Czechs

The Czechs (Czech: Češi), or the Czech people (Český lid), are a West Slavic ethnic group and a nation who live mainly in the Czech Republic in Central Europe. They share a common ancestry, culture, history, and language.

In the past, ethnic Czechs were often called Bohemians in English. This name came from the old name of their country, Bohemia. Long ago, West Slavic tribes settled in this area. They mixed with the people already living there and created a small kingdom. By the late 800s, this area was part of a bigger country called Great Moravia. Later, it became known as the Duchy of Bohemia and then the Kingdom of Bohemia, which eventually led to the modern Czech Republic.

Today, many people of Czech background live outside of the Czech Republic. This is called the Czech diaspora. You can find Czech communities in places like the United States, Germany, Canada, and many other countries around the world.

Ethnology

See also: Name of the Czech Republic

The Czech ethnic group is part of the West Slavic subgroup of the larger Slavic group. The West Slavs came from early Slavic tribes that lived in Central Europe after East Germanic tribes left during the migration period. The West Slavic tribe of Czechs settled in the area of Bohemia, mixing with the remaining Celtic and Germanic people. In the 9th century, the Duchy of Bohemia was formed under the Přemyslid dynasty, and was part of Great Moravia.

The Czechs are closely related to the neighbouring Slovaks, with whom they later formed Czechoslovakia. The Czech–Slovak languages share many similarities. Czech culture had a strong effect on Slovak culture. In the 17th century, German became more common for official use, but Czech identity stayed strong among ordinary people. Later, in the 18th and 19th centuries, there was a movement called the Czech National Revival to bring back the Czech language and culture. The Czechs also helped support ideas of Pan-Slavism.

Genetics

Further information: Genetic history of Europe

Czechs, like most Europeans, come from three main groups of people. These groups are ancient hunters, farmers who came to Europe long ago, and people from faraway lands who brought new ideas. Over many years, many different people moved into the Czech lands, mixing with those who already lived there.

The Czech people are mostly from Slavic, Celtic, and Germanic groups. West Slavs came to the area when many groups were moving around Europe. They settled in places like Bohemia and Moravia. One story tells of a leader named Forefather Čech who brought them to land near Říp Mountain. Later, the area became part of important places like Great Moravia and the Duchy of Bohemia. Over time, many Germans also moved into the Czech lands, and today many Czechs have some German ancestors.

Notable people

See also: List of Czechs

Historical figures

The last five Přemyslids were kings: Ottokar I of Bohemia, Wenceslaus I of Bohemia, Ottokar II of Bohemia, Wenceslaus II of Bohemia and Wenceslaus III of Bohemia. The most successful and influential of all Czech kings was Charles IV, who also became the Holy Roman Emperor. The Luxembourg dynasty represents the heights of Czech statehood territorial and influence as well as advancement in many areas of human endeavors.

Many people are considered national heroes and cultural icons. Jan Hus was a religious reformist from the 15th century and spiritual father of the Hussite Movement. Jan Žižka and Prokop the Great were leaders of hussite army, George of Poděbrady was a hussite king. Albrecht von Wallenstein was a notable military leader during the Thirty Years' War. The teacher of nations Jan Amos Komenský is also considered a notable figure in Czech history. Joseph Radetzky von Radetz was an Austrian general staff during the later period of the Napoleonic Wars. Josef Jungmann is often credited for expanding the modern Czech language. The most famous Czech historian was František Palacký, often-called "father of nation".

Modern politicians

One of the most notable figures are founders of Czechoslovakia, Presidents Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk and Edvard Beneš, who was also leader of exile government in World War II. Ludvík Svoboda was a head of the Czechoslovak military units on the Eastern Front during the World War II (later president of Czechoslovakia). Another notable politician after the fall of the communist regime is Václav Havel, last President of Czechoslovakia and first President of the Czech Republic. The first directly elected president is Miloš Zeman.

The Czech Republic has had multiple Prime Ministers, the first of which were future presidents Václav Klaus and Miloš Zeman. Other Prime Ministers of the Czech Republic were conservative politicians, such as Mirek Topolánek, Petr Nečas, and social democratic such as Vladimír Špidla, Jiří Paroubek, Bohuslav Sobotka.

Diplomat Madeleine Albright was of Czech origin and spoke Czech. Other well-known Czech diplomats were Jan Masaryk or Jiří Dienstbier.

Science

Czechs established themselves mainly in Biology, Chemistry, Philology and Egyptology.

• Chemistry – Jaroslav Heyrovský, Otto Wichterle, Zdenko Hans Skraup, Antonín Holý
• Biology – Johann Gregor Mendel, Jan Evangelista Purkyně, Carl Borivoj Presl, Jan Svatopluk Presl, Karel Domin, Kaspar Maria von Sternberg, Friedrich von Berchtold, Ferdinand Stoliczka, Wenceslas Bojer, Alberto Vojtěch Frič, August Carl Joseph Corda
• Mathematics – Bernard Bolzano, Eduard Čech, Miroslav Katětov, Petr Vopěnka, Václav Chvátal, Otakar Borůvka, Vojtěch Jarník, Kurt Gödel
• Physics and engineering – Ignaz von Born, František Běhounek, Jan Marek Marci, Josef Ressel, František Křižík, Vincenc Strouhal, Prokop Diviš, František Josef Gerstner, Ernst Mach
• Astronomy – Antonín Mrkos, Antonín Bečvář
• Astronautics – Vladimír Remek
• Philology – Bedřich Hrozný, Josef Dobrovský, Josef Jungmann, Vilém Mathesius, Julius Pokorny, René Wellek, Jan Mukařovský
• Medicine – Carl von Rokitansky, Joseph Škoda, Jan Janský
• Archeology – Pavel Pavel, Lubor Niederle, Karel Absolon, Miroslav Verner
• Anthropology and ethnography – Aleš Hrdlička, Emil Holub, Alois Musil
• History – František Palacký, Bohuslav Balbín, Konstantin Jireček, Max Dvořák, Miroslav Hroch
• Philosophy – Edmund Husserl, Jan Patočka, Karel Kosík, Egon Bondy, Ladislav Klíma
• Psychology – Max Wertheimer, Stanislav Grof
• Theology – Jan Hus, Jerome of Prague, Petr Chelčický, Jan Rokycana, Tomáš Špidlík, Tomáš Halík
• Modern occultism – Franz Bardon
• Pedagogy – Jan Amos Komenský
• Folklorists – František Ladislav Čelakovský, Karel Jaromír Erben
• Literary theory – Karel Teige, Pavel Janáček

Sports

Sports have also been a contributor to famous Czechs especially tennis, football, hockey, and athletics:

• Tennis – Jaroslav Drobný, Jan Kodeš, Martina Navrátilová, Ivan Lendl, Hana Mandlíková, Jana Novotná, Helena Suková, Petr Korda, Petra Kvitová, Tomáš Berdych, Karolína Plíšková, Barbora Krejčíková
• Football – Oldřich Nejedlý, Antonín Puč, František Plánička, Josef Bican, Josef Masopust, Ivo Viktor, Antonín Panenka, Zdeněk Nehoda, Tomáš Skuhravý, Pavel Nedvěd, Karel Poborský, Jan Koller, Milan Baroš, Marek Jankulovski, Vladimír Šmicer, Tomáš Rosický, Petr Čech
• Hockey – Jaromír Jágr, Dominik Hašek, Vladimír Růžička, Jiří Šlégr, Ivan Hlinka, Jiří Holeček, Jaroslav Pouzar, Jiří Hrdina, Petr Sýkora, Patrik Eliáš, Bobby Holík, Michal Rozsíval, Milan Hejduk, Petr Nedvěd, Martin Straka, Václav Prospal, Jakub Voráček, Tomáš Plekanec, František Kaberle, David Výborný, Pavel Patera, Martin Procházka, David Krejčí, David Pastrňák, Filip Chytil
• Athletics – Emil Zátopek, Dana Zátopková, Jarmila Kratochvílová, Roman Šebrle, Jan Železný, Barbora Špotáková
• Gymnastics – Věra Čáslavská, Eva Bosáková, Vlasta Děkanová, Hana Říčná, Věra Černá
• Chess – Wilhelm Steinitz, Věra Menčíková, Richard Réti, Salo Flohr, David Navara
• Others – Martina Sáblíková, Martin Doktor, Štěpánka Hilgertová, Josef Holeček, Kateřina Neumannová, Filip Jícha, Jiří Zídek Sr., Jan Veselý, Ester Ledecká

The arts

Music

Czech music had its first significant pieces created in the 11th century. The great progress of Czech artificial music began with the end of the Renaissance and the early Baroque era, concretely in works of Adam Václav Michna z Otradovic, where the specific character of Czech music was rising up by using the influence of genuine folk music. This tradition determined the development of Czech music and has remained the main sign in the works of great Czech composers of almost all eras – Jan Dismas Zelenka and Josef Mysliveček in Baroque, Bedřich Smetana and Antonín Dvořák in Romanticism, Leoš Janáček, Bohuslav Martinů and Josef Suk in modern classical or Petr Eben and Miloslav Kabeláč in contemporary classical music.

Czech musicians also played an important role in the development of European music. Jan Václav Antonín Stamic in 18th-century contributed to the creation of Classicism in music by innovations of compositional forms and the founding of the Mannheim school. Similarly, Antonín Rejcha's experiments prefigured new compositional techniques in the 19th century. The influence of Czech musicians expanded beyond the borders of the European continent, when Antonín Dvořák created a new American classical music style, using the richness of ethnic music of that country during his mission in the US. The contribution of Alois Hába to microtonal music in the 20th century must be also mentioned.

Czech music reached as far as Qing China. Karel Slavíček was a Jesuit missionary, scientist and sinologist who was introduced to the Kangxi Emperor on 3 February 1717, in Beijing. The emperor favored him and employed him as court musician. (Slavíček was a Spinet player).

Some notable modern Czech musicians are US-based composer and guitarist Ivan Král, musician and composer Jan Hammer and the rock band The Plastic People of the Universe which played an important part in the underground movement during the communist regime.

The Czech Republic first entered the Eurovision Song Contest in (/wiki/Eurovision_Song_Contest_2007). Czech performer qualified for the grand final for the first time in (/wiki/Eurovision_Song_Contest_2016) when singer Gabriela Gunčíková finished in 25th place. In (/wiki/Eurovision_Song_Contest_2018) the singer Mikolas Josef reached the 6th place in the contest being the best result of the Czech Republic until today.

Other important names: Franz Benda, Rafael Kubelík, Jan Ladislav Dussek, Vítězslav Novák, Zdeněk Fibich, Jan Kubelík, Jiří Antonín Benda, Julius Fučík, Karel Svoboda, Karel Kryl, Václav Neumann, Václav Talich, František Xaver Richter, Jan Křtitel Vaňhal, Vojtěch Živný, Josef Bohuslav Foerster, Magdalena Kožená, Karel Ančerl, Ema Destinnová, Maria Jeritza, František Xaver Brixi, Jiří Bělohlávek, Oskar Nedbal, Karel Gott.

Literature

Jaroslav Seifert was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his poetry. Božena Němcová has become a cultural icon and gained much fame for her book Babička (The Grandmother). Other important Czech writers include Milan Kundera, Karel Čapek, Jaroslav Hašek, Jan Neruda, Franz Kafka, Bohumil Hrabal, Viktor Dyk, Kosmas, Pavel Kohout, Alois Jirásek, Josef Škvorecký, Karel Jaromír Erben, Jiří Wolker, Karel Hynek Mácha, Vítězslav Nezval, Arnošt Lustig, Jaroslav Vrchlický, Karel Havlíček Borovský, Ivan Klíma, Egon Erwin Kisch, Vladimír Holan, Julius Zeyer or Svatopluk Čech. From contemporary Czech writers can be mentioned Jáchym Topol, Patrik Ouředník, Michal Viewegh or Daniela Hodrová. Important playwrights were Karel Čapek, František Langer or Josef Kajetán Tyl. Strong was also the theatrical avant-garde (Jan Werich, Jiří Voskovec, Emil František Burian). Known journalists were Julius Fučík, Milena Jesenská or Ferdinand Peroutka.

Visual arts

Mikoláš Aleš was a painter, known for redesigning the Prague National Theater. Alphonse Mucha was an influential artist in the Art Nouveau movement of the Edwardian period. František Kupka was a pioneer and co-founder of the abstract art movement. Other well-known painters are Josef Čapek, Josef Lada, Theodoric of Prague, Wenceslaus Hollar, Toyen, Jan Kupecký, Petr Brandl, Vladimír Vašíček, Václav Brožík, Josef Mánes, Karel Škréta or Max Švabinský. Renowned sculptors were Josef Václav Myslbek or Matyáš Bernard Braun, photographers Jan Saudek, Josef Sudek, František Drtikol or Josef Koudelka, illustrators Zdeněk Burian or Adolf Born, architects Jan Kotěra or Josef Gočár. Jiří Kylián was an important ballet choreographer.

Film

Film director Miloš Forman, known best for his movie, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest is of Czech origin and started his career in Czechoslovakia. Forman was a member of the so-called Czech New Wave. Other members included Jiří Menzel (Oscar 1967), Ivan Passer, Věra Chytilová and Elmar Klos (Oscar 1965). Also the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film was awarded to Jan Svěrák (1996). The influential surrealist filmmaker and animator Jan Švankmajer was born in Prague and has resided in the Czech Republic throughout his life. In the field of animation and puppet film famous people include Zdeněk Miler, Karel Zeman and Jiří Trnka.

Actors Zdeněk Svěrák, Vlastimil Brodský, Vladimír Menšík, Libuše Šafránková or Karel Roden have also made a mark in modern Czech history.

Modeling

The first Czech models have made a breakthrough in the international modeling were Paulina Porizkova or Ivana Trump. After the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia many other models succeeded: Karolína Kurková, Eva Herzigová, Taťána Kuchařová, Petra Němcová and Daniela Peštová.

Saints

Czech culture involves many saints, most notably St. Wenceslaus (Václav), patron of the Czech nation, St. John of Nepomuk (Jan Nepomucký), St. Adalbert (Vojtěch), Saint Procopius or St. Agnes of Bohemia (Anežka Česká). Although not a Christian, rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel of Prague, a 16th Century scholar and one of the most influential figures of Jewish history, is considered to be part of the country's religious legacy as well.

Natives

The modern Czech nation was formed through the process of the Czech national revival. Through this was created the linguistic concept of the Czech nation (particularly promoted by Jungmann), i.e. "a Czech=one who has the Czech language as their first language; naturally or by choice" (that is why Slovaks who have chosen Czech as their literary language, such as Ján Kollár or Pavel Jozef Šafařík, are often considered to be Czechs). Like other nations, Czechs also speak of two alternative concepts: the landed concept (a Czech is someone who was born in the historic Czech territory), which in Jungmann's time primarily denoted nobility, and the ethnic concept. Definition by territory is still discussed alternative, from time to time is indicated for Czechs number of natives (speaking mostly German, English or otherwise) – these include US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, film director Karel Reisz, actor Herbert Lom, the founder of psychoanalysis , the founder of genetics Gregor Mendel, logician and mathematician Kurt Gödel, the philosopher Edmund Husserl, scientists Gerty Cori, Carl Cori and Peter Grünberg (all Nobel Prize winners) and Ernst Mach, economists Joseph Schumpeter and Eugen Böhm von Bawerk, philosophers Bernard Bolzano, Ernest Gellner, Vilém Flusser and Herbert Feigl, Marxist theoretician Karl Kautsky, astronomer Johann Palisa, legal theorist Hans Kelsen, inventors Alois Senefelder and Viktor Kaplan, automotive designer Ferdinand Porsche, psychologist Max Wertheimer, a geologist Karl von Terzaghi, musicologists Eduard Hanslick and Guido Adler, chemist Johann Josef Loschmidt, biologists Heinrich Wilhelm Schott and Georg Joseph Kamel, the founder of the dermatology Ferdinand Ritter von Hebra, peace activist Bertha von Suttner (Nobel Peace Prize), the composers Gustav Mahler, Heinrich Biber, Viktor Ullmann, Ervin Schulhoff, Pavel Haas, Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Ralph Benatzky, writers Franz Kafka, Reiner Maria Rilke, Max Brod, Karl Kraus, Franz Werfel, Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, Leo Perutz, Tom Stoppard and Egon Erwin Kisch, painters Anton Raphael Mengs and Emil Orlik, architects Adolf Loos, Peter Parler, Josef Hoffmann, Jan Santini Aichel and Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer, cellist David Popper, violist Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst, pianists Alice Herz-Sommer and Rudolf Serkin, president of Austria Karl Renner, Prime Minister of Poland Jerzy Buzek, industrialist Oskar Schindler, or chess player Wilhelm Steinitz.

Czech ancestry

People with Czech ancestry include the astronauts Eugene Cernan and Jim Lovell, film directors Chris Columbus and Jim Jarmusch, swimmer Katie Ledecky, politicians John Forbes Kerry and Caspar Weinberger, chemist and Nobel Prize laureate Thomas Cech, physicist Karl Guthe Jansky, economist Friedrich Hayek, painters Jan Matejko, Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka, actors Ashton Kutcher, Sissy Spacek and Kim Novak, tennis players Richard Krajicek, Jakob Hlasek and Stan Wawrinka, singer Jason Mraz, Brazil president Juscelino Kubitschek, founder of McDonald's company Ray Kroc, writers Georg Trakl and Robert Musil, mayor of Chicago Anton Cermak and Ivanka Trump and her brother Donald Trump Jr.

Geography

The Czechs live in three areas: Bohemia, Moravia, and Czech Silesia. These areas make up the Czech Republic today. The country has 14 regions now, but each of the three areas has its own special culture. People from Moravia, called Moravians, are very proud of their home and speak the Czech language. You can hear different local dialects, like the Central Bohemian, Chod dialect, Moravian dialects, and Cieszyn Silesian.

Czech language

Main article: Czech language

See also: History of the Czech language

The Czech language is spoken by many people, mostly in the Czech Republic. It started from an old Slavic language a long time ago and is very similar to the Slovak language.

Religion

See also: Religion in the Czech Republic

Czech people have often been open and relaxed about religion. Many years ago, most Czechs followed ideas from leaders like Jan Hus, who wanted changes in how people practiced their faith. Later, leaders tried to make everyone follow one religion, but these efforts did not last.

Today, most people in the Czech Republic do not strongly follow any religion. Many say they do not have a specific religion, while some identify as Christian, mainly Catholic, and a few belong to other faiths.

Demographics

See also: Demographics of the Czech Republic and Czech diaspora

In the Czech Republic, about 6.7 million people said they were Czech in a study from 2011. Many others did not say what group they belonged to. Some said they were Moravian, another group in the country. There are also many Czech people living in other places. In America, about 1.7 million people have Czech family history. In Canada, about 95,000 people do, and smaller numbers live in places like the United Kingdom and Australia.