Segment from Československý zvukový týdeník Aktualita (Czechoslovak Aktualita Sound Newsreel) 1942, issue no. 17, captures the presentation of a gift Ï Ambulance Train no. 751 Ï from the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia to Adolf Hitler and the German army. The train handover took place at Prague Main Railway Station on 20 April 1942, the birthday of Adolf Hitler. Cars arrive in front of Prague Main Railway Station. Acting Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich enters the train station. State President Emil Hácha gives a speech in the festively decorated railway hall. In response, Heydrich shakes his hand. The event is witnessed by a delegation of railway workers. The train crew lines up on the station platform. Heydrich enters the train with his entourage and inspects the sleeping cars, the operating carriage, the kitchen, and the sick bay. The inspection of the ambulance train is attended by Protectorate Prime Minister Jaroslav Krejčí and Minister of Education and People´s Enlightenment Emanuel Moravec. According to the voiceover, the train was made in a railway workshop in Prague-Bubny in record time. It consisted of 28 carriages and 20 hospital carriages, was 410 metres long, weighed 545 tons and had capacity for 280 wounded.
Report from the celebration of the fourteenth anniversary of the Czechoslovak Republic held in front of the Municipal House in Prague on 28 October 1932. The gathering was attended by troops and legionnaires. A Philips Radio broadcast vehicle stands in front of the entrance. The segment includes a silent recording of a speech given by the Former Secretary of the National Committee and current Chairman of the Senate František Soukup.
The segment captures events preceding the installation and subsequent unveiling of the memorial statue of French historian and Slavonic scholar Ernest Denis on Lesser Town Square in Prague. Members of the Commission for the Construction of Denis´s Memorial use a maquette to find the best place for the statue. The event is witnessed by the artist, the sculptor Karel Dvořák. A shot of Dvořák in his studio in the courtyard of a house on Janáček Embankment in Smíchov, Prague. Digging works for the pedestal followed by the unveiling of the memorial on 27 October 1928, the eve of the tenth anniversary of the Czechoslovak Republic. President Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, Minister of Education Milan Hodža, Prague Mayor Karel Baxa, General Jan Syrový, MP Antonín Uhlíř, French General Eugene Mittelhauser, French politician Alfred Oberkirch and others are present on the grandstand. Speech by Minister of Foreign Affairs Edvard Beneš. An image of the President T. G. Masaryk and Edvard Beneš.
The segment of Československý zvukový týdeník Aktualita (Czechoslovak Aktualita Sound Newsreel), 1938, issue no. 38 offers an excerpt from the radio speech delivered by President Edvard Beneš on 10 September 1938, in which he addresses the German minority in Czechoslovakia.
Segment from Czechoslovak Aktualita Sound Newsreel 1943, issue no. 24, depicts a memorial act in V Holešovičkách, the Prague street that was the scene of the assassination of Acting Reich Protector Heydrich. The event was held to commemorate the first anniversary of the assassination in June 1943. Footage from a ceremonial meeting held on 4 June 1943 in the Prague City Council´ reception hall in the Municipal Library building. Deputy Mayor of Prague, J. Pfitzner, presents historian Josef Kliment with the City of Prague Foundation´s Heydrich Memorial Award for spreading the ideas of the Reich. The event is attended by Prime Minister of the Protectorate Government J. Krejčí and Minister of Education and People´s Enlightenment E. Moravec. Illustrative footage from a workers´ holiday organized by the Heydrich Foundation for Workers´ Recuperation, where the Protector´s legacy is being commemorated. The speech is followed by holidaymakers performing the Nazi salute. A ceremony to honour Heydrich is held in the Spanish Hall of Prague Castle. Acting Reich Protector K. Daluege enters the hall with Heydrich´s widow Lina and her children. The event is attended by K. H. Frank, E. Hácha, J. Krejčí, E. Moravec and workers´ and peasants´ representatives. The German Philharmonic performs Ludwig van Beethoven´s symphonic work Coriolanus. The piece is followed by a speech by Daluege, which he symbolically concludes with "a greeting to my friend" Heydrich (authentic sound).
The segment captures the funeral of the former Minister of Agricultural, the agrarian politician Otakar Srdínko, held in Prague on 24 December 1930. The footage starts with archival images of Otakar Srdínko delivering a speech. The funeral procession moves through Prague and stops in front of the building of the Institute of Histology and Embryology (now the Purkyně Institute) at Albertov. The mourners include Minister of Defence Karel Viškovský, Prime Minister František Udržal and the Chairman of the Chamber of Deputies Jan Malypetr.
Literary critic and scholar Jan Mukařovský talks at an evening event organised by the Czechoslovak Committee of the Defenders of Peace and held at the Rudolfinum in Prague to mark the 500th anniversary of the birth of Leonardo da Vinci in a fragmented segment from Československé filmové noviny (Czechoslovak Film News) 1952, issue no. 26. Mukařovský presents the Peace Award to the makers of the Soviet-German documentary film Přátelství zvítězí (Friendship Will Overcome, 1951) in a fragmented segment from Československé filmové noviny (Czechoslovak Film News) 1952, issue no. 33. Mukařovský opens a ceremonial session to mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of Victor Hugo held at the Rudolfinum on 21 February in a fragmented segment from Československé filmové noviny (Czechoslovak Film News) 1952, issue no. 9.
Lawyer Josef Scheiner, the head of the Sokolská obec (Sokol Society), watching Sokol members exercising in the courtyard of Tyrš House. Scheiner giving a speech on Old Town Square in Prague during the revolutionary days of October 1918. The footage includes images of politicians Václav Klofáč, Gustav Habrman and František Udržal.
Poet Josef Svatopluk Machar in his house in Prague-Střešovice. Machar at a book signing in the Aventinská Mansarda exhibition hall in 1930. Machar with a group of people in front of the Bohemian Diet in Sněmovní Street during the revolutionary days of 1918.
Mayor of Prague Karel Baxa with entrepreneurs Miloš and Václav Havel as they walk through the building site of Barrandov Film Studios. Baxa in a silent shot during his speech.
Sculptor Karel Pokorný giving a speech about Mikoláš Aleš in a fragmented segment from Československé filmové noviny (Czechoslovak Film News) 1946, issue no. 52. Pokorný working on a bust of J. V. Stalin in a segment from Československé filmové noviny (Czechoslovak Film News) 1952, issue no. 51.
Segment from Československý zvukový týdeník Aktualita (Czechoslovak Aktualita Sound Newsreel) 1942, issue no. 25, depicts a public demonstration on Cabbage Market Square (Zelný trh) in Brno on 12 June 1942, which was to vociferously condemn the assassination of Acting Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich. The gathering was attended by 12,000 people. A grandstand in the middle of the crowded square is decorated with the Imperial Eagle and the national emblems of Bohemia and Moravia. The main speaker, Minister of Education and People´s Enlightenment Emanuel Moravec, encourages Czech people to take into account the past. The segment concludes with the Czech anthem (authentic sound and singing) with images of people with arms raised in the Nazi salute.
Segment from Československý zvukový týdeník Aktualita (Czechoslovak Aktualita Sound Newsreel) 1942, issue no. 27A, depicts a public manifestation held at the Chapel of Saint Anthony of Padua on Blatnická Mountain in Moravian Slovakia on 28 June 1942, which was to unequivocally condemn the assassination of Acting Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich. The gathering was attended by 35,000 to 40,000 people. Footage of the participants in festive folk costumes. The main organizer of the event, Minister of Education and People´s Enlightenment Emanuel Moravec, delivers a speech from a grandstand (silent). People wearing Moravian-Slovakian folk costumes with arms raised in the Nazi salute.
Segment from Československý zvukový týdeník Aktualita (Czechoslovak Aktualita Sound Newsreel) 1942, issue no. 27A, captures a public manifestation held in Moravská Ostrava on 30 June 1942, which was to unequivocally condemn the assassination of Acting Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich. The gathering was attended by more than 80,000 people. Footage of miners in their uniforms. Miner Karel Juříček and Minister of Education and People´s Enlightenment Emanuel Moravec (silent) speak from a grandstand. The segment concludes with the Czech anthem (authentic sound), supplemented with images of people with arms raised in the Nazi salute.
Segment from Český zvukový týdeník Aktualita (Czech Aktualita Sound Newsreel) issue no. 21A, B from 1944 captures a solemn ceremony organised by the Board of Trustees for the Education of Youth to mark the 60th anniversary of Bedřich Smetana´s death, which took place at the composer´s grave on 11 May. The fanfare from the opera Dalibor was followed by a speech by General Secretary of the Board František Teuner, who also laid a wreath on Smetana´s grave. The choir of Prague teachers under the baton of Metod Doležal sang the chorus called "Dowry". The ceremony was concluded with the Nazi salute.
Music critic Otakar Šourek on Bohumil Veselý's balcony. Otakar Šourek at Slavín Cemetery in Vyšehrad in a segment from Československý filmový týdeník (Czechoslovak Film Weekly Newsreel) 1954, issue no. 20.
The segment of Československý zvukový týdeník Aktualita (Czechoslovak Aktualita Sound Newsreel), 1938, issue no. 38 offers a part of the radio speech delivered by President Edvard Beneš on 10 September 1938, in which he urges Czech citizens to stay calm and hopeful for the future.
The segment of Československý zvukový týdeník Aktualita (Czechoslovak Aktualita Sound Newsreel), 1938, issue no. 22 shows President Edvard Beneš with his wife Hana and Minister of Defence František Machník during a visit to Tábor on 21 May 1938.
Segment from Český zvukový týdeník Aktualita (Czech Aktualita Sound Newsreel) issue no. 26B from 1943, shot on 20 June, captures a traditional church ceremony at the Saint Anthony pilgrimage site. The Board of Trustees for the Education of Youth exploited its popularity and organised a political rally at the venue, with speeches by the Uherské Hradiště District Representative of the Board Jan Ryba and General Secretary of the Board František Teuner. Then, the youth of Moravian Slovakia paid homage to Adolf Hitler. The festivities concluded with a presentation of Moravian Slovak dances performed by couples wearing folk costumes.