Chair

Dr. Phil. Rudolf Kučera, Ph.D.
Na Florenci 3, 110 00 Praha 1
Tel. 234 612 222
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This Department focuses on research into modern Czech society and the Czech Lands in the context of the history of the Central European region during the 19th and 20th centuries. Research centres around the history of conceptions of democracy and Czech statehood, parliamentarianism, partihood, political culture, political ideology and nationalism. This research takes place within the interdisciplinary context of historical and literary studies, political philosophy, politology and gender studies. Research interest primarily focuses on the life and work of T. G. Masaryk and E. Beneš, whose personal papers are in the care of the Masaryk Institute and Archive. An important area of activity at the Department consists in making primary sources of personal and institutional provenance on modern Czech history available through publications. As publication projects (Selected Writings of TGM, publication of TGM Correspondence) are completed, editorial theory and methodology are also developed. Alongside these projects, extensive source and guaranteed bibliographic databases are being compiled on the basis of innovative approaches to provide an online information service. The Department is dealing with several research projects, the most important of which is Edvard Beneš, the Germans and Germany Edvard Beneš, the Germans and Germany. With the support of the Czech Science Foundation and the Academy of Sciences Grant Agency, research is under way on the following subjects: Munich in the memoirs of contemporary witnesses; The First Republic in the light of correspondence between T. G. Masaryk and E. Beneš; Work, nation and gender – the workers' movement in the Czech Lands 1914–1918; and Czechoslovak-Austrian relations 1918-1938.