Čechy

The present contribution takes a relatively unconventional angle for its investigation of the abrupt shift in Czech unofficial journalistic culture from severely repressed samizdat before November 1989 to significant social force in the first years of the subsequent decade. It takes as its locus the Prague office building at the address Bolzanova 7, a former Czech Rail property assigned to the samizdat-based independent journalistic agency Informační servis at the end of 1990.

The aim of this paper is a description of domestic football fanzine production in comparison with developments abroad. Zines from the scenes of football fans represent a key source for mapping their histories. While fanzine production is not a new topic in international critical literature, in the Czech Republic it has received only limited attention. The majority of football fanzines in the Czech Republic arose in the milieus of specific subcultural groups – football hooligans and ultras.

Taking a specific case of the subculture of the Czech “White Power skinheads” in the 1990s, this paper engages with the role of zines, zine-makers and other contributors (such as readers whose letters to the editors were published, or interviewees) in the (re)production of subcultural capital and the formation and reproduction of alternative hierarchies in the subcultural field.

This article compares Czechoslovak, Czech and Slovenian hardcore punk fanzine scenes from the 1980s up to the present, emphasising in particular their connections to the various anti-authoritarian movements with which they share the common idea of do-it-yourself (DIY). The comparison is embodied in the histories of above-mentioned scenes and in the context of their legacies. Fanzines are the author’s main sources mainly because cultural and political activities were connected on their pages.

In late January or early February 1826, Count Hugo (II) Karl Eduard of Salm-Reifferscheidt visited the Prague studio of the painter Joseph Führich to discuss commissioning two paintings from the artist on a theme from the drama The Life and Death of St Genevieve by German romantic writer Ludwig Tieck. The paintings were intended for Salm's friend, historian, writer and publisher Joseph von Hormayr.