"To be a good son of one´s nation…“: Czech historians between national program and scientific style

If we take into consideration “science in action“ or “making science“, we do not limit science only to experimental work or metaphorically speaking manipulations with test-tubes and apparatuses; we take into account many other activities. Their spectrum can be approximated by a broad scale between “external“ area of a credibility of science and “internal“ area of a validity of science. These activities cannot be separated from the role assigned to the scientist in the national society. After all it is the society, and it is nineteenth and twentieth century, first of all the national society, which determines the scientist´s chance to practice science profesionally and economically secured. As we can see, in science essentially assert themselves two concepts: the national program contra the scientific (professional) style, and both enforce on science their value systems.

In the last third of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century the relation between the German and Czech production of the Czech historians markedly changed. This can be documented if we compare the numbers of books in the two languages issued by the two foremost Czech historians – František Palacký and Josef Pekař. We can see that in Palacký´s bibliography the total amount of Czech and German books is approximately the same, but Pekař published his larger and smaller books principally in Czech and later in some rare cases also in the German version. The Czech historiography diligently drew on the existing European historiography, but did not give back anything in return due to the language barrier.

Although publications in German and other European languages never fully dissappeared from the Czech historians´ bibliographies, their function changed in the last third of the 19th century and at the beginning of 20th century quite substantially. Non-Czech publications were assigned to fulfill only supporting tasks: articulate apologetic standpoints in face of the foreign attacts against the historical worth of the Czech nation, or try to bridge the information gap caused by the fact that most historical production was only published in Czech. Only then as some supplement came into question “real“ publication of historical studies in German, French or another European language, but principally only in cases when the Czech professional community decided that other works could offer the foreign community a false picture of Czech nation.)

On December 10, 1959 professor Jaroslav Heyrovský of Prague took over the Nobel Prize for Chemistry from the hands of the Swedish King Gustav Adolf VI. for the discovery and development of polarographic analytical method. J. Heyrovský was the first and till this time the sole Czech laureate of the scientific Nobel Prize. The next day after celebration J. Heyrovský delivered his Nobel Lecture on trends of polarography at Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. His lecture had the summarizing character. Heyrovský stated circumstances of his discovery and the development of polarography inclusive its analytical application. An important moment for polarography was the construction of an automatic apparatus for the registration curves named „polarograph“ by Heyrovský and Shikata in 1925.

The polarography – an electrolysis with the dropping mercury electrode – was discovered by Heyrovský in 1922. Heyrovský developed it both experimentally and theoretically almost 40 years.

Heyrovský’s way to the Nobel Prize was long – first he was nominated in 1934 for the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. The nomination for Nobel Prize for chemistry Heyrovský received from 15 foreign chemists between them the laureates of the Nobel Prizes Ch. V. Raman, A. J. P. Martin, R. L. M. Synge, L. Růžička and V. Prelog and other well-known specialists W. Böttger, J. van Nienwanburg, R. Breckpot, J. Gillis, W. Swietoslawski, E. Schulek, I. M. Kolthoff and W. Kemula. Other nominators were Czechoslovak chemists, physicists and physiologists and doctors (48 persons). During 1934–59 Heyrovský received altogether 69 nominators for the Nobel Prizes for chemistry, physics and physiology.