Famous people connected with Prague

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Prague, the capital of today's Czech Republic, has been for over a thousand years the center and biggest city of Czech lands. A city of such size and historic importance boasts of many famous people who were born or died here, who studied, lived or saw their success here.

Contents 1 Monarchs 2 Writers and artists 3 Others 4 Notes

[edit] Monarchs

• Charles IV (1316 - 1378) - Holy Roman Emperor, under his rule Charles University in Prague or Charles Bridge were set up, made the city his main seat
• Rudolf II (1552 - 1612) - Holy Roman Emperor, made the city capital of Austrian empire, attracted both scientists and charlatans here

[edit] Writers and artists

• Jacobus Gallus (1550 - 1591) - Catholic composer of sacred polyphony
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791) - composer, some of his best opera successes during his lifetime happened in Prague
• Bedřich Smetana (1824 - 1884) - composer, lived and died in the city
• Leoš Janáček (1824 - 1928) - composer, studied in Prague
• Emmy Destinn (1878 - 1930) - opera soprano, born in Prague
• Franz Kafka (1883 - 1924) - German-language fiction writer, born in Prague
• Jaroslav Hašek (1883 - 1923) - writer, humorist and satirist, lived here for most of his life, described the city in many stories
• Bohumil Hrabal (1914 - 1997) - writer, lived and died
• Josef Václav Myslbek - sculptor, born, best known sculptor here
• Alfons Mucha (1860 - 1939) - painter and decorative artist, lived last decades of life here
• Miloš Forman (1932) - Academy Awards winning film director, actor and script writer, studied and lived in Prague
• Jiří Menzel (1938) - Academy Award winning film director, born here
• Milan Kundera (1929) - writer, studied, lectured at FAMU
• Jan Saudek (1935) - art photographer, born and lives
• Jaroslav Seifert (1901 - 1986) - poet, winner of Nobel Prize in Literature, lived
• Karel Čapek (1890 - 1938) - writer, lived and died
• Antonín Dvořák (1841 - 1904) - composer, lived most of his life here
• Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926) - poet, born and studied
• Jože Plečnik (1872 - 1957) - Slovenian architect, built several churches and parts of Prague Castle
• Vladimír Holan (1905 - 1980) - poet, born, lived and died
• Lída Baarová (1914 - 2000) - Czech actress, lived and died

[edit] Others

• Jan Hus (1369 - 1415) - religious thinker and reformer, most important preaching done in Prague
• Jan Žižka (c.1370 - 1424) - general and Hussite leader, participated in start of the rebellion in Prague, later defended it against crusaders
• Judah Loew ben Bezalel (1525 - 1609) - important Talmudic scholar, Jewish mystic and philosopher
• Tycho Brahe (1546 - 1601) - astronomer, spent end of life near Prague
• Johannes Kepler (1571 - 1630) - astronomer, in 1601 succeeded Tycho Brahe as imperial mathematician, the next 11 years in Prague would be the most productive of his life^[1]
• Christian Doppler (1803 – 1853), mathematician and physicist, lectured several years in Prague, published his paper on Doppler effect there
• Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (1850 - 1937) - philosopher, politician, lived here for substantial part of life
• František Křižík (1847 - 1941) - inventor, electrical engineer and entrepreneur, set up his company in Prague
• Karel Baxa (1863 - 1938) - politician, mayor of the city for almost two decades
• Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955) - physicist, served as professor at the German part of Charles University, 1911 - 1912. ^[2]
• Jaroslav Heyrovský, 1890 - 1967, chemist, inventor of the polarographic method, recipient of the Nobel Prize in 1959
• Reinhard Heydrich (1904 - 1942) - Nazi general and protector, assassinated in Prague while serving as governor of the occupied country
• Jan Patočka (1907 - 1977) - philosopher, born, lived and died here
• Václav Havel (1936) - writer, dramatist, politician, born and lives here
• Emil Zátopek (1922 - 2000) - athlete, lived and died
• František Plánička (1904 - 1996) - football goalkeeper, captain of the Czechoslovakia national football team
• Jaromír Jágr (1971 - ) - born in Prague, considered the greatest european hockey player in the history of the game
• Pavel Nedvěd (1972) - football player, played for a Prague team 1991-96

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Caspar, Max: Kepler, pp 111–122, transl. and ed. by C. Doris Hellman; with a new introduction and references by Owen Gingerich; bibliographic citations by Owen Gingerich and Alain Segonds. New York: Dover, 1993 ISBN 0-486-67605-6
2. ^ Jozsef Illy: Albert Einstein in Prague, 1979 [1]