Titulni strana casopisu pritomnost z roku 1924

(lit. "Presence") is a Czech political-cultural magazine published in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

History

''Přítomnost'' was started in 1924. It was able to come into existence thanks to

T. G. Masaryk T is the twentieth letter of the Latin alphabet. (For the same letterform in the Cyrillic and Greek alphabets, see Te and Tau respectively). T may also refer to: Codes and units * T, Tera- as in one trillion * T, the symbol for "True" in lo ...

(first Czechoslovakia's President), who at the time was financially supporting young journalist

Ferdinand Peroutka Ferdinand Peroutka (6 February 1895 – 20 April 1978) was a Czech journalist and writer. A prominent political thinker and journalist during the First Czechoslovak Republic, Peroutka was persecuted by the Nazi regime for his democratic convict ...

. The magazine gained a notable reputation and became one of the most respected political publication of its time. A large number of democratically minded authors such as Karel Čapek,

Milena Jesenská Milena Jesenská (; 10 August 1896 – 17 May 1944) was a Czech journalist, writer, editor and translator. Early life Jesenská was born in Prague, Austria-Hungary (now Czech Republic). Her family is believed to descend from Jan Jesenius, th ...

Eduard Bass Eduard Bass, born Eduard Schmidt, (1 January 1888, in Prague – 2 October 1946, in Prague) was a Czech prose writer, journalist, singer, and actor. From 1910 he worked as a singer, journalist and cabaret director. From 1921 he was an editor of th ...

Karel Poláček Karel Poláček (22 March 1892 – 21 January 1945) was a Czech writer, humorist and journalist of Jewish descent. Life He was born in Rychnov nad Kněžnou into the family of a Jewish merchant. He attended the gymnasium there, but did poor ...

, Richard Wiener, Václav Černý,

Otokar Fischer Otokar Fischer (20 May 1883 – 12 March 1938) was a Czech translator, playwright, poet and critic. He was born in Kolín, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He made new translations of Goethe, Shakespeare and Villon. He was a professor ...

contributed to Přítomnost. Politician and publisher Jaroslav Stránský was the magazine's publisher. The magazine gave voice to conflicting opinions on what to do with refugees during the late 1930s, with some arguing that they must be welcomed and integrated while others argued that they would serve a pretext for another German invasion and were doomed regardless. Jesenská in particular brought attention to the plight of Jewish refugees. After the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, Peroutka was deported to a concentration camp in Buchenwald. After the War, ''Přítomnost'' was restarted as ''Dnešek'', but in February 1948 it ended. A number of young Czech intellectuals in exile tried to publish the magazine in its former incarnation and named it ''Skutečnost''. Amongst the contributors to this magazine were

Pavel Tigrid Pavel Tigrid (27 October 1917 – 31 August 2003) was a Czech writer, publisher, author and politician. He is considered one of the most important personalities of the Czech exile journalism. Biography Pavel Schönfeld was born in Prague on 27 Oc ...

, Jaroslav Stránský, Meda Mládková and Ferdinand Peroutka.

Relaunch

In January 1995, Martin Jan Stránský, the grandson of Jaroslav Stránský, carried on the family tradition and began to publish ''Nová Přítomnost''. The first editor in chief of the renewed magazine was the poet

Miroslav Holub Miroslav Holub (; 13 September 1923 – 14 July 1998) was a Czech poet and immunologist. Holub's work was heavily influenced by his experiences as an Immunologist, writing many poems using his scientific knowledge to poetic effect. His work ...

. He was followed in this role by

Petr Pithart Petr is a Czech given name for males and a Czech surname. Petr is the Czech form of ''Peter''. For information on Petr as a first name, see Peter (given name). Given name * Petr Aven (born 1955), Russian billionaire banker, economist and politic ...

, Jan Sokol, Tomáš Vrba, and Libuše Koubská. The current editors of the magazine are Ivan Malý and Martin Riegl. In January 2000, Nová Přítomnost went back to the original name of ''Přítomnost'' established by Peroutka. The magazine has published articles by some of the leading academics, writers, and journalists of the Czech Republic, including former Czech President

Václav Havel Václav Havel (; 5 October 193618 December 2011) was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright, and former dissident. Havel served as the last president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1992 and then as ...

. In 1996, Stransky also started publishing an English-language version of the magazine under the title of ''The New Presence''.

References

External links

''Přítomnost'' Official website

''The New Presence'' Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pritomnost Cultural magazines Czech-language magazines Magazines established in 1924 Magazines published in Prague Political magazines Political mass media in the Czech Republic