|
SOCIETY / PEOPLE
List: Top Ten Greatest Czechs
Date: June 2005
Source: Viewers poll by Ceská televize (Czech national public service broadcaster)
Base: No data on numbers voting.
Notes: Největší Čech (The Greatest Czech) was the Czech version of the BBC television programme 'Great Britons'. The nomination votes took place during January 2005, the top 100 were announced in May and the final evening took place in June 2005. In the first round of nominations a fictional character won, Jára da Cimrman, a putative amalgam of the Czech everyman. Cimrman was a playwright, poet, composer, teacher, explorer, philosopher, inventor, detective and sportsman. Despite a popular petition and much national discussion he remained banned from the poll on account of his non-reality. They also did a parallel poll on the 10 worst villains, with the worst being Klement Gottwald - a communist ex-prime minister during the Stalin years.
|
Rank
|
Name
|
Notes
|
|
1
|
King Charles IV
|
Holy Roman Emperor and 14th century King of Bohemia
|
|
2
|
Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk
|
First President of Czechoslovakia
|
|
3
|
Václav Havel
|
Writer, dramatist and leading figure in the Velvet Revolution
|
|
4
|
Jan Amos Komenský
|
Teacher, scientist and writer
|
|
5
|
Jan Žižka
|
General and leader of the Hussites
|
|
6
|
Jan Werich
|
Actor, playwright and writer
|
|
7
|
Jan Hus
|
Religious thinker and reformer
|
|
8
|
Antonín Dvořák
|
Composer
|
|
9
|
Karel Čapek
|
Writer
|
|
10
|
Božena Němcová
|
Writer
|
|
|