havel: Media Dictate, the Cult of Profit
- Where: National Theater Prague, historical building, main entrance
- When: March 24, 2015, 17:00 – 19:00
How does today’s media work? Can we orient ourselves in it and does one really have alternatives? What influence do media outlets have on our lives and our views? Do they deliver important information or just create a smokescreen? How does self-censorship work, and is the reader a victim or an accomplice?
An early evening discussion on the subject of the responsibility of journalists and media owners in the loose Cabinet Havel series organised in the inspiring setting of the foyer of the National Theatre by the Václav Havel Library and the Divadlo Husa na provázku theatre. Hosted by Renata Kalenská and Petr Oslzlý.
The Underground Phenomenon: Jáchym Topol
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: March 25, 2015, 10:00 – 12:00
A series of lectures on the Czech underground as a social, political and historical phenomenon organised by the Historical Sociology department at Charles University’s Faculty of Humanities and the Václav Havel Library and headed by sociologist Nicolas Maslowski.
Magnesia Litera II
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: March 25, 2015, 19:00 – 21:00
Reading by authors nominated for some of the seven categories in the annual Magnesia Litera book awards. Three or four writers from various categories will read at the gathering.
Presented by Pavel Mandys from organisers the Litera civic association.
Debate with Respekt: War at Europe’s Doors
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: March 26, 2015, 19:00 – 21:00
How should the Czech Republic react to the Ukrainian crisis? Confirmed guests: Lubomír Zaorálek, Karel Schwarzenberg, Michaela Šojdrová, Libor Dvořák, Jakub Janda. Hosted by Tomáš Sacher.
Talks in English: Crossed lines – do we really understand one another?
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: March 30, 2015, 19:00 – 21:00
The next in a series of talks in English with colleagues and friends of Václav Havel. Discussion with Pavel Fischer and Jiří Šitler, both diplomats and colleagues of Václav Havel, chaired by David Vaughan. One of the challenges of the diplomat is to try to understand the way others think. But is this really possible?
Recent experiences of international diplomacy seem to suggest that we spend much of our time talking at cross purposes. Whether we’re talking about Ukraine, China or even Greece, the international community seems to be as deeply divided as in the days of the Cold War. Even our shared horror at the recent tragedy in Paris seems to have brought little in the way of real international understanding. But are things really as bad as they might seem at first sight?
Squatting: Civic Activism versus Czech Law
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: March 31, 2015, 19:00 – 21:00
Where do the boundaries of private ownership lie? What would the decriminalisation or even legalisation of squatting mean for Czech law?
Journalist Ivan Brezina, ecologist Arnošt Novák (Klinika initiative), City of Prague councillor for territorial development Matěj Stropnický and lawyer Pavel Uhl will discuss the essence of squatting and its legal aspect.
Havel Channel
Havel Channel je audiovizuální projekt Knihovny Václava Havla, jehož cílem je šířit myšlenkový, literární a politický odkaz Václava Havla, bez ohledu na vzdálenost, zeměpisné hranice či nouzové stavy. Jeho páteř tvoří debaty, vzdělávací projekty a rozhovory. Velký prostor je věnován též konferencím, autorským čtením, záznamům divadelních inscenací a koncertům. Audiovizuální projekt Knihovny Václava Havla Havel Channel se uskutečňuje díky laskavé podpoře Karel Komárek Family Foundation.
Publications / E-shop
The central focus of the Library’s publishing programme is the life and work of Václav Havel, his family and close collaborators and friends. For clarity, the programme is divided into six series: Václav Havel Library Notebooks, Václav Havel Library Editions, Student Line, Talks from Lány, Václav Havel Documents, Works of Pavel Juráček and Václav Havel Library Conferences. Titles that cannot be incorporated into any of the given series but which are nonetheless important for the Library’s publishing activities are issued independently, outside the series framework.
Diary IV. 1974–1989
399,- CZK
Foolish Writing
299,- CZK
Havel to the Castle
149,- CZK
Kilián Nedory
199,- CZK
Case for a Novice Headsman
199,- CZK
I am not sad. Audience & Vernissage
129,- CZK
To the Castle and Back
249,- CZK
I am the Gypsy Baron
299,- CZK
Conferences & prizes
Václav Havel European Dialogues
The Václav Havel European Dialogues is an international project that aims to initiate and stimulate a discussion about issues determining the direction of contemporary Europe while referring to the European spiritual legacy of Václav Havel. This idea takes its main inspiration from Václav Havel’s essay “Power of the Powerless”. More than other similarly focused projects, the Václav Havel European Dialogues aims to offer the “powerless” a platform to express themselves and in so doing to boost their position within Europe.
The Václav Havel European Dialogues is planned as a long-term project and involves cooperation with other organisations in various European cities. Individual meetings, which take the form of a conference, are targeted primarily at secondary and third-level students, as well as specialists and members of the public interested in European issues.
Prague 2022Olomouc Prague 2023PragueMnichov 2020Brussels 2020Prague 2019Brussels 2019Prague 2018Brussels 2018Europe at the Crossroads (e-book)Prague 2017Brussels 2017Prague 2016Brussels 2016Prague 2015Brussels 2015Brussels 2014Berlin 2014Prague 2014 - J. GauckBruges 2014Prague 2014
Václav Havel Human Rights Prize
The Václav Havel Human Rights Prize is awarded each year by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in partnership with the Václav Havel Library and the Charta 77 Foundation to reward outstanding civil society action in the defence of human rights in Europe and beyond.
11th Year of the Prize (2023)10th Year of the Prize (2022)9th Year of the Prize (2021)8th Year of the Prize (2020)7th Year of the Prize (2019)6th Year of the Prize (2018)5th Year of the Prize (2017)4th Year of the Prize (2016)3rd Year of the Prize (2015)2nd Year of the Prize (2014)1st Year of the Prize (2013)History of the prize
Havel - Albright Transatlantic Dialogues
Since the first Václav Havel Transatlantic Dialogues at GLOBSEC and FORUM 2000 conferences last year, we have lost another stalwart advocate of the transatlantic bond and of the need to face threats to democracy and international order together on both sides of the Atlantic, the former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. In view of the close bond between Václav Havel and Madeleine Albright and, after Havel's death, between the Secretary and the Library, the Václav Havel Library, with the approval of Madeleine Albright's family, renamed and rebranded the program as The Havel-Albright Transatlantic Dialogues (HATD), after the two major figures with roots in Central Europe who have personified the bond. Together, Václav Havel and Madeleine Albright symbolize the transatlantic relationship and the fundamental values underpinning it perhaps better than any other two people in recent history. The upcoming Dialogues “The Indispensable Woman: The Legacy of Madeleine K. Albright”, at the FORUM 2000 conference on September 1, and at the “Havel and our Crisis” conference at Colby College, ME, on September 28, will thus become venues for a well-deserved tribute to the pair we all respected and admired.
Transatlantic Dialogues 2021Transatlantic Dialogues 2022HATD 2022 Prague
Václav Havel
Educational projects
Archive / Documentation centre / Research projects
The Václav Havel Library is gradually gathering, digitizing, and making accessible written materials, photographs, sound recordings and other materials linked to the person of Václav Havel.
- 70739 records in total
- 27668 of events in the VH's life
- 2831 of VH's texts
- 2125 of photos
- 403of videos
- 568of audios
- 6604of letters
- 15101of texts about VH
- 8260 of books
- 40574of bibliography records
Access to the database of the VHL’s archives is free and possible after registering as a user. Accessing archival materials that exist in an unreadable form is only possible at the reading room of the Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, 110 00 Prague 1, every Tuesday (except state holidays) from 9:00 to 17:00, or by prior appointment.
We will be glad to answer your queries at archiv@vaclavhavel-library.org.
Havel in a nutshell
The virtual exhibition Václav Havel in a Nutshell places the life story of Václav Havel in the broader cultural and historic context in four chronologically distinct chapters with rich visual accompaniment. The exhibition is supplemented by the interactive map Flying the World with Václav Havel, which captures in physical form Havel’s global “footprint”.
Vladimir Hanzel's revolution
Collage of recollections, images and sound recordings from Vladimír Hanzel, President Václav Havel’s personal secretary, bringing the feverish atmosphere of the Velvet Revolution to life.
Václav Havel Interviews
A database of all accessible interviews given to print media outlets by the dramatist, writer and political activist Václav Havel between the 1960s and 1989. The resulting collection documents the extraordinary life story of an individual, as well as capturing a specific picture of modern Czechoslovak history at a time when being a free-thinker was more likely to lead to jail than an official public post.
Pavel Juráček Archive
The Pavel Juráček Archive arose in February 2014 when his son Marek Juráček handed over six banana boxes and a typewriter case from his father’s estate to the Václav Havel Library. Thousands of pages of manuscripts, typescripts, photographs, documents and personal and official correspondence are gradually being classified and digitalised. The result of this work should be not only to map the life and work of one of the key figures of the New Wave of Czechoslovak film in the 1960s, but also to make his literary works accessible in the book series The Works of Pavel Juráček.
The aim of the Václav Havel Library is to ensure that Pavel Juráček finds a place in the broader cultural consciousness and to notionally build on the deep friendship he shared with Václav Havel. Soon after Juráček’s death in 1989 Havel said of him: “Pavel was a friend of mine whom I liked very much. He was one of the most sensitive and gentle people I have known – that’s why I cannot write more about him.”
All about Library
Podpořte nás
We are well aware that freedom and democracy must be nurtured. Here at Ostrovní 13, but also on the audiovisual platform Havel Channel, we strive to do so through our own educational programmes, talks, discussion meetings, books, exhibitions, concerts, theatre performances. We honour Václav Havel's legacy and wish that the Library be a living organism and open to all. That is why our programme is free of charge for everyone. This would not be possible without regular financial support from our supporters. Become one of them...
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Help us expand the archive
The Vaclav Havel Library manages an archive of writings, documents, photographs, video recordings and other materials related to the life and work of Vaclav Havel. This archive is predominantly in digital form. If you or someone close to you owns any original texts, correspondence, photographs, speeches or any other work by Vaclav Havel, we would be grateful if you could contact us.
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