Volunteer firefighters are the only traditional interest organization in the Czech Republic with higher proportion of children and youth between the volunteers (members). The aim of the thesis is to clarify the reasons for the strong position of children and youth between volunteer firefighters. There has been a qualitative research conducted within this thesis. The method of embedded case study was use for it. It's a single-case study design that involves more than one unit of analysis. The main unit was the Firefighters Association of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia, the embedded units were three specific voluntary fire brigades. The thesis also describes historical development of voluntary fire protection in the Czech Republic including the history of the organization of young firefighters.

The thesis will focus on the first exhibitions of the industrial goods in Bohemia between the years 1754 and 1836. In every one of the chronologically sorted chapters, including each exhibition, it will focus on themes such as the changeover between manufactures and the industrial production, the role of craftsmen, the role of the emperor and aristocracy supporting the Czech industry, the foundation of Unity for the development of the Bohemian industry. The thesis is also focused on finding the subjects, which were displayed on the first exhibitions.

Title Traitors or Victims? Contribution to the mentality of the Czech resistance fighters in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Abstract The thesis presents four resistance fighters from COM D's group in extreme situations. In these situations the thesis monitors their mentality. The term mentality refers to a way of thinking, which shows the behavior of the person concerned. Paratroopers of this group have not yet been given enough attention, work contributes to the detection of pre-war and post- war fates of paratroopers. Thesis offers, based on acquired information on the socio- demographic backgrounds, political orientation, and also on how a parachutist were handled by the Gestapo, comparing their behavior in crucial situations. Keywords III. illegal Central Committee of the Communist Party, the Gestapo, KOM D, an informer, mentality, resistance, paratrooper, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.

The subject of the present thesis is origin, evolution and analysis of a book collection of South Bohemian native, Prague citizen and patriot Jan Dobromil Arbeiter (1794-1870) in cultural, social and political context of his time. The work is based on archive sources and book provenance recordsand its main goal is to trace the journey of collection from its founder, via library of Reálné gymnázium (Human Studies Secondary School) in Tábor, and State Archive in Tábor to the possession of contemporary holder and maintainer Hussite Museum in Tábor. An analysis of the linguage structure, printing places and printers is based is one of the main parts of the work Majority of the book collection consists of the books in Czech language printed in the Bohemian region, predominantly in Prag. Most of them were printed in the printing house of Pospíšil family active in Prague and town of Hradec Králové. The main task of this thesis was to analyse the structure of Arbeiter book collection and to establish genre typology of books. The collection consists of books typical for the printing production of its time, but also of the books exceptional, either because of the year of publishing, content or its outer shape (e. g. illumination). Among others, beletry, dramatic pieces and religious books form the basic part...

When Czech composer Bedřich Smetana's opera The Bartered Bride received its American premiere at the Metropolitan Opera in February 1909, New York music critics published positive reviews which displayed a great fascination with the many "Bohemian" aspects of the production. However, certain comments or language used by some critics indicate that American opinions of the Czech people were less than positive. After Czechs began immigrating to America en masse in 1848, already-established American citizens developed skewed cultural perceptions of the Czech people, established negative stereotypes, and propagated their opinions in various forms of press throughout the nation. Despite a general dislike of the Czechs, reviewers revered The Bartered Bride and praised its many authentic "Bohemian" qualities. This research explores the idea of a paradoxical cultural phenomenon in which the prejudice against Czech people did not fully cross over into the musical sphere. Instead, appreciation for Czech music and musicians may have trumped any such negative opinions and authentic Czech productions such as The Bartered Bride may have been considered a novelty in the eyes of early twentieth-century New Yorkers.

(in English): The presented PhD thesis deals with two artists, Emanuel Hegenbarth (1868-1923) and Richard Müller (1874-1954). Both were Czech Germans, i.e. of German nationality, using German as their vernacular language, born in the second half of the 19th century in Bohemia the territory of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire (nowday's Czech Republic) and later have been working for a long time in Dresden. This initial reality represented a different starting point for each of them and played a different role in their later life and artistic trajectory. Richard Müller did not lose contact with his bohemian homeland during his lifetime, but he did not have strong ties to it and considered Dresden his home and background. He was particularly influential as a professor at the Dresden Academy, a position he held for more than thirty years. His artistic principles and creative activity shaped the emerging generation of artists, which included representatives of German-speaking artists from Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia who passed through his studio. The thesis includes an excursus devoted to Herbert Seemann (1900-1945), in whose work Müller's influence is most evident. A different approach can be found in Emanuel Hegenbarth, who, despite his professorship at the Dresden Academy, maintained intensive and...

This thesis deals with the life of Františka Plamínková (1875-1942) paying special attention to her role as a women's rights activist, politician and journalist. The study maps out Plamínková's journey to becoming one of the principal characters of the Czech women's movement before and after the First World War and her merits regarding the women's suffrage in Czechoslovakia in the appropriate historical context. Furthermore, it describes her politics in the Czechoslovak Senate as well as her other public activities, such as being the chairwoman of the Czech National Women's Council. It highlights Plamínková's fate during the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, which ultimately led to her execution. The chapter dedicated to Plamínková's journalistic work analyses her texts published between 1906-1940 primarily in women's magazines, where Plamínková reflected on the period narrative concerning women and aimed to change their limited options within both their public and private lives. The premise of this thesis is that Plamínková projected her own experience and opinions into her journalistic body of work. The study is based in archival materials and sources, texts in period magazines and other studies related to the topic at hand. Enclosed are several period photographs and archival documents.

The aim of the diploma thesis is to present artistic objects conceived within the architecture of cultural houses since the onset of the communist regime in 1948. The theoretical part of the thesis introduces the development of architectural tendencies of the first and second half of the 20th century, the process of construction of cultural houses and, in context, the mood of the society at that time. The practical part presents a selection of five houses of culture built between 1948 - 1989, which are located in the geographical area of Prague and Central Bohemia. Data collection was carried out using field research methodology, through a critical evaluation of available historical sources and secondary literature. The supporting element of the research is the photographic documentation of the artworks and architecture of the cultural houses, which is accessible within the appendices of the thesis. Keywords Cultural Houses, Art in Architecture, Czech Architecture after 1948, Socialist Realism, Typification, Communism, Prague, Central Bohemia

En regard de la convention d’originalité propre à l’art contemporain, l’extraordinaire imprécision des critères visant à déterminer la qualité et la légitimité des œuvres d’art et du statut de l’artiste qui les crée nécessite l’intervention d’intermédiaires dont le mandat est de découvrir et de promouvoir de nouveaux talents. Dans ce contexte, les artistes en quête de reconnaissance doivent se plier aux règles et aux conventions établies au préalable par ces intermédiaires puisque leur légitimité dépend de leur validation commune. Cependant, avec l’arrivée d’Instagram et l’investissement massif des artistes visuels qui utilisent la plateforme pour promouvoir leurs œuvres et leurs expositions, un certain discours émerge des mondes de l’art et prétend que, de plus en plus, les artistes s’autonomisent des déterminants de la légitimité et parviennent à contourner les réseaux traditionnels de légitimation des œuvres d’art, et ce, en vendant directement aux publics. La présente recherche a toutefois montré que la réalité est en fait beaucoup plus complexe que cela. L’objectif de ce mémoire consiste donc à mettre à l’épreuve cette hypothèse largement promue dans les mondes de l’art et de mesurer l’impact réel de l’utilisation d’Instagram sur les dynamiques de pouvoir et les rapports à la légitimité. Pour ce faire, 12 artistes visuels qui utilisent Instagram régulièrement dans le cadre de leur pratique artistique ont été interrogés. Dans un premier temps, l’utilisation de l’application par les artistes visuels a été décrite et documentée dans le but d’offrir un premier aperçu de cette nouvelle pratique. Ensuite, l’analyse et la mise en tension de certains processus a permis de dévoiler la complexité des dynamiques qui y sont véritablement à l’œuvre. Les résultats de la recherche montrent que l’utilisation d’Instagram contribue à inscrire les artistes dans des logiques capitalistes néolibérales et dans un esprit de marchandisation du soi du fait d’une nouvelle injonction à la vente de soi et de l’accentuation des concurrences interindividuelles. Cependant, les résultats attestent aussi d’un fort attachement envers des idéaux anticonformistes et anticapitalistes qui restreignent en retour l’investissement des artistes sur la plateforme. La recherche permet donc de documenter et d’analyser les nuances qu’entraînent la rencontre de ces idéologies opposées sur la plateforme. Ce mémoire constitue une première analyse critique de l’utilisation d’Instagram par les artistes visuels contemporains. / Within the convention of originality specific to contemporary art, the criteria used to determine the quality and legitimacy of works of art and the status of the artist are extremely vague. This is why it requires the intervention of intermediaries whose purpose is to discover and promote new talents. In this context, artists who seek recognition must comply with the rules and conventions established beforehand by these intermediaries as their legitimacy depends on their common validation. However, with the arrival of Instagram and the massive increase of visual artists using the platform to promote their works and exhibitions, a discourse is emerging from the art worlds which claims that, more and more, artists are becoming less dependant on the determinants of legitimacy as they are able to bypass the traditional networks of art intermediaries. However, this research has rather shown that the reality is much more complex. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to challenge this hypothesis largely circulating in the art worlds and to observe whether the dynamics of power and legitimacy are actually changing. To do so, 12 visual artists who frequently use Instagram as part of their artistic practice were interviewed. First, the thesis describes the use of the application by visual artists in order to offer a first glimpse at this new practice. Then, the analysis and questioning of some processes reveal the complexity of the dynamics that are really at work. The results of this research show that the use of Instagram constraint artists to deal with neoliberal capitalist ideologies. It also contributes to subscribe them into a state of commodification of the self due to the new injunction of self promotion and increased competition between visual artists on the platform. However, the results also attest of a strong attachment to anti-conformist and anti-capitalist ideals which curbs the way artists use the platform. Therefore, the thesis paints a more nuanced portrait resulting from the meeting of the two opposite ideologies on the platform. This thesis constitutes a first critical analysis of the use of Instagram by contemporary visual artists.

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