Viktor Dyk (; 31 December 1877 – 14 May 1931) was a nationalist

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places * Czech, ...

poet, prose writer, playwright, politician and political writer. He was sent to jail during the First World War for opposing the Austro-Hungarian empire. He was one of the signatories of the Manifesto of Czech writers. Dyk co-founded a political party and entered politics. He died at age 53, leaving his many poems, plays and writings.

Life

Dyk was born in Pšovka u Mělníka in the

Kingdom of Bohemia The Kingdom of Bohemia ( cs, České království),; la, link=no, Regnum Bohemiae sometimes in English literature referred to as the Czech Kingdom, was a medieval and early modern monarchy in Central Europe, the predecessor of the modern Czec ...

in 1877. His family moved to

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

in 1888Viktor Dyk
spisovatele.cz, retrieved 12 April 2014 where he began to write. His family settled in the Prague suburb of

Vinohrady Královské Vinohrady (in English literally "Royal Vineyards" german: Königliche Weinberge) is a cadastral district in Prague. It is so named because the area was once covered in vineyards dating from the 14th century. Vinohrady lies in the muni ...

in 1904 and that year he published a novel titled ''The End of Hackenschmid'' which was anti-Austrian. Dyk had taken part in the Czech Chess Championship the year before and he was to remain interested in the game for at least the next twenty years. He was most active in 1913 and seven of his games between 1903 and 1927 are recorded but, of these, only one is a victory. Viktor Dyk studied at a gymnasium in Prague (one of his teachers was Alois Jirásek). Dyk completed his education at Charles University in Prague where he achieved a degree in law. However law and politics were to dominate his life.Viktor Dyk
, Plamen Press, retrieved 13 April 2014 Viktor Dyk 1899

In 1911, he became involved in politics and joined the ''Státoprávně pokroková strana''. He stood for office in the 1911 elections, but received just 205 votes in Vinohrady and placed fourth overall of five candidates. Dyk together with

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It ...

spoke of a "Great Wall" which, like the

Great Wall of China The Great Wall of China (, literally "ten thousand ''li'' wall") is a series of fortifications that were built across the historical northern borders of ancient Chinese states and Imperial China as protection against various nomadic gro ...

or the

Tower of Babel The Tower of Babel ( he, , ''Mīgdal Bāḇel'') narrative in Genesis 11:1–9 is an origin myth meant to explain why the world's peoples speak different languages. According to the story, a united human race speaking a single language and mi ...

, became a metaphor for the cultural and linguistic division that they believed was required between Czech and Germanic culture. Dyk wrote in the magazine '' Lumír'', where he was known to state that Bohemia had to become Czech or they should die in the attempt. On April 13, 1913, he composed a tirade in reply to an article published by Franz Werfel. Dyk stated that his group had not built the "Great Wall" as they were not opposed ''per se'' to German ideas, however they did see the dangers. Dyk saw no problem with communicating with Germans but he warned against "surrender" to ensure that they did not become "Czech speaking Germans". During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, he continued to write and he became involved in helping write a libretto for an opera by

Leoš Janáček Leoš Janáček (, baptised Leo Eugen Janáček; 3 July 1854 – 12 August 1928) was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist, and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and other Slavic musics, including Eastern European f ...

. Janáček's fifth opera, The Excursions of Mr. Brouček to the Moon and to the 15th Century went through a number of librettists and Dyk worked on Janáček's opera which was based on a story by Svatopluk Čech. In 1915 he started working with

Vinohrady Theatre Vinohrady Theatre ( cs, Divadlo na Vinohradech) is a theatre in Vinohrady, Prague. Construction began on February 27, 1905. It served as the Theatre of the Czechoslovak Army from autumn 1950 to January 1966. It contains a curtain painted by Vl ...

. Later he was imprisoned in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

for his resistance activities against

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

. He was in jail in 1916 and 1917 for suggesting that Moravia and Bohemia could secede from the empire. In May 1917 Dyk was one of the signatories of the Manifesto of Czech writers. This was an important document created by Jaroslav Kvapil who was the director of Czech National Theatre. Kvapil managed to get 200 writers to sign the manifesto and it was designed to encourage the Czech deputies to the Imperial Council in Vienna to support Czech self-determination. In 1918, he co-founded the Czechoslovak National Democratic Party ( cs, Československá národní demokracie). His writings were designed to inspire nationalism in the fight to reclaim the Kingdom of Bohemia from Austrian rule. In 1907 he became the editor of the magazine '' Lumír''. He was to lead this magazine for the rest of his life. The magazine's followers were known by the same name as the magazine. The writers and artists involved started a new direction in Czech culture. Previously, the culture was seen as coming from Germans and sources in German. For instance, German poets like Heinrich Heine were translated poem by poem from German to Czech. With the emergence of the Lumír group writers like Vrchlický, Dyk himself and

Julius Zeyer Julius Zeyer (26 April 1841 – 29 January 1901) was a Czech prose writer, poet, and playwright. Personal life Zeyer was born on 26 April 1841 in Prague. His mother, Elisabeth Eleonora (née Weisseles), came from a German Jewish-turned-Catholic ...

the focus turned away from German culture. This change of focus is said to have led other Czech intellectuals to also look in this new direction for scientific, economic and social ideas. His political views were

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

and

nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...

and in 1920 he was elected to parliament. In the times of the

First Republic of Czechoslovakia The First Czechoslovak Republic ( cs, První československá republika, sk, Prvá česko-slovenská republika), often colloquially referred to as the First Republic ( cs, První republika, Slovak: ''Prvá republika''), was the first Czechoslo ...

, Viktor Dyk was one of the prominent intellectual opponents of President

Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk Tomáš () is a Czech and Slovak given name, equivalent to the name Thomas. It may refer to: * Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (1850–1937), first President of Czechoslovakia * Tomáš Baťa (1876–1932), Czech footwear entrepreneur * Tomáš Berdyc ...

. In 1928 he married the writer Zdenka Hásková. In the 1929 parliamentary election, Dyk became a senator of Czechoslovakia, representing the Czechoslovak Democratic Party. Viktor Dyk died of heart failure on 14 May 1931 while swimming in the sea near the island of

Lopud Lopud () is a small island off the coast of Dalmatia, southern Croatia. Lopud is economically the most developed of the Elaphiti Islands, and can be reached by boat from Dubrovnik, Trsteno, Orašac and Zaton. The island is famous for its sandy ...

, near

Dubrovnik Dubrovnik (), historically known as Ragusa (; see notes on naming), is a city on the Adriatic Sea in the region of Dalmatia, in the southeastern semi-exclave of Croatia. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations in the Mediterran ...

in Croatia. He was replaced as senator by Jan Kapras. Dyk's funeral attracted many mourners. He was buried at Olšany Cemetery in Prague.

Legacy

Dyk has a number of monuments including one in

, where he lived most of his life. Jirí Jíle created a life-sized bronze bust on a granite plinth in his birthplace of

Mělník Mělník (; german: Melnik) is a town in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 19,000 inhabitants. The town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument zone. Mělník lies in one of the most im ...

in the Bohemian area of the Czech Republic. The statue is on the street ''Vilohrady Karla IV'' by the Štefánik observation point. The statue does not mention his career or life span but merely says "Viktor Dyk". There is also a monument to Dyk on the Island of Lopud created by

Nikola Dobrović Nikola Dobrović ( sr-Cyrl, Никола Добровић, ; 12 February 1897 – 11 January 1967) was a Serbian architect, teacher, and urban planner. Dobrović designed a number of buildings including the Yugoslav Ministry of Defence building, l ...

in 1936. The concrete monument is on hill where three paths meet and it was paid for by the former government of Czechoslovakia. Dyk's book ''Krysař'' ( en, italic=yes, Rat-catcher) was the basis for a 2003 film of the same name by director F.A. Brabec. The film was shot in under 24 hours, leading to producers of the film claiming it to be a world record for the fastest-ever film shooting. The same book was also used by

Jiří Barta Jiří Barta (born 26 November 1948) is a Czech stop-motion animation director. Many of his films use wood as a medium for animation. Among his notable films are the 1986 film ''The Pied Piper''. In 2007 he released his first computer-animated ...

in creating the base story for his 1986 animation The Pied Piper. Barta notes that it is Dyk's book which is the basis of the average Czech's understanding of the Pied Piper story. Czech President

Václav Klaus Václav Klaus (; born 19 June 1941) is a Czech economist and politician who served as the second president of the Czech Republic from 2003 to 2013. From July 1992 until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in January 1993, he served as the second ...

cited one of Dyk's poems in his 2011 New Year's address to the nation, urging Czech citizens not to emigrate. Klaus's speech was directed at the Czechs who were finding the fiscal restrictions of the economy difficult to bear. Klaus appealed to nationalists with Dyk's suggestion of what the nation would think: ''"I will survive if you leave me – but without me you will surely die."''

Works

Opera

* The Excursions of Mr. Brouček to the Moon and to the 15th Century: part credit for libretto

Poetry

* ''A porta inferi'', 1897 * ''Síla života'', 1898 * ''Marnosti'', 1900 * ''Satiry a sarkasmy'', 1905 * ''Milá sedmi loupežníků, 1906 * ''Pohádky z naší vesnice'', 1910 * ''Giuseppe Moro'', 1911 * ''Zápas Jiřího Macků'', 1916 * ''Noci chiméry'', 1917 * ''Devátá vlna'' 1930 * ''Lehké a těžké kroky'' 1915 * ''Anebo'' 1917 * ''Okno'' 1921 * ''Poslední rok'' 1922

Prose

* ''Stud'', 1900 * ''Hučí jez a jiné prózy'', 1903 * ''Konec Hackenschmidův'', (The End of Hackenschmid) 1904 * ''Prosinec'', 1906 * ''Prsty Habakukovy'', 1906 * ''Píseň o vrbě'', 1908 * ''Příhody'', 1911 * ''Krysař'', 1915, English edition ''The Pied Piper'', Karolinum Press 2018, . * ''Tajemná dobrodružství Alexeje Iványče Kozulinova'', 1923 * ''Tichý dům'', 1921 * ''Zlý vítr'', 1922 * ''Prsty Habakukovy'', 1925 * ''Můj přítel Čehona'', 1925 * ''Dědivadelní hra'', 1927 * ''Holoubek Kuzma'', 1928 * ''Soykovy děti'', 1929

Political literature

* ''Ad usum pana presidenta republiky'' (1929 – criticism of

Edvard Beneš Edvard Beneš (; 28 May 1884 – 3 September 1948) was a Czech politician and statesman who served as the president of Czechoslovakia from 1935 to 1938, and again from 1945 to 1948. He also led the Czechoslovak government-in-exile 1939 to 194 ...

and

* ''O národní stát'' (posthumously 1932–1938, 7 books of Dyk's political writing from 1917 to 1931)

Dramas

* ''Epizoda'', 1906 * ''Posel'', 1907 * ''Zmoudření Dona Quijota'', 1913 * ''Veliký mág'', 1914 * ''Zvěrstva'', 1919 * ''Ondřej a drak'', 1919 * ''Revoluční trilogie'', 1921 * ''Napravený plukovník Švec'', 1929 – support of Rudolf Medek

Memoirs

* ''Vzpomínky a komentáře'', 1927

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dyk, Viktor 1877 births 1931 deaths People from Mělník People from the Kingdom of Bohemia Czechoslovak National Democracy politicians Vlajka politicians Members of the Revolutionary National Assembly of Czechoslovakia Members of the Chamber of Deputies of Czechoslovakia (1920–1925) Members of the Senate of Czechoslovakia (1925–1929) Members of the Senate of Czechoslovakia (1929–1935) Czech male poets Czech male novelists Czech male dramatists and playwrights Czech nationalists Czech political writers Czech chess players Czech Freemasons 20th-century Czech novelists 20th-century Czech poets Burials at Olšany Cemetery 20th-century Czech dramatists and playwrights Austro-Hungarian writers Czechoslovak writers Charles University alumni