The Bell of Betrayal is Ringing!

Petr Pithart and Milan Uhde will discuss the ambivalent legacy of Masaryk, Beneš and the First Republic in the light of Munich Agreement with moderator Mojmir Jeřábek.

Mojmír Jeřábek, diplomat, Germanist, translator, editor. After studying Bohemian and German studies at Masaryk University, he worked as a cultural editor. He begun his diplomatic career as a cultural counsellor at the Czech Embassy in Germany. He devoted himself to building international relations as head of the Foreign Relations Department of the Brno City Hall. In 2015, he participated in the organization of the Year of Reconciliation and is one of the initiators of the Meeting Brno festival. He also served as the director of the Czech Centre in Vienna.

Petr Pithart, intellectual, lawyer, former dissident, politician, first president of the Senate. He graduated from the Faculty of Law at Charles University. From the 1960s he wrote for Literary Newspapers. In 1960 he joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, but revoked his membership in the autumn of 1968. He was fired from his position as an assistant professor at Charles University in 1971. He worked as a corporate lawyer, night watchman, packaging clerk and librarian. He was involved in smuggling samizdat and exile literature. He signed Charter 77. After the Velvet Revolution, he was the Prime Minister of the Czech Government, and in 1996 the first President of the Senate. He was also head of the Department of Political Science and Sociology at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University. He is the author of a number of books on Czech society and politic.

Milan Uhde, playwright, literary editor, politician, first speaker of the Chamber of Deputies. He studied Czech and Russian at the Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University. He became the editor of Host do domu, and taught externally at JAMU. Since 1972, he has not been allowed to publish, so he writes his plays under aliases. He signed Charter 77. After the revolution he entered politics: he became the first chairman of the Chamber of Deputies. His literary work includes dramas, adaptations and dramatizations such as King Vávra, Ballad for a Bandit, The May Fairy Tale and The Miracle in the Black House.

Programme will be held in czech.