The Vaclav Havel Library Foundation

The Exposure of the Republican Party

Havel in the MediaThe Exposure of the Republican PartyVHLFNovember 16, 2019Source: The Atlantic / www.theatlantic.com / By Peter Wehner / The GOP will not be a great or good party until those who lead it straighten their backbone. The first day of public hearings into the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump included an explosive revelation. William B. Taylor Jr., …Read more...

Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution – archive, November 1989

Havel in the MediaCzechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution – archive, November 1989VHLFNovember 16, 2019Source: The Guardian / www.theguardian.com/ By Michael Simmons / The brutal suppression of a student demonstration in Prague on 17 November 1989 sparked anti-government protests across Czechoslovakia which toppled the communist regime. See how the Guardian reported events. Czech riot police beat protesters: 50,000 call for freedom and end to …Read more...

The fragile lightness of freedom: the Berlin Wall, thirty years on

Havel in the MediaThe fragile lightness of freedom: the Berlin Wall, thirty years onVHLFNovember 14, 2019Source: open Democracy / www.opendemocracy.net / Alvaro Vasconcelos / What the fall of the Wall and the last thirty years should have taught us is that without freedom there is no equality, and without equality freedom is fragile and vulnerable. Thirty years after it disappeared, the memory of the Wall …Read more...

‘We Have Advanced to the Same Kind of Mess as Everybody Else’

Havel in the Media‘We Have Advanced to the Same Kind of Mess as Everybody Else’VHLFNovember 14, 2019Source: The New York Times / nytimes.com / By Alison Smale / Central and Eastern Europe’s transition to democracy has not been smooth. But there are grounds for hope. PRAGUE — Thirty autumns ago, across Central and Eastern Europe, everything fell in one great swoop. The foliage. The Berlin Wall. …Read more...

The politics of the 1930s are still playing out in Eastern Europe

Havel in the MediaThe politics of the 1930s are still playing out in Eastern EuropeVHLFNovember 14, 2019Source: The Washington Post / www.washingtonpost.com / By Jackson Diehl / On the night after the Berlin Wall fell, as I watched crowds of delirious East Germans surge down West Berlin’s broad Kurfürstendamm street, it didn’t occur to me that history was ending. On the contrary, it seemed that in …Read more...

World leaders mark fall of Berlin Wall with warning about democracy: ‘We must not succumb to the populists’

Havel in the MediaWorld leaders mark fall of Berlin Wall with warning about democracy: ‘We must not succumb to the populists’VHLFNovember 12, 2019Source: Independent / www.independent.co.uk / By Borzou Daragahi / Mass protests had been erupting throughout eastern Europe for months. In Czechoslovakia, a poet named Vaclav Havel was leading the “velvet revolution”. Poland had already ripped off the yoke of single-party Communist rule. And protesters were out in the streets in …Read more...

To cope with China, don’t follow the money — follow the Czechs

Havel in the MediaTo cope with China, don’t follow the money — follow the CzechsVHLFNovember 5, 2019Source: The Hill / www.thehill.com / By Joseph Bosco / Vaclav Havel, the brilliant playwright, heroic political dissident, and visionary first president of liberated Czechoslovakia, consistently emphasized the moral element in international relations. They were lessons he had learned from his country’s painful history of invasion and occupation first by …Read more...

Humility and “rock star” appeal – how Václav Havel won over the US

Havel ConversationsHumility and “rock star” appeal – how Václav Havel won over the USVHLFNovember 2, 2019Source: Radio Prague International / www.radio.cz / By Ian Willoughby / Václav Havel’s relationship to the United States is the focus of the recently issued book Havel v Americe (Havel in America) by historian Rosamund Johnston and journalist Lenka Kabrhelová. Mainly based on Q&A-style interviews, it contains insights and anecdotes …Read more...

Václav Havel tribute celebrating The Velvet Revolution gets ready to open at Dupont Underground. Up close with The Havel Project

TheaterVáclav Havel tribute celebrating The Velvet Revolution gets ready to open at Dupont Underground. Up close with The Havel ProjectVHLFOctober 27, 2019Source: DS Theatre Scene / www.dctheatrescene.com / By Keith Loria / Václav Havel was a renowned politician who went from political prisoner to serving as the last president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until the country’s dissolution three years later, who then became the first president of the Czech Republic, serving …Read more...

‘Democracy is in Peril,’ warns influential Forum 2000 Conference in Prague

Havel in the Media‘Democracy is in Peril,’ warns influential Forum 2000 Conference in PragueVHLFOctober 26, 2019Source: Grit Daily / www.gritdaily.com / By Jackie Abramian / In 1989 the Soviet Bloc countries seized Mikhail Gorbachev’s glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) policies to put an end to the Soviet Union, maiming its tentacles across the communist Eastern Europe. This resuscitated democracy hopes and promises of fair, free …Read more...

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