By H.E. Ms. Jana Reinišová, Ambassador of the Czech Republic to the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
The Czech Republic has a long history during which the alternation of good and bad times was symptomatic. Not going into details, let us demonstrate it on reminding us of some of the periods connected with the anniversaries we have been recently or are to be commemorated.
Last year we celebrated the 700 years anniversary of the birth of Charles IV. (1316 – 1378, the son of Jan of Luxembourg and Eliška Přemyslovna, descendant of the Czech royal family), the Czech King and Roman Emperor, who was one of the most important monarchs in the medieval times. He consolidated the Czech lands, which had been known as the “Czech crown” since then. The country flourished during the Charles IV. Reign – he established in Prague the oldest university in Central Europe, today known as the Charles University, he built the large New Town of Prague, the Charles Bridge, number of castles, the Karlštejn being the most famous of them. He also achieved the significant territorial expansion of the Czech State.
Let us jump over few centuries and let us look to the so called Age of Dark – starting after the battle on the White Mountain (near Prague) in 1620, which was the battle of the Thirty Years War and in which the army of Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II. Styria and the German army of the Catholic League clashed the Czech estates. The battle sealed the fate of the Bohemian Revolt and for the next 300 years influenced the destiny of the country. Jan Amos Comenius (1592 – 1670), the last bishop of the Unity of Brethren and one of the greatest Czech thinkers, philosophers and writers, was one of the persecuted victims as to his protestant confession. Among other things, he is recognized as the “teacher of nations” due to creation of new methods of education based on didactics and as the founder of modern pedagogy. He also devoted a great attention to peaceful relations among the nations. Comenius could not stay in Bohemia and so became a refugee and after living in Poland, Hungary, visits to England or Sweden he spent the last 14 years of his life in Amsterdam where he could live and work in peace. He is buried in Naarden (at present a part of Gooise Meren) where there is Comenius Museum and Mausoleum, the 80-th anniversary of which we will celebrate on 8 May this year.
There was another favourable period for the Czech nation between the First and Second World Wars. During the World War I the idea to create a new state – Czechoslovakia – after the dissolution of the Austria-Hungary Monarchy – was elaborated in detail by Tomáš Garique Masaryk (1850 – 1937), the Czech professor, philosopher and politician, later on the first Czechoslovak President, and his collaboraters, the most important of which was Milan Rastislav Štefánik, the Slovak politician, French Army General and also astronomer, who is being considered as co-founder of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1918. The monument of T.G. Masaryk, reminding the role of the Netherlands in this process, can be found at Geldersekade in Rotterdam. Nearby, in the hotel Weimar (bombed down during the World War II), T. G. Masaryk held secret meetings with the British historian and publicist Robert W. Seton-Watson who helped to disseminate the Memorandum outlining the contours of a future new state among the European politicians. This year, it will be 80 years anniversary of the Masaryk´s death. During his presidency Czechoslovakia was well developed country with competitive industry.
The Second World War and the communist putsch in 1948 got Czechoslovakia into the period of oppression and unfreedom with economic slowdown. This year we commemorate 40 years since Charta 77 had been created as an informal civic society initiative with the goal to point out on the lack of democracy, respect for human and civil rights. Through this initiative whose documents were published abroad or in a form of samizdat people not only in Czechoslovakia could learn more about the communist regime of the country. The spokesmen, signatories and supporters of Charta 77 (and not only them, all people who were actively fighting against the regime) were persecuted, often put in jail, their property was being confiscated, they were forced to leave the country, lost their jobs etc. To name some of its leading personalities we can mention first and utmost Václav Havel, later on the first Czechoslovak and Czech president (the Havel´s bench, designed by Bořek Šípek, the Czech architect and glass designer who also spent part of his life in the Netherlands, can be found at Lange Voorhout in the Hague), other well known persons were e.g. prof. Jan Patočka, Pavel Kohout, Petr Uhl or Ludvík Vaculík. In those times the support from free democratic countries was highly appreciated. In this respect we can point out the meeting of the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Max van der Stoel with the so called dissidents in Prague in 1997 during his official visit to Czechoslovakia. To the memory of this Dutch politician and the events of 1997 the Monument of Max van der Stoel was unveiled in Prague on 1 March this year. Even few years earlier the park where the monument is situated was named after him as well.
The year 1989 and the velvet revolution brought new light into the lives of Czech and Slovak people. Despite of the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in the end of 1992 there are now two free countries where the way of living, economy, culture, international relations etc. have been restored to “normal”.
At present, the Czech Republic, member of NATO, EU and many other international organizations, is a country firmly anchored in Europe. The respect for human and civil rights is back, its economy is on a good track, it provides favourable conditions for investments, economic cooperation, trade, culture, tourism etc. The GDP growth was 4,3 % in 2015 and 2,3 % in 2016, the unemployment rate is 4,8 % at present. For illustration some figures from the bilateral trade with the Netherlands. The trade exchange volume reached nearly 8 billion euro in 2016. The Czech exports grow faster than the Dutch ones – by almost 10% a year, so we keep the positive trade balance in the range of 500 million euro. The total trade turnover makes the Netherlands the top 9th trading partner of the Czech Republic (and the 7th in import ranking). If comparing economic flows in services (balance almost of 200 million euro for the Netherlands) and the capital flows (already balance more than 10 billion euro for the “Dutch” investors in 2016) the figures are in favour of the Netherlands.
