Prague, the mother of all cities; Part VIII, the Communist era
July 17th 2008 03:38
After World War II Prague became the capital of Czechoslovakia once again. But it was very different city from the pre-war Prague.
The Jewish community had been decimated. The ethnic German population had all but vanished. Many had fled with fall of Nazism. Unknown numbers and been killed in local massacres. The rest had been deported. A strong pro-Russian sentiment prevailed. Although the Red Army had withdrawn soon after the war Czechoslovakia felt deeply indebted to its liberators and the country remained under strong Soviet influence. In February, 1948, Prague became the centre of a Communist coup.
Following the coup and the establishment of the totalitarian Communist regime, new settlers surged into Prague. Huge, utilitarian residential complexes sprang up at the edges of the city, like dark, grim sentinels encircling the beautiful Romanesque, renaissance and baroque architecture of the ancient towns. The coal burnt to fuel the swelling metropolis and its industries corroded and blackened the facades of the old buildings and turned Prague into a dark, forbidding place. Nothing was done to arrest the pollution of the city and efforts to repair and maintain its buildings were slow and eventually ineffectual. Wenceslas Square was covered in scaffolding for a decade but none of the promised repairs were completed.
By the 1960s, discontent was festering in Czechoslovakia, particularly among the intellectual community of Prague. The 4th Czechoslovakian Writer’s Congress in 1967 gave voice to their dissatisfaction. This gave birth to Prague Spring, when Alexander Dubcek, the new secretary of the Communist Party, announced a fresh phase in the life of Czechoslovakia; the democratic reform of its institutions and the beginning of “socialism with a human face”. In August 1968 Soviet tanks rolled into Czechoslavakia and crushed the budding democratic movement. A period of communist normalisation followed. Prague stagnated and as magnificent, historic architecture crumbled from pollution and neglect, cheap, shoddy, modern buildings invaded the cityscape.
In November, 1989, the Berlin Wall fell and the Velvet Revolution swept Prague into another new era. In 1993, after the division of Czechoslovakia, it became the capital of the new Czech Republic, comprising the Prague Region and the Central Bohemian Region.
Since 1989, Prague’s architecture has blossomed again. Most of the city has been restored or re-built now. Historic buildings are continuously maintained and the city’s conversion to electric heating ensures them a future free from the devastations of coal pollution. The old town is now a Unesco heritage listed site, preserved forever for posterity. World-famous architects, too, like Frank O. Gehry, Jean Nouvel, Eva Jiricna, and Ricardo Bofill have added their modern masterpieces to the cityscape and earned it a place on 20th and 21st century sarchitectural stage.
But still, out in the suburbs spawned by the industrial revolution and the post-war boom, the looming grim, run-down and strangely lifeless looking residences of the Communist era, still cast cast long, dark shadows down mean streets, across cracked concrete and over patchy grass.
And really it is to old Prague that today's city owes its reputation as one of the most beautiful and most visited in the world. It is inner city Prague which has fulfilled the promise of the first Premyslid Princess Libuse “It will honoured, favoured with great repute and praise will be bestowed upon it by the entire world”
.
The Jewish community had been decimated. The ethnic German population had all but vanished. Many had fled with fall of Nazism. Unknown numbers and been killed in local massacres. The rest had been deported. A strong pro-Russian sentiment prevailed. Although the Red Army had withdrawn soon after the war Czechoslovakia felt deeply indebted to its liberators and the country remained under strong Soviet influence. In February, 1948, Prague became the centre of a Communist coup.
Motif on a post war building on Myslikova, Prague
Following the coup and the establishment of the totalitarian Communist regime, new settlers surged into Prague. Huge, utilitarian residential complexes sprang up at the edges of the city, like dark, grim sentinels encircling the beautiful Romanesque, renaissance and baroque architecture of the ancient towns. The coal burnt to fuel the swelling metropolis and its industries corroded and blackened the facades of the old buildings and turned Prague into a dark, forbidding place. Nothing was done to arrest the pollution of the city and efforts to repair and maintain its buildings were slow and eventually ineffectual. Wenceslas Square was covered in scaffolding for a decade but none of the promised repairs were completed.
The blackened facade of the National Theatre
By the 1960s, discontent was festering in Czechoslovakia, particularly among the intellectual community of Prague. The 4th Czechoslovakian Writer’s Congress in 1967 gave voice to their dissatisfaction. This gave birth to Prague Spring, when Alexander Dubcek, the new secretary of the Communist Party, announced a fresh phase in the life of Czechoslovakia; the democratic reform of its institutions and the beginning of “socialism with a human face”. In August 1968 Soviet tanks rolled into Czechoslavakia and crushed the budding democratic movement. A period of communist normalisation followed. Prague stagnated and as magnificent, historic architecture crumbled from pollution and neglect, cheap, shoddy, modern buildings invaded the cityscape.
Beautifully restored Prague
In November, 1989, the Berlin Wall fell and the Velvet Revolution swept Prague into another new era. In 1993, after the division of Czechoslovakia, it became the capital of the new Czech Republic, comprising the Prague Region and the Central Bohemian Region.
Since 1989, Prague’s architecture has blossomed again. Most of the city has been restored or re-built now. Historic buildings are continuously maintained and the city’s conversion to electric heating ensures them a future free from the devastations of coal pollution. The old town is now a Unesco heritage listed site, preserved forever for posterity. World-famous architects, too, like Frank O. Gehry, Jean Nouvel, Eva Jiricna, and Ricardo Bofill have added their modern masterpieces to the cityscape and earned it a place on 20th and 21st century sarchitectural stage.
But still, out in the suburbs spawned by the industrial revolution and the post-war boom, the looming grim, run-down and strangely lifeless looking residences of the Communist era, still cast cast long, dark shadows down mean streets, across cracked concrete and over patchy grass.
And really it is to old Prague that today's city owes its reputation as one of the most beautiful and most visited in the world. It is inner city Prague which has fulfilled the promise of the first Premyslid Princess Libuse “It will honoured, favoured with great repute and praise will be bestowed upon it by the entire world”
.
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