
František Emmert (born 1974) is a Czech historian and writer. He is an author of books about modern European and Czech history.
Biography
František Emmert was born in 1974 in
Brno
Brno ( , ; ) is a Statutory city (Czech Republic), city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava (river), Svitava and Svratka (river), Svratka rivers, Brno has about 403,000 inhabitants, making ...
,
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...
into the family of
František Gregor Emmert, a music composer and professor at the
Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts. His father's family came from the town of
Weiden in
Bavaria
Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...
, and his mother's family from
Teplice
Teplice (, until 1948 Teplice-Šanov; , ''Teplitz-Schönau'') is a city in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 51,000 inhabitants. It is the most populous Czech spa town, followed by Karlovy Vary. The historic city cen ...
in
Bohemia
Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...
. His paternal ancestors worked for generations as glass makers on the German side of the Šumava Mountains (
Bohemian Forest
The Bohemian Forest, known in Czech as () and in German as , is a low mountain range in Central Europe. Geographically, the mountains extend from Plzeň Region and the South Bohemian Region in the Czech Republic to Austria and Bavaria in Germ ...
). His mother came from a family of traders who owned a family confectioner's shop in Teplice before 1948.
After graduating from high school, František Emmert studied history and religious studies at the Faculty of Arts of
Masaryk University
Masaryk University (MU) (; ) is the second largest university in the Czech Republic, a member of the Compostela Group and the Utrecht Network. Founded in 1919 in Brno, it now consists of ten faculties and 35,115 students. It is named after To ...
in Brno. In 2011 he obtained the title
Doctor of law
A Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) is a doctoral degree in legal studies. The abbreviation LL.D. stands for ''Legum Doctor'', with the double “L” in the abbreviation referring to the early practice in the University of Cambridge to teach both canon law ...
at the Faculty of Law of
Charles University
Charles University (CUNI; , UK; ; ), or historically as the University of Prague (), is the largest university in the Czech Republic. It is one of the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest universities in the world in conti ...
in
Prague
Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...
.
From 1992-2006 he worked as a journalist, broadcaster and book editor. He passed through
Czech Radio
Czech Radio (, ČRo) is the public radio broadcaster of the Czech Republic operating continuously since 1923. It is the oldest national radio broadcaster in continental Europe and the second-oldest in Europe after the BBC. Czech Radio was esta ...
, the newspapers ''Rovnost'', ''Právo'' and ''ZNnoviny/Slovo'' and ''Czech News Agency''. From 2009-2011 he worked as a spokesperson for the
Supreme Administrative Court
A supreme administrative court is the highest court in a country with jurisdiction over lower administrative courts and the administrative decisions of the authorities, but not the legislative decisions (laws) made by the government (which are unde ...
in Brno.
He started writing books in 2001. His first two works of fiction were published in 2003 and 2004, and he then started writing non-fiction works about modern European and Czech history. In 2005 the ''Vyšehrad'' publishing house published his first non-fiction book, ''Czechs in the Wehrmacht'', which was soon reprinted.
Many narrative publications followed - called ''museums in a book'' - that discuss the key events of the 20th century, focusing mainly on European and Czech history. These publications in large format differ from classical books due to their more elaborate graphic design and legibility of the texts. They contain a large number of photographs, and separately printed appendices - facsimiles of archival material and DVDs with contemporary radio broadcasts.
They are used as teaching aids in schools. As of 2012, Emmert has released nine books of this sort, some of which have been reprinted, won awards or been translated into English (''The Holocaust''). The publication ''Fateful Eights in Our History'' was awarded the E. E. Kisch Prize by the Association of Writers in 2009.
Emmert is an author of thirty books (2018), including technical legal literature. He is the co-author of a high school textbook on social science and an author of commentaries and journalistic contributions in the daily press and expert articles and studies in the domains of history, law and international politics in technical papers and in collections.
He contributed as an expert adviser on the preparation of the 2011 Czech historical film ''
Lidice
Lidice (; ) is a municipality and village in Kladno District in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 600 inhabitants.
Lidice is built near the site of the previous village, which was completely destroyed on 10 June 19 ...
''.
Books
* 2021 - ''Havel.''
* 2021 - ''Czechs in the German Wehrmacht.'' In German.
* 2020 - ''Het Oostfront 1941-1945.'' In Dutch.
* 2020 - ''US Army in Czechoslovakia.''
* 2019 - ''De Wehrmacht in de jaren 1935-1945.'' In Dutch.
* 2019 - ''De Holocaust.'' In Dutch.
* 2019 - ''Modern Czech History.''
* 2019 - ''Velvet Revolution. The Road to Freedom.''
* 2018 - ''The Czechoslovak Legion in Russia.''
* 2018 - ''The Birth of the Czechoslovak Republic: The National Revolution of 1918.''
* 2018 - ''Breakthrough eights 1918-1938-1948-1968.''
* 2017 - ''T. G. Masaryk: Thinker and President.''
* 2017 - ''The Wehrmacht: A German Soldier’s Service.''
* 2016 - ''Zikmund and Hanzelka: Around the World in a Tatra Car.'' Bestseller.
* 2016 - ''The German Occupation of the Czech Lands.''
* 2016 - ''Citizenship in the Czech Republic in the Past and the Present.'' Technical monograph. Legal literature (history of law).
* 2015 - ''Mobilization in 1938: We Wanted to Defend Ourselves!''
* 2015 - ''The Czechoslovak Resistance during the Second World War.''
* 2014 - ''Czechoslovak Legionaries during the First World War.''
* 2014 - ''TGM.'' 2nd edition 2020.
* 2013 - ''The Eastern Front.''
* 2012 - ''Guidebook to Czech History of the 20th Century.'' 2nd edition 2019.
* 2012 - ''Vaclav Havel 1936-2011.'' Museum in a book.
* 2012 - ''The Czechoslovak Foreign Resistance Movement in the West in World War II.'' Museum in a book.
* 2011 - ''The Czech Republic and Dual Nationality.'' Technical monograph. Legal literature (history of law). 2nd edition 2014.
* 2009 - ''The Velvet Revolution. The Chronicle of the Fall of Communism 1989.'' Museum in a book.
* 2008 - ''Fateful Eights in Our History.'' Bestseller from the "museums in a book" series. The book won the E. E. Kisch Award in 2009.
* 2008 - ''1918 The Creation of the Czechoslovak Republic.'' Museum in a book.
* 2008 - ''The assassination of Heydrich.'' Museum in a book. 2nd edition 2016.
* 2008 - ''The Czechs at Tobruk.'' 2nd edition 2014.
* 2007 - ''The Year 1968 in Czechoslovakia.'' Museum in a book. 2nd edition 2017.
* 2007 - ''The Second World War. Czechs and Slovaks.'' Museum in a book.
* 2006 - ''The Holocaust.'' Museum in a book. Bestseller. In English version 2007. 2nd edition in Czech version 2018.
* 2005 - ''Czechs in the Wehrmacht.'' Bestseller. 2nd edition 2013. 3nd edition 2014.
* 2004 - ''The Millennium of False Prophets.'' Adventure novella.
* 2003 - ''Graduate! in social science.'' School textbook.
* 2003 - ''The Fire of Forgotten Gods.'' Adventure novella. American edition in English version 2006. 2nd edition in Czech version 2013.
Books in English
* 2006 - ''The Holocaust'' was the first publication in the ''Museums in a Book'' series. It maps the persecution and extermination of European Jews by the Nazi regime. It contains removable facsimiles. The book won multiple awards and was published in English in 2007.
* 2003 - ''The Fire of Forgotten Gods'' was an adventure novel, translated into English and also published in printed and electronic form in the USA (2006).
Awards
* 2010 - E. E. Kisch Prize awarded by the Association of Writers for the book ''The Velvet Revolution. The Chronicle of the Fall of Communism 1989''.
* 2009 - E. E. Kisch Grand Prize awarded by the Association of Writers for the book ''Fateful Eights in Our History''.
* 2008 - The Prize of the 17th Fall Book Trade Fair in
Havlíčkův Brod
Havlíčkův Brod (, until 1945 Německý Brod; ) is a town in Havlíčkův Brod District in the Vysočina Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 24,000 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected as an urban mon ...
awarded to the book ''The Second World War. Czechs and Slovaks''.
* 2007 - The Prize of the 18th Fall Book Trade Fair in Havlíčkův Brod awarded to the book ''The Holocaust''.
References
External links
Databases of the National Library CZ (in English)Official website of writer František Emmert (in English)Details about his book The Holocaust (in English)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Emmert, Frantisek
1974 births
Czech male writers
Living people
Writers from Brno
Charles University alumni
Masaryk University alumni
Czech journalists