CZECH VEXILLOLOGICAL PAGES
PŘIPRAVILO STŘEDISKO VEXILOLOGICKÝCH INFORMACÍ
PREPARED BY FLAG DATA CENTRE
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WHO WE ARE?
The Vexillological Club of Prague was established in 1972 in order to associate all people interested in research, registration, documentation and even design of flags and banners, i.e. in a relatively new scientific discipline known as vexillology. Josef Česák made acquainted Czech flag-friends with this term in 1965 already. During late sixties of the 20th century, new state flags had been carefully observed and commented by a popular scientific geographical magazine Lidé a země (People and the Earth) published in Prague. It started to spread information by Ludvík Mucha that was dedicated to many contemporarily arisen national flags. He had also to answer many questions provided by the vexillologically orientated readers of this magazine. Finally, a group of persons that had been permanently interested in subject of flags was gathered by the means of their correspondence with Mr. Mucha. They became the founding members of the Vexillological Club that was established under the aegis of the House of Culture of Prague 3 on their meeting held on 29.1.1972. At first, the Club had 31 members and Ludvík Mucha was elected for its President. After adoption of a new statute and its registration in 1992, the Club became entirely independent association, number of whose members surmounted 100. On 2.4.2005 its name was changed to the Czech Vexillological Society (CVS). 1972-1989 When a legal basis had been achieved, members of the board turned their activity to the task to get some publication platform for a new entity. So, the bulletin Vexilologie came into the world in the form of a triple-issue No. 1-3 in September 1972. The opening article by Josef Česák has been named symbolically What´s vexillology? A necessity to speak with a universal professional language called for a creation of the Czech vexillological terminology. It was enabled through a special brochure written by Zbyšek Svoboda that was edited almost simultaneously with the earliest issues of our bulletin. Contents of the quarterly published bulletin express conception of the CVS´s vexillological activities. This conception means to inform our members quickly and thoroughly about new state flags and state arms because they are a main topic of interest of the almost all members of our association. The first basic special aim of the club was to make a complete list of the flags of all Czechoslovak towns. This research was realized under leadership of Ludvík Mucha between 1976-1979; the results had been published in few issues of Vexilologie (Nos. 28, 32, 33, 37, and 38). They proved existence of more than 210 municipal flags in Czechoslovakia. Another broad inquiry was involved in the flags of Czechoslovak sport clubs in the late 1980´s. Jaroslav Martykán and regional delegates organized this examination by using of universal questionnaires. He published its conclusion in Vexilologie Nos. 71-74, 76, and 78. Naturally, since the very beginning of the Club existence we concentrated our attention to the Czechoslovak state flag. Similarly to those of Czechia and Slovakia, it was dealt by the most competent Czech and Slovak authors: Ludvík Mucha, Zbyšek Svoboda, Aleš Brožek, Jiří Louda, Ladislav Vrteľ, Zdenko Alexy (Vexilologie Nos. 36, 78-80, 91, 115). Aleš Brožek has prepared a list of foreign flag books available in the Czechoslovak libraries that is a significant contribution to our studies. It is based on the excerption of the Czech and Slovak libraries catalogues (Vexilologie Nos. 14 and 60). Still underestimated work seems to be an extensive study by Jiří Januš on the Proto-Slavonic and ancient Bohemian vexillological objects. It is unusually well supported by an evidence of original sources (Vexilologie Nos. 46, 48-50). However, not less valuable are the Outlines of the earliest history of flags written by Jaroslav Martykán that are based on thorough knowledge of the inter-disciplinary literature of a non-vexillological character (Vexilologie Nos. 40 and 41). An extensive set of articles written by Jiří Tenora and dealing flags used in the former German Democratic Republic (Vexilologie Nos. 53, 54, 57, 58, 65, and 66) means a real pioneer work possessing a tenacious historical value. The Martykán´s overview of the flags used by the world heads of states (Vexilologie Nos. 69-74) found also a positive reflection among our readers. Many new states and territories using their own flags appeared on a territory of the former Soviet Union after its disintegration. Therefore, many articles written by the leading Russian vexillologists (M.V. Revnivtsev, A.N. Basov, V.A. Lomantsov) and published permanently in our bulletin (e.g. Vexilologie Nos. 102, 104, 112, 120, 128, 133, and 135) are the most reliable and well-proved sources of information on this topic for all non-Russian vexillologists over the world. From the latest period, the monothematic issues of Vexilologie dealing a history of the national symbols in Congo (Vexilologie No. 109), Afghanistan (Vexilologie No. 113) or Venezuela (Vexilologie No. 122) written by Pavel Fojtík and Jaroslav Martykán or a history of the European Union flag (Vexilologie No. 132) by Jiří Tenora met a positive echo among the readers. The editorial board ensures regular publication of the bulletin; it consists of the CVS's board and it is presided by Ludvík Mucha. Since the earliest issues, responsibility of the editor-in-chief is in the hands of Aleš Brožek, except of period 1975-1983 when executed by Jaroslav Martykán. 1989-1996 Political changes in our homeland were also reflected in the status and activities of our association bearing a traditional name of "the club" so far. Due to many new media available to our members after 1989, we could cancel publication of the so-called Vexillological letters prepared annually by Pavel Fojtík since 1975. They formed a regular attachment to the bulletin providing our readers with the most important world political events that lead sometimes to the origin of new flags. Instead of the previous letters, the Vexilologie subscribers have received a Czech version of the non-periodical Vexilokontakt. It is a non-regular attachment to the bulletin that brings the up-to-date information on flags since 1989. Since its foundation in 1972, the Czech Vexillological Society has paid a great importance to the relations with the foreign vexillological associations and to the richest possible exchange of their bulletins. We have kept on good terms mainly with our friends as Whitney Smith from the U.S. and his Flag Research Center, Klaes Sierksma from the Netherlands and his Vexilla Nostra, Mikhail V. Revnivtsev from the Russian Centre of Vexillology and Heraldry and late William G. Crampton from the U.K. and his Flag Institute. As the Vexillological Club was the first and only specialized association existing and maintaining its activities within the Communist period in the countries of the "Eastern Bloc" many important vexillologists from these countries became the associates of the Club. In the present time, we highly appreciate the attention paid to our activities by the FIAV top officials, namely by FIAV President Michel Lupant and by our fellow associations in Slovakia, Germany, Poland, Russia, and Ukraine. Due to the special partnerships concluded in the mid- 1990´s we are in a close touch with many colleagues from these neighbouring states. Since 1991, when the first official representative of the Vexillological Club was delegated to 14th International Congress of Vexillology in Barcelona and we applied for the Club's membership to the Fédération Internationale des Associations Vexillologiques, more Czech vexillologists take regularly part in these important international events. Our association was admitted to the FIAV within 15th ICV held in Zurich in 1993 where already 6 Czech native participants were present. However, we were recognized by FIAV as "honorary Affiliate" already on July 1, 1991. We also gained many achievements on the "domestic" field, too. The multilingual dictionary named "Terms And Stylistic Constructions Used In Vexillology" in English, German, Czech, Russian, French and Spanish was prepared by Josef Česák and Jiří Tenora and published in 1991. Finally, Ludvík Mucha managed to incorporate entry vexilologie and some other vexillological terms into the Encyclopaedical Dictionary and the Foreign Words Dictionary published in Czech by the Encyclopaedia House Prague in 1993. It has been the first case when this term appeared officially not only in the Czech encyclopaedia but also in the foreign lexicography, as we can judge. However, our association undertook the main task in 1990 when Czechoslovak Parliament passed a new Communities Act. As this law authorizes every municipality in our country to display own arms and flag the relevant steps had to be adopted in the State bureaucracy. The former Heraldic Commission and the present Sub-Committee of the House of Deputies for Heraldry and Vexillology is also attended by many experts, leading members of the CVS - Zbyšek Svoboda, Pavel Fojtík and Petr Exner (previously also Jiří Louda and Aleš Brožek) - included. In this way, the originally leisure hobby of our members grew into the highly professional activity on level of the Parliament of the Czech Republic. On this occasion, mainly activities of Petr Exner and his Flag Data Centre should be stressed because of his semi-official publication of all flags adopted by the Czech communities and granted by the Speaker of the House of Deputies since 1991. Information on his Vexillological lexicon: Flags of the Communities of the Czech Republic you may find under the related web site. He also published the series on regional symbols of Czechia in Vexilologie Nos. 124, 125, 127, 130, and 133. 1996- The Flag Data Centre also initiated an organization of the 1st Czech National Congress of Vexillology in Hradec Králové in 1996. This event became another breaking point in the history of our association. Due to the presence of more than 30 vexillologists from 8 countries many Czech participants got a unique opportunity to meet face-to-face the leading persons of the world vexillology, including its founder W. Smith, and to exchange their views and experience. The 2nd Czech National Congress took place in Ústí nad Labem in 2000. Its organizer Aleš Brožek dedicated this occasion to the co-operation with the German Flag Society, the annual meeting of which passed also parallely in Ústí. The participants of both sessions met together during the 1st Czech-German vexillological meeting. Boom of municipal and regional flags in the region of Central and East Europe became topic of the last 3rd Czech National Congress hosted by Karel Černý in Plzeň in 2004. As previously, the proceedings of this congress have appeared very soon. Discussions held during the 1st National Congress incited another step in the CVS's publishing activities. Since 1997, monothematic Special Issues of Vexilokontakt have provided an English translation of the most important articles published earlier in the Vexilologie bulletin. This yearbook has been edited by Jaroslav Martykán and designed by Petr Exner. The personal experience of a participation in such extraordinary events as both international and national congresses brought also few Czech vexillologists living out of Prague to an idea to establish their own flag institutions. They got a basis for an independent vexillological activities linked and deeply rooted into their membership in the CVS. Except of the already mentioned Flag Data Centre conducted by Peter Exner and its broad publishing (the bi-monthly bulletin vexiINFO, the Vexillological Lexicon, especially parts dealing the innovated Czech vexillological terminology /Z. Svoboda, P. Exner, 2000/ and the Vexillological associations and activities /P. Exner, J. Tenora, 1996/ must be mentioned), the Regional Centre for Vexillology and Heraldry founded by Milan Týma and the Zápisník vexilologie bulletin's editor Karel Černý are active in many fields. They participate in a promotion of vexillology in the local media; they co-operate with the municipalities in designing of their arms and flags (e.g. Jan Tejkal in Silesia) and publish their views on this topic in the local newspapers or even on the FOTW-pages (Jan Zrzavý). Moreover, Karel Černý has annually issued his bulletin Zápisník vexilologie pursuing matter of the communal vexillology in the region of West Bohemia and of the Scandinavian flags, too. At last but not least, the "private vexillological bulletin" Vexilolog is quarterly published by Josef Hubka. It is specialized on a history of flags in one particular state. Some members of the Czech Vexillological Society are also the authors of many flag books. E.g. Ludvík Mucha prepared the first handbook of flags (Flags and Coats of arms per 4 editions both in Czech and English) in 1974. Aleš Brožek wrote his Lexicon of flags and arms of the world in 1998 (also in German), while the book States and Territories of the World (1996, 1998) by Vladimír Liščák and Pavel Fojtík expects its 3rd edition soon. Naturally, the ample activity of the CVS could not been effected without the intensive organizational background and support provided by its board. Within its existence, only 19 members of the Club took turns in this responsibility since 1972. Founder of the Club Ludvík Mucha retained the post of the President until 2003 and also half of the present membership works in the board since the early 1970´s. The second half joined the board in 1990´s. This personal stability seems to be one of the reasons of the generally satisfactory performance of the board and the CVS itself. However, any proposal how to improve our performance is welcomed on the e-mail address of our Webmaster. |
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PŘIPRAVILO STŘEDISKO VEXILOLOGICKÝCH INFORMACÍ |
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