Hotel Central Prague

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Hotel Central (2009)
Detail of the facade
Festsaal (before 1925), left and right of the stage the occasionally veiled figures

The Hotel Central is one of the earliest Art Nouveau buildings in Prague . It is located in Prague 1, Hybernska 10.

Building history

The building was built from 1898 to 1900 by the builder Bělský according to designs by the architects Friedrich Ohmann , Alois Dryák and Bedřich Bendelmayer. In 1925 the hotel's large ballroom was converted into a cinema and in 1930 into a theater . After a restoration in line with listed buildings , the building is used again as a hotel .

Literary

In the large ballroom, which was not only used by guests of the hotel but could also be rented by third parties, a celebration of the Prague Graben-Gymnasium took place on December 2, 1913 on the occasion of the centenary of the Battle of Leipzig . The then high school graduate and later writer Johannes Urzidil processed this celebration into the story Repetent Bäumel . At such celebrations, the naked female figures made of plaster of paris in the hall were covered with black and yellow cloth so as not to "distract from the solemn performances."

In 1911 and 1913, Karl Kraus read from his works several times in the rooms, and Franz Kafka was among the audience at at least one of these events . At the end of 1911, Kafka also attended several theater performances by a Jewish drama group there. Among other things, Martin Buber was a guest speaker at Central in 1909 and Anton Kuh in 1919 .

literature

  • Tomáš Valena, Ulrich Winko, Jeanette Fabian: Prague Architecture and European Modernism , Berlin 2006, p. 13 f. ISBN 3-7861-2505-8 .

Web links

Commons : Hotel Central (Prague)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Black and yellow were the colors of the House of Habsburg, the Austrian imperial family.
  2. ↑ so Urdizil, quoted here from Hartmut Binder: Where Kafka and his friends were guests. Prague 2000, p. 37 f .; The wrapping is confirmed in the memories of the writer Hans Regina von Nack (1894–1976) for the year 1908.
  3. ↑ Reading directory
  4. ↑ Roger Hermes: Franz Kafka: Eine Chronik , 1999, p. 64.
  5. ^ Bettina von Jagow, Oliver Jahraus: Kafka Handbook: Life, Work, Effect , 2008, p. 203.
  6. ↑ Martin Buber: Early Jewish writings 1900-1922 , Gütersloh 2007, p. 415.
  7. ↑ Marek Nekula, Walter Koshaben: Jews between Germans and Czechs , Munich 2006, p. 109.

Coordinates: 50 ° 5 ′ 13.3 "  N , 14 ° 25 ′ 51.2"  E