Klára Benešovská

Kauza Václav Mencl: někdo musí z kola ven. Příspěvek k výuce dějin umění v letech 1938–1952

The article focuses on Václav Mencl (1905–1978) as a teacher at the Philosophical Faculty of Charles University in Prague, where he began working after his forced relocation from Bratislava in the spring 1939 after the establishment of the Slovak State. Mencl was allowed to transfer his venia docendi to Prague from the university in Bratislava, where, after gaining his habilitation in 1938, he had been expected to replace the recently deceased František Žákavec. He began giving lectures at the Institute of Art History in the winter semester of 1939. After the Germans closed the universities, Mencl, besides working at the Office for Historical Preservation at the Ministry of Education and National Awareness in Prague, concentrated on his studies and documentation of medieval architecture and on publishing his findings, just as he had been doing in Slovakia. In May 1945 he returned to teaching at the faculty again, giving lectures on the history of medieval architecture in Czechoslovakia and introducing students to working in the field. However, his popularity and initiatives did not appeal to the head of the institute, Antonín Matějček. These disagreements came to a head when Matějček tried to prevent the Mencls and some of his students from travelling to France by sending a letter to the Cultural Attaché of the French Embassy in Prague. The President of Czechoslovakia had awarded them with a scholarship for a study trip to France as a reward for preparing the exhibition Prague Castle in the Middle Ages. In his letter, Matějček acussed Mencl of accepting the trip against university regulations. The situation was cleared up in explanatory letters between the university, the Office of the President of Czechoslovakia, the French Embassy, and the Ministry of Education, and the expedition left for France in spring 1947. The time for revenge came after February 1948, when Matějček’s devoted communiist students Jaromír Neumann and Milena Jagrová wrote a negative review of Mencl’s book Czech Architecture of the Luxembourg Period, condemning it as ideologically unsound. Mencl left the university in 1952, but fortunately was able to continue working at the Office for Historical Preservation, and also with students till 1978.

< back