10 Most Famous People From the Czech Republic

Photo by Manfred Werner – Wikimedia

10 Most Famous People from the Czech Republic

The Czech Republic is also known as Czechia and historically known as Bohemia. It might be small in size but has a rich and colourful history.

From time immemorial the Czech people have exhibited their go-getter attitude and have made an impact in many areas internationally.

The Czech Republic boasts many famous bohemians. Here is a list of some of the world-known Czechs

1.      Ivana Trump

Photo by Christopherpeterson – Wikimedia

She is a businesswoman and former model who started her career in her home country, former Czechoslovakia.

She moved to Canada with her first husband, Alfred Winklmayr where her modelling took off. Some of her notable clients included the Got Milk franchise, designer Auckie Sanft, and Eaton’s department store.

She first met Donald Trump while working for the 1976 Olympic Games and they got married the next year. She received $14, million-plus properties on finalizing a divorce from trump in 1992.

Though divorced from former president Trump, she remains the family’s matriarch. She is the mother of Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump.

Post-divorce, she developed a clothing line, fashion jewellery, and beauty products which were sold on QVC London and the Home Shopping Network.

Ivana penned a column for Globe called Ask Ivana Furthermore; she has published many books including works of fiction, self-help, and an autobiography.

2.      Madeleine  Albright

At Wellesley College photo by Brinacor – Wikimedia

Madeleine Albright was born Marie Jana Korbel in Prague, Czechoslovakia was an American public official who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and who was the first woman to hold the cabinet post of U.S.Secretary of State.

Jana Korbel was the daughter of a Czech diplomat who fled home after the Nazis occupied Czechoslovakia in 1939.

Her family immigrated to the United States and gained US citizenship years later.

As secretary of state, Albright pursued an active foreign policy, including the use of military force to pressure dictatorships the world over.

Most notable, was her official trip to North Korea in 2000 to meet with leader Kim Jong Il, the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit that country at that time.

3.      Bedrich Smetana

Circa 1886 photo by Jan Mulac – Wikimedia

A classical music composer. He studied piano and musical theory in Prague and went on to become one of Bohemia’

s most revered composers. Globally, he is best known for his orchestral and operatic works such as the opera The Bartered Bride and for the symphonic cycle Ma vlast (“My Homeland”).

Which portrays the history, legends and landscape of the composer’s native Czech.

It contains the famous symphonic poem  Vltava, also known by its English name  The Moldau.

4.      Franz Kafka

Circa 1906 by Atelier Jacobi – Wikimedia

Kafka was one of the major fiction writers of the 20th century. He was born to a middle-class German-speaking Jewish family in Prague, Bohemia (presently the Czech Republic), Austria–Hungary.

For much of his adult life, he worked in relative obscurity as a sad Prague insurance clerk.

His unique body of writing much of which is incomplete and which was mainly published posthumously is considered to be among the most influential in Western literature.

He is the author of the depressing but universally read novel The Trial. Many use the adjective Kafkaesque to mean “living in absurdity”.  

Visitors to Prague can find a statue of Kafka in the city’s Jewish Quarter. His other notable works include Metamorphosis, The Castle and Amerika.

5.      Gregory Mendel

Photo by Wikimedia

The father of genetics, and the laws of heredity also known as Mendel’s Laws.

He was born in Heinzendorf (now Hynčice, Czech Republic), Mendel received his education at the Augustinian monastery where he also performed experiments with plants.

Mendel proved that the inheritance of traits follows particular laws, which were later named after him.

The significance of Mendel’s work was not recognized until the turn of the 20th century.

Therefore, its rediscovery prompted the foundation of the discipline of genetics.

He coined the terms dominance and recessive, still used in present-day genetics.

6.  Charles IV

Legendary Bohemian King, Holy Roman emperor and chief patron of Prague. Charles ascended the throne in 1346 and during his reign, he made Prague the seat of the Holy Roman Empire and one of Europe’s most advanced cities.

He is known as the Father of the Homeland and many Czechs think of him as an icon, a revered and idealized monarch.

Charles inherited the County of Luxembourg from his father and was elected king of the Kingdom of Bohemia.

In 1347, Charles was crowned King of Bohemia. Nevertheless, Charles IV, the Czech King and Holy Roman Emperor were a man of flesh and blood, with strengths and weaknesses of his own.

During his reign, several key sites were established, including Prague’s Charles University in Prague, the Charles Bridge and the spa town of Karlovy Vary.

7.  Tom Stoppard

Photo by Kondrashkin B. E – Wikimedia

Playwright Sir Tom Stoppard was born Tomás Straüssler on 3 July 1937 in Zlín, Czechoslovakia.

He grew up in Singapore and India during the Second World War. Stoppard moved to England in 1946 with his mother and stepfather. His father died in Singapore.

Educated at schools in Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire, he became a journalist.

He began writing plays for radio and television, including The Dissolution of Dominic Boot (1964), A Walk on the Water, televised in 1963, and The Stand-Ins, later revised as The Real Inspector Hound (1968). Albert’s Bridge (1968) was the first broadcast by BBC Radio in 1967.

Stoppard received his knighthood in 1997. His latest plays include Heroes (2005), Rock ‘n’ Roll (2006) and The Hard Problem (2015).

He has written the screenplays for adaptations of Anna Karenina (2012) and Tulip Fever (2014) and co-wrote the screenplay for Shakespeare in Love (1998).

8.      President Vaclav Havel

Photo Courtesy of IMF – Wikimedia

The last president of Czechoslovakia and the first president of the Czech Republic,  Vaclav Havel is one of the country’s most famous sons.

He started as a playwright, then became more involved in politics. In the Prague spring of 1968, he emerges as a leading dissident, a founder of Charter 77 and Vons (the Czech acronym of Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Prosecuted).

He was imprisoned severally but finally,  became the voice of the people that, after 20 years of resentment, exploded in Wenceslas Square. 

They postered all of freezing Prague with the slogan Havel na Hrad! (Havel to the Castle!) and indeed send him across the river and up the hill to the castle as president of the reborn republic.

9.  Martina Navratilova- Tennis Player

Photo by John Mathew Smith – Wikimedia

She is a Czechoslovakian and American former professional tennis player and coach. Widely considered among the greatest tennis players of all time in the course of a career that spanned an amazing four decades.

She has won an impressive 18 Grand Slam singles titles and nine Wimbledon singles championships.

She’s also the only player in the history of the sport to be number one in both singles and doubles for over 200 weeks.

Martina played her games with energy, passion, and emotion. She, more than anyone else took women’s tennis to an entirely new level with her speed, aggression, and fitness.

A legendary tennis champion, She is undeniably one of the greatest athletes of all time.

10. Jaromir Jagr- Ice Hockey Player

Photo by S Yume – Wikimedia

Jagr is a Czech professional ice hockey player and owner of HC Kladno of the Czech Extraliga (ELH).

He has previously played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Jagr has the second-most points in National Hockey League (NHL) history, after the great Wayne Gretzky.

He is one of the greatest professional hockey players of all time. Jagr is a member of the Triple Gold Club, individuals who have won the Stanley Cup, the Ice Hockey World Championships and the Olympic gold medal in ice hockey.

A true hockey legend and a very talented right-winger with excellent offensive skills.

The city of a hundred spires indeed has many famous sons and daughters.

From politicians, composers sports stars to royalty. The country has also exported its best brains globally.

Undoubtedly, The Czech Republic is a powerhouse of famous persons.