Friday Men

The meetings of Friday Men were attended by two Czechoslovak Presidents: Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk

and Edvard Beneš, who joined after World War II, when Čapek's wife Olga Scheinpflugová attempted to revive the meetings.^[1]

The meetings were held in the house of Čapek brothers in Prague 10, Vinohrady.

The Friday Men (Czech: Pátečníci, German: Die Freitagsrunde) were a Czech intellectual and political circle that met in the garden of Karel Čapek's Prague house on Friday afternoons from 1921 till Čapek's death in 1938. The group also sometimes met in Café Slavia.

A cartoon by Adolf Hoffmeister shows in the first row Ferdinand Peroutka, Jan Blahoslav Kozák [cs], editor of the Prager Presse Arne Laurin, then in the second row: Karl Kraus, František Langer, Karel Čapek, theatre critic Josef Kodíček, Josef Macek [cs], and then in the third row Josef Čapek, Vladislav Vančura, Tomáš Masaryk, Edvard Beneš, Karel Poláček, and finally in the fourth row journalist František Kubka, Josef Kopta, Dr. L. Procházka, Vilem Mathesius, and historian Josef Šusta [cs]. No women attended.^[2]

Čapek's wife Olga Scheinpflugová attempted to revive the meetings after World War II.^[1] Among post-war participants were Hugo Haas, Jaroslav Seifert, František Langer and Vlado Clementis.^[1]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Ulč, Ota (19 May 2011). "Radio Svobodná Evropa, Julius Firt, pátečníci" (in Czech). Neviditelný pes. Retrieved 17 April 2012.
^ Andrea Orzoff Battle for the Castle: The Myth of Czechoslovakia in Europe, 1914-1948 Stanford University. Dept. of History 2009 p89 Adolf Hoffmeister's cartoon of the Friday Men. p90 "Other journalistic members included Prager Presse chief editor Arne Laurin and reporter František Kubka; Josef Kodícek, Tribuna drama critic and theater director; and friendly reporters from hostile papers, such as Národní listy's Karel ..."

[Ulc-1] Ulč, Ota (19 May 2011). "Radio Svobodná Evropa, Julius Firt, pátečníci" (in Czech). Neviditelný pes. Retrieved 17 April 2012.

[2] Andrea Orzoff Battle for the Castle: The Myth of Czechoslovakia in Europe, 1914-1948 Stanford University. Dept. of History 2009 p89 Adolf Hoffmeister's cartoon of the Friday Men. p90 "Other journalistic members included Prager Presse chief editor Arne Laurin and reporter František Kubka; Josef Kodícek, Tribuna drama critic and theater director; and friendly reporters from hostile papers, such as Národní listy's Karel ..."

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