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 December 2015<>
entry-free
Petr Pithart: After Eighty-Nine
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: December 1, 2015, 19:00 – 21:00
Petr Pithart introduces his new book about his active years in politics in the 1990s and his time away from politics to the present day, exploring consequences and context, crises and “promising outlooks”…
An interview about how politics glows red hot and cools to become history, and about history itself, with the participation of Jiří Padevět, director of the Academia publishing house (which has issued Pithart’s reflective memoirs) and the author of much-discussed Protectorate “guidebooks”; Petr Havlík a player in 1990s politics who now maps its consequences from today’s perspective; and historian Jan Rychlík, an expert on Czech and Central and Eastern European history, who will approach the subject from the perspective of his field.
The multi-guest interview will be helmed by Jan Vít, editor of the book Po devětaosmdesátém (After Eighty-Nine).
Can We Learn from the Mistakes of the Past?
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: December 2, 2015, 19:00 – 21:00
Discussion evening with Letohrad priest Václav Vacek, one of the most progressive liberal clerics in the Czech Roman Catholic Church today.
The Challenges, Paradoxes and Plays of Václav Havel: Mountain Hotel
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: December 3, 2015, 19:00 – 21:00
One of Václav Havel’s lesser-known plays, performed by the company Buchty a loutky.
Buchty a loutky – an independent theatre performing for children and adults – bring their own means of expression, playfulness and colour to the story. Drawing on the author’s pedantic directorial notes, they also make use of 1970s electric trains and keyboards, which play the melody from Doctor Zhivago as refashioned by the playwright.
The series dedicated to Václav Havel’s plays is prepared by Anna Freimanová.
Sergei Loiko: Airport
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: December 4, 2015, 19:00 – 21:00
A novel about the Russian-Ukrainian war that shouldn’t have happened and about heroes who wanted to live and died.
Presentation of the book by the author.
In cooperation with Forum kulturního partnerství.
Petr Placák: Where did the mistake occur?
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: December 7, 2015, 19:00 – 21:00
Jan Ruml and Martin M. Šimečka – the children of one-time communists who abandoned their faith and became opponents of the regime – will take part in a discussion with the author of Gottwaldovo Československo jako fašistický stat (Gottwald’s Czechoslovakia as a Fascist State) Petr Placák. His father Bedřich Placák experienced a similar development to Jiří Ruml, Milan Šimečka and Jiřina Šiklová (who is also taking part in the debate): from convinced communist via reform communism to rejecting the system.
Roman Tadič: The Cheyenne – Indians in the Cogs of Colonisation and Globalisation
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: December 8, 2015, 19:00 – 21:00
How did a people who contributed to Custer’s defeat and inspired many works of literature and movies live? What values did they hold? Join us in taking a look at the unique culture of the Great Plains Indian people.
For over two centuries the Cheyenne have been in contact and conflict with the United States. They were stripped of their economic independence and sovereignty. Today the Cheyenne are full-fledged citizens of the US, but what has survived of their identity? Can we find in the Cheyenne an alternative to some of the paradigms of Western civilisation?
A lecture by Roman Tadič, a translator and researcher specialising in the indigenous culture of the Great Planes, combined with a presentation of original Indian artefacts.
The Prince’s Book
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: December 9, 2015, 18:00 – 20:00
Knížecí kniha (The Prince’s Book) has three main sections: an essay about Karel Schwarzenberg; an interview from the period when he was still living in Austria; and a digest of interviews that he gave in the Czech Republic and abroad between 1990 and 2012. The collection concludes with a “taking stock” interview from last year.
The author of the essay and the interviews conducted in exile and last year is Karel Hvížďala, who also organised for and translated texts in German in the second half.
The book is being issued out in connection with Karel Schwarzenberg’s 78th birthday.
Petr Fischer will host the evening, Michael Žantovský will “baptise” the book and musical accompaniment will come from Dáša Vokatá and Oldřich Kaiser, who will also read excerpts.
Debate with Respekt: Human Rights – What Is Its Place in Czech Politics?
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: December 10, 2015, 19:00 – 21:00
A debate on the human rights agenda of Czech foreign policy and on the foundations on which the state has stood and wishes to stand in future.
The evening will include the launch of Jiří Přibáň’s and Václav Bělohradský's book of the same name.
Host: Respekt editor Ondřej Kundra
Guests: Kateřina Šimáčková, Eliška Wagnerová, Jiří Pehe, Jiří Přibáň a Václav Bělohradský.
The Gulag in the Memoirs of Czech Writers
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: December 14, 2015, 19:00 – 21:00
Presentation of the life stories of Czech and Czechoslovak authors of labour camp literature penned between the 1930s and 1990s and their often hard-fought efforts to relay a personal testimony of the Soviet labour camps.
Excerpts from published and unpublished works will be read while new materials uncovered in the NKVD and StB archives will be presented.
Adam Hradilek will host the evening.
Organised by the VHL in cooperation with the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes.
The role of volunteers and universities in the refugee crisis
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: December 15, 2015, 18:00 – 20:00
In this year’s summer months volunteers represented practically the only help to refugees stranded at Budapest’s Keleti railway station. Many were students who didn’t hesitate to use their time and own funds in such a way. Direct participants, university students and teachers from the Hungary and the Czech Republic, will share their experiences and debate the role universities have had and should have in Europe’s ongoing refugee crisis.
Chaired by: Lucia Najšlová, PhD. – Institute of International Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University
Speakers: Constanze Jeitler – volunteer and student from the Central European University, Budapest
Stefan Roch – volunteer and student from the Central European University, Budapest
Layla Bartheldi – Student Movement for Solidarity, Prague, JUDr. Věra Honusková, PhD. - Právnická fakulta UK.
Event in English co-organised with the Institute of International Studies FSV UK and Visegrad Revue.
Student Essay: Is There Room in the Czech Republic for People of Different Cultures and Religions?
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: December 16, 2015, 18:30 – 19:30
Announcement of the results of the seventh edition of the Václav Havel Library’s Best Student Essay competition.
One of the key genres of Václav Havel’s work is essays – on literary, artistic, social, political, and spiritual topics. His essays, such as the The Power of the Powerless and A Word About Words, have become classic texts of Czech literature; they have been translated into tens of languages, and are among the few truly world-famous works of Czech culture. This is also why it is necessary to keep cultivating the essay genre in the Czech language – not in the sense of imitating Václav Havel’s writing, but in the spirit of his courage to name unpleasant problems and search for unconventional solutions to them.
The Challenges, Paradoxes and Plays of Václav Havel: Unveiling
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: December 17, 2015, 19:00 – 20:00
Above the fireplace a Turkish dagger, beside it a confession box, pure Baroque, and in an alcove a Gothic Madonna. Michal and Věra have invited Bedřich Vaňek over, not just to show him their newly decorated pad but above all to inspire him with their “meaningful” lifestyle. They want to help their dissident friend by example so that “things finally unravel somehow…”
For their final work, fourth year acting students from the Academy of Performing Arts have selected one of the “Vaňek plays”, Václav Havel’s 1975 one-act piece Unveiling.
The series dedicated to Václav Havel’s plays is prepared by Anna Freimanová.
Holy Mass for Václav Havel
- Where: Prague Crossroads, Zlatá 1, Prague
- When: December 18, 2015, 18:00 – 19:00
The fourth Holy Mass for President Václav Havel organised by the Dagmar and Václav Havel Foundation VIZE 97.
At the request of Mrs. Dagmar Havlová the memorial service will again be celebrated by Cardinal Dominik Duka.
The mass is open to members of the public.
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
Václav Havel
* 5. 10. 1936 Praha
† 18. 12. 2011 Hrádeček u Trutnova
- spisovatel a dramatik, publicista a filozof
- jeden z trojice prvních mluvčích Charty 77
- vůdčí autorita československé společenské změny v listopadu 1989
- poslední prezident Československa a
- první prezident České republiky
- celoživotní zastánce lidských práv a svobod doma i ve světě.
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.
- 70669 records in total
- 27598 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
- 40557of 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.
Sign in (registered users only)
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
The Václav Havel Library works to preserve the legacy of Václav Havel, literary, theatrical and also political, in particular his struggle for freedom, democracy and the defence of human rights. It supports research and education on the life, values and times of Václav Havel as well as the enduring significance of his ideas for both the present and future.
The Václav Havel Library also strives to develop civil society and active civic life, serving as a platform for discussion on issues related to the support and defence of liberty and democracy, both in the Czech Republic and internationally.
The main aims of the Václav Havel Library include
- Organizing archival, archival-research, documentary, museum and library activities focused on the work of Vaclav Havel and documents or objects related to his activities, and carries out professional analysis of their influence on the life and self-reflection of society
- Serving, in a suitable manner, such as through exhibitions, the purpose of education and popularisation functions, thus presenting to the public the historical significance of the fight for human rights and freedoms in the totalitarian period and the formation of civil society during the establishment of democracy
- Organizing scientific research and publication activities in its areas of interest
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...
Support us with a financial donation
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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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