For the inhabitants of the town of Mysłowic acquires special importance the place called „Triangle of the Three Emperors“, where in the years 1845–1918 intersected the borders of three empires – Russia, Austria and Prussia. The threefold boundary represented for many decades the sphere of constant economic, cultural and social exchange and cultural and civilisational interpenetration. Thanks to the „triangle“ was Mysłowice known all over Europe as well as on other continents and attracted thousands of tourists. The surroundings of the „Triangle of the Three Emperors“ were endowed with excellent touristic and recreational infrastructure. Nowadays this legendary place is neglected and does not remind of its former importance. However, it is still being visited by groups of tourists and hosts occasional meetings and historical commemorations. Within the town there are numerous symbolic references to the „Triangle of the Three Emperors“. The municipal council recently devised a plan to transform the „Triangle“ into a showroom of the town and constituent part of its advertising campaign. The „Triangle of the Three Emperors“ instigates emotions and acquires a prominent place in the social memory of the inhabitants of Mysłowic, as it is part of the local historical tradition. On the background of the European history it acquires its historical importance and local relevance. Through its intimate relation to local history it evokes the images of the past glory of the town. The „Triangle of the Three Emperors“ surpasses in importance the remaining parts of the town and corroborates positively the social integrity of its inhabitants. Its symbolic importance can in a crucial way influence the processes of change and creation of social consciousness, responding to the unified vision of the future, and at the same time the creation of contemporary identity of the town, relieved from existing stigma of industrialization.
The presented study is trying to analyze the development of the image of the president's birthday celebrations in 1919–1953. The day was one of the most important rituals during the common year. It was also one of the key factors in forming of the collective memory of the Czechoslovak society at that time. That was especially valid in the years when the independent Czechoslovak state was endangered. By comparison, the study is trying to show, how the form of the feast has changed during the reflected period, which was characteristic by dynamic changes of regimes and ideologies.
Not only the perception of the contemporary Lithuanians and Vytautas by Konrad von Jungingen (1393–1407) and the Teutonic Order, but also the Order's memory of the earlier actions of the Lithuanians under King Mindaugas were the background against which the policy of the beginning 15th century was conducted. There is a nexus between memory, perception and politics. The Order still perceived the Lithuanians around 1400 as pagans. The memory studies, especially the central ideas of Maurice Halbwachs' classical theories on collective memory and the "cadres sociaux" provide a plausible explanation.
The article provides a comparison of two monuments - one of
František Palacký in Prague and the second of Theodor Mommsen in Berlin. Both men were the key historians of their nations in the 19th century. Palacký has offered a master-narrative of Czech national past in his famous book The History of Czech Nation in Bohemia and Moravia and set the main structures of narrating Czech history for two centuries. Theodor Mommsen has become
a worldwide known historian due to his extraordinary History of Rome, for which he has obtained Nobel Price for Literature in 1903. Monuments of these historians were built at the beginning of the 20th century (Palacký’s in 1912, Mommsen’s in 1909). The paper focuses on structural similarities between the monuments, especially in the area of collective memory. Using the theory of
Maurice Halbwachs formulated just before World War II the essay points out that there is a fundamental connection between memory and space. The essay argues that there is no significant structural difference between Palacký’s and Mommsen’s monument in terms of shaping the collective memory. and Článek zahrnuje poznámkový aparát pod čarou
Stať deskriptivní formou přináší poznatky z prvního dotazníkového průzkumu, který je součástí širšího projektu sociologického výzkumu historického vědomí obyvatel České republiky. Po úvodním zasazení do kontextu koncepcí historického vědomí a kolektivní paměti jsou nejprve popsány výsledky průzkumu na téma zájmu o dějiny a jejich jednotlivé oblasti; zdrojů, z nichž lidé získávají historické informace a sebehodnocení z hlediska znalosti historie. Další části článku jsou věnovány problematice českých národních dějin, především tomu, jakým způsobem veřejnost hodnotí jednotlivá historická období, a jsou zde také předloženy informace týkající se hrdosti občanů na národní historii. Závěrečná část se věnuje obecným aspektům historického vědomí tzn. názorům lidí na průběh dějin a důležitost sil, které ho ovlivňují, a také na význam, který má historie pro současný život společnosti., This article describes the results of an initial survey which is a part of broader project of sociological research into the historical consciousness of inhabitants of the Czech Republic. Firstly, the topic is put into the context of conceptions of historical consciousness and collective memory. This is followed by an outline of the public’s interests in history and its different fields, their sources of information and self-evaluation of historical knowledge. Next the article deals with the issue of Czech national history, especially how the public evaluates different historical periods and the level of pride Czech peo - ple feel about their national history. The final section addresses the problem of the historical consciousness of citizens on a more general level; it summarizes opinions on the course of the historical process, the importance of different influences on it, and also on the role which history plays in contemporary society., and Jiří Šubrt, Jiří Vinopal.
This study looks at issues related to using the concept of the so-called Maffia as representing the anti-Austrian Czech local resistance in the collective memory of interwar Czechoslovakia. Thus far the overwhelming majority of academic historical works have concentrated on the activities of the Maffia during the First World War. However, in this contribution the author examines the second life of this group when he looks for answers to questions concerning the origins of this group's name, who belonged to it, and the presentation and perception of the Maffia's activities in the public sphere in interwar Czechoslovakia.
The presented paper deals with the national minority of Transylvanian Saxons in Romania. It describes the historical story of the community and the importance of festivities. Based on long-term field research, it describes and analyzes the problems associated with reconstructing the ethnic identity of the community. Primarily, it focuses on the issue of social conditionality of memory. The paper presents the individual responders' recollections of the fundamental events in the community's history in the second half of the 20th century. Methodologically, it follows the tradition of ethnographic research, building on theoretical concepts of ethnicity (T. H. Eriksen, B. Anderson, A. D. Smith) and memory studies (M. Halbwachs, J. Assmann, P. Nora).