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Czech Republic – 200th Anniversary of the Birth of Pavel Josef Šafařík
1995 Silver 200 Korun 31mm (13.09 grams) 0.900 Silver (0.3762 oz. ASW)
Reference: KM# 16
ČESKÁ REPUBLIKA 200 KČ 1995, Czech coat of arms, name of the state and date.
PAVEL JOSEF ŠAFAŘÍK 1795-1995, Šafařík bust, his life dates below.
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Pavel Jozef Šafárik (Slovak: Pavol Jozef Šafárik;13 May 1795 – 26 June 1861) was a Slovak philologist, poet, one of the first scientific Slavists; literary historian, historian and ethnographer.
In the papers collection Hlasowé o potřebě jednoty spisowného jazyka pro Čechy, Morawany a Slowáky (“Voices on the necessity of a united standard language for the Bohemians, Moravians and Slovaks”) published by Ján Kollár in 1846, Šafárik moderately criticized Ľudovít Štúr’s introduction of a new Slovak standard language (1843) that replaced the previously used Lutheran standard which was closer to the Czech language (the Slovak Catholics used a different standard). Šafárik – as opposed to most of his Czech colleagues – always considered the Slovaks a separate nation from the Czechs (e.g. explicitly in his works Geschichte der slawischen Sprache… and in Slovanský národopis) but he advocated the use of Slovacized Czech (“Slovak style of the Czech language”) as the only literary language among the Slovak people.
During the Revolution of 1848 he was mainly collecting material for books on the oldest Slavic history. In 1848 he was made head of the University Library of Prague and a masterful professor of Slavonic philology in the University of Prague, but resigned to the latter in 1849 and remained head of the university library only. The reason for this resignation was that during the Revolution of 1848-49 he participated at the Slavic Congress in Prague in June 1848 and thus became suspicious for Austrian authorities. During the absolutistic period following the defeat of the revolution, he lived a secluded life and studied especially older Czech literature and Old Church Slavonic texts and culture.
In 1856/57, as a result of persecution anxieties, overwork, and ill health, he became physically and mentally ill and burned most of his correspondence with important personalities (e.g. with Ján Kollár). In May 1860, his depressions made him jump into the Vltava river, but he was saved. This event produced considerable sensation among the general public. In early October 1860 he asked for retirement from his post as University Library head. The Austrian emperor himself enabled him this in a letter written by his majesty himself and granted him a pension, which corresponded to Šafárik’s previous full pay. Šafárik died in 1861 in Prague and was buried in the evangelical cemetery in Karlín Quarter.
Poetry
Ode festiva… (Levoča, 1814), an ode to the baron and colonel Ondrej Máriassy, the patron of the Kežmarok lyceum, on the occasion of his return from the war against Napoleon
Tatranská múza s lyrou slovanskou (Levoča, 1814) [literally: ‘The Muse of Tatras with a Slavonic Lyre – poems inspired by Classical, contemporaneous European literature (Friedrich Schiller) and by Slovak traditions and legends (Juraj Jánošík)
Scientific works
Promluvení k Slovanům [literally: An address to the Slavs] in: Prvotiny pěkných umění (1817, ?) – inspired by Herder and other national literatures, he calls the Slovaks, Moravians and Bohemians to collect folk songs
Počátkové českého básnictví, obzvláště prozodie (1818, Pressburg), together with František Palacký [literally:Basics of Czech poetry, in particular of the prosody] – deals with technical issues of poetry writing
Novi Graeci non uniti ritus gymnasii neoplate auspicia feliciter capta. Adnexa est oratio Pauli Josephi Schaffarik (1819, Novi Sad)
Písně světské lidu slovenského v Uhřích. Sebrané a vydané od P. J. Šafárika, Jána Blahoslava a jiných. 1-2 (Pest 1823-1827) /Národnie zpiewanky- Pisne swetské Slowáků v Uhrách (1834-1835, Buda), together with Jan Kollár [literally: Profane songs of the Slovak people in the Kingdom of Hungary. Collected and issued by P. J. Šafárik, Ján Blahoslav and others. 1-2 / Folk songs – Profane songs of the Slovaks in the Kingdom of Hungary] –
Geschichte der slawischen Sprache und Literatur nach allen Mundarten (1826, Pest), [literally:History of the Slavic language and literature by all vernaculars] – a huge encyclopedia-style book, the first attempt to give anything like a systematic account of the Slavonic languages as a whole.
Über die Abkunft der Slawen nach Lorenz Surowiecki (1828, Buda) [literally: On the origin of the Slavs according to Lorenz Surowiecki] – aimed to be a reaction the Surowiecki’s text, the text developed into a book on the homeland of the Slavs and challenges modern theory that Slavs were newcomers to Europe in 5th and 6th century AD.
Serbische Lesekörner oder historisch-kritische Beleuchtung der serbischen Mundart (1833, Pest) [literally: Serbian anthology or historical and critical elucidation of the Serbian vernacular] – explanation of the character and development of the Serbian language
Slovanské starožitnosti(1837 + 1865, Prague) [Slavonic Antiquities], his main work, the first bigger book on the culture and history of the Slavs, a second edition (1863) was edited by Josef Jireček (see Family), a continuation was published only after Šafáriks death in Prague in 1865; a Russian, German and Polish translation followed immediately; the main book describes the origin, settlements, localisation and historic events of the Slavs on the basis of an extensive collection of material; inspired by Herder’s opinions, he refused to consider the Slavs as Slaves and barbarian as was frequent at that time especially in German literature; he states that all Slavs have a common ethnicity under old name of Serbs/Sorabs and that before they were known as Veneti/Wends and Illiryans; the book substantially influenced the view of the Slavs, however not enough to change the theory of Slavic migrations to central Europe from Asia
- Monumenta Illyrica (1839, Prague) – monuments of old Southern Slavic literature, which clearly states his views that Slavs are Illyrians
- Die ältesten Denkmäler der böhmischen Sprache… (1840, Prague) [literally: The oldest monuments of Czech language . . . ], together with František Palacký
- Slovanský národopis (1842- 2 editions, Prague) [literally: Slavic ethnology], his second most important work, he sought to give a complete account of Slavonic ethnology; contains basic data on individual Slavic nations, settlements, languages, ethnic borders, and a map, on which the Slavs are formally considered one nation divided into Slavic national units. As he demonstrates: all Slavs were once called Serbs/Sorabs and prior to that Illyrians. Hence, once one nation divided into smaller tribes which later formed countries, two tribes kept their original name: Lusatian Serbs (today a minority in Germany) and Balkan Serbs who live on territories of modern-day Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Hercegovina and parts of Croatia
- Počátkové staročeské mluvnice in: Výbor (1845) [literally: Basics of Old Czech grammar]
- Juridisch – politische Terminologie der slawischen Sprachen Oesterreich (Vienna, 1850) [Legal and political terminology of the Slavic languages in Austria], a dictionary written together with Karel Jaromir Erben, Šafárik and Erben became – by order of Alexander Bach members of a committee for Slavic legal terminology in Austria
- Památky dřevního pisemnictví Jihoslovanů (1851, Prague) [literally: Monuments of old literature of the Southern Slavs] – contains important Old Church Slavonic texts
- Památky hlaholského pisemnictví (1853, Prague) [literally: Monuments of the Glagolitic literature]
- Glagolitische Fragmente (1857, Prague), together with Höfler [literally: Glagolitic fragments]
- Über den Ursprung und die Heimat des Glagolitismus (1858, Prague) [literally: On the origin and the homeland of the Glagolitic script] – here he accepted the view that the Glagolitic alphabet is older than the Cyrillic one
- Geschichte der südslawischen Litteratur1-3 (1864-65, Prague) [literally: History of Southern Slavic literature], edited by Jireček
Collected works & papers
Sebrané spisy P. J. Šafaříka 1-3 (Prague 1862-1863, 1865)
Spisy Pavla Josefa Šafaříka 1 (Bratislava 1938)
 The Czech Republic also known by its short-form name, Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west, Austria to the south, Slovakia to the east and Poland to the northeast. The Czech Republic covers an area of 78,866 square kilometres (30,450 sq mi) with a mostly temperate continental climate and oceanic climate. It is a unitary parliamentary republic, with 10.6 million inhabitants; its capital and largest city is Prague, with 1.3 million residents. Other major cities are Brno, Ostrava, Olomouc and Pilsen. The Czech Republic is a member of the European Union (EU), NATO, the OECD, the United Nations, the OSCE, and the Council of Europe.
It is a developed country with an advanced, high income export-oriented social market economy based in services, manufacturing and innovation. The UNDP ranks the country 14th in inequality-adjusted human development. The Czech Republic is a welfare state with a “continental” European social model, a universal health care system, tuition-free university education and is ranked 14th in the Human Capital Index. It ranks as the 6th safest or most peaceful country and is one of the most non-religious countries in the world, while achieving strong performance in democratic governance.
 The Czech Republic includes the historical territories of Bohemia, Moravia, and Czech Silesia. The Czech state was formed in the late 9th century as the Duchy of Bohemia under the Great Moravian Empire. After the fall of the Empire in 907, the centre of power transferred from Moravia to Bohemia under the Přemyslid dynasty. In 1002, the duchy was formally recognized as an Imperial State of the Holy Roman Empire along with the Kingdom of Germany, the Kingdom of Burgundy, the Kingdom of Italy, and numerous other territories, becoming the Kingdom of Bohemia in 1198 and reaching its greatest territorial extent in the 14th century. Beside Bohemia itself, the King of Bohemia ruled the lands of the Bohemian Crown, holding a vote in the election of the Holy Roman Emperor; and Prague was the imperial seat in periods between the 14th and 17th century. In the Hussite Wars of the 15th century driven by the Protestant Bohemian Reformation, the kingdom faced economic embargoes and defeated five consecutive crusades proclaimed by the leaders of the Catholic Church.
 Following the Battle of Mohács in 1526, the whole Crown of Bohemia was gradually integrated into the Habsburg Monarchy alongside the Archduchy of Austria and the Kingdom of Hungary. The Protestant Bohemian Revolt (1618-20) against the Catholic Habsburgs led to the Thirty Years’ War. After the Battle of the White Mountain, the Habsburgs consolidated their rule, eradicated Protestantism and reimposed Catholicism, and also adopted a policy of gradual Germanization. This contributed to the anti-Habsburg sentiment. A long history of resentment of the Catholic Church followed and still continues. With the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, the Bohemian Kingdom became part of the German Confederation 1815-1866 as part of Austrian Empire (1804 to 1867) and the Czech language experienced a revival as a consequence of widespread romantic nationalism. In the 19th century, the Czech lands became the industrial powerhouse of the monarchy and were subsequently the core of the Republic of Czechoslovakia, which was formed in 1918 following the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after World War I.
Czechoslovakia remained the only democracy in this part of Europe in the interwar period. However, the Czech part of Czechoslovakia was occupied by Germany in World War II, while the Slovak region became the Slovak Republic; Czechoslovakia was liberated in 1945 by the armies of the Soviet Union and the United States. Most of the three millions of the German-speaking minority were expelled following the war. The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia won the 1946 elections and after the 1948 coup d’état, Czechoslovakia became a one-party communist state under Soviet influence. In 1968, increasing dissatisfaction with the regime culminated in a reform movement known as the Prague Spring, which ended in a Soviet-led invasion. Czechoslovakia remained occupied until the 1989 Velvet Revolution, when the communist regime collapsed and market economy was reintroduced. On 1 January 1993, Czechoslovakia peacefully dissolved, with its constituent states becoming the independent states of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The Czech Republic joined NATO in 1999 and the EU in 2004.
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