Václav Havel
A Portrait of the former Czech President Václav Havel taken during an interview in his office in Prague, Czech Republic on Wednesday, June 25, 2008. Photo by Michal Novotny for the New York Times.
Václav Havel was born on October 5, 1936, in Prague and passed away on December 18, 2011, at his country house in Hrádeček, near Trutnov. He was a playwright, writer, essayist, dissident, defender of human rights, a fierce critic of the communist dictatorship, and was jailed repeatedly for his political views. Havel was a co-founder of Charter 77 and the Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Persecuted, and was also a leading figure in the political changes of the Velvet Revolution in November 1989. He also penned 13 stage plays, numerous essays, the best known of which being The Power of the Powerless (1978), and the books Letters to Olga (1979–1982), Disturbing the Peace (1986), Summer Meditations (1991) and To the Castle and Back (2006).
Havel was elected President of Czechoslovakia on December 29, 1989, becoming the country’s first non-communist leader since 1948. He held that position until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1992. After that, Havel successfully ran for President of the new Czech Republic in 1993, and held that position until 2003.
After his Presidency, Václav Havel remained an active citizen closely involved in public affairs. He also made his lifelong dream come true, directing the movie version of The Leaving, originally a theater play he had finished writing during his stay in the United States in 2006.
To learn more concerning the roles Vaclav Havel held during his life, as well as the history of human rights through his life and work, please visit the Václav Havel Library e-learning site.
The Václav Havel 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 defense 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 defense of liberty and democracy, both in the Czech Republic and internationally.
Václav Havel founded his Presidential Library in 2004. In his text entitled "A Few Sentences on the Library," he mentioned having drawn inspiration from the American presidential libraries:
“These archival materials, however, are scattered around various places and owned by many individuals as well as institutions. No one has a complete picture. This is a pity. Many things would probably be clearer if these materials were organized and made available to researchers and the general public in some form. This is why I welcome the establishment of the Václav Havel Library. It is probably the first European attempt to build something like the American presidential libraries, from which this whole project drew its inspiration in any case. Obviously, this institution will be much smaller and more modest. Still, one of the reasons it will be important is that its existence will considerably contribute to the plurality of social self-reflection in our country as a fully independent source of knowledge, drawing on authentic and often yet unknown documents or their sources.”