Otto Urban (historian)

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Otto Urban (born December 9, 1938 in Wagstadt ; † May 7, 1996 in Prague ) was a Czech historian.

Life

Urban was born in a town on the outskirts of Kuhländchen, the son of a master builder who had attended both German and Czech schools. Before 1945 he attended a German school for a short time, and the Czech one after the war. His uncle Alois, who was married to a German, was expelled in 1945.

After graduating from high school in 1955, Otto went to Charles University in Prague to study history. He completed his studies in 1960 with a thesis on the Czech social democratic politician Bohumír Šmeral . After his military service, he returned to the university in 1964 and began his academic career. In 1968 he completed his dissertation on the theory and practice of socialism in the works of Viktor Adler , Eduard Bernstein and Karl Kautsky . Due to the political events surrounding the suppression of the Prague Spring , his further career was blocked. It was only after 1974 that he was able to publish again and return to university teaching. At least he managed to spend 1969/70 as a Humboldt fellow at the Institute for Economic and Social History at the University of Heidelberg with Werner Conze .

As a result of his two works on Capitalism and Czech Society from 1978 and in particular on Czech Society from 1848 to 1918 from 1982, his reputation also grew beyond the borders of Czechoslovakia. However, it was only after the political change in 1989 that he managed to continue his university career. In 1990 he was appointed professor of Czech and Slovak history, and in 1992 he was appointed professor of modern Czechoslovak history at Charles University. In those years he was also awarded various prizes, including the Anton Gindely Prize (1990), the Egon Erwin Kisch Prize of the Prague Writers' Community (1992) and the Prize of the Czech Minister of Education (1992).

Urban was since 1961 with Miluše, geb. Klimeš, married. He had two children.

Works

  • Capitalism a česká společnost. K otázkám formování české společnosti v 19. století, Prague 1978.
  • Česká společnost 1848–1918, Prague 1982.
  • Vzpomínka na Hradec Králové. Drama roku 1866, Prague 1986.
  • České a slovenské dějiny do roku 1918, Prague 1991.
  • František Josef I., Prague 1991.

literature

  • Badatelsképroblemémy 19. století: sborník k nedožitým šedesátinám profesora Otty Urbana, ed. v. Martin Sekera, Prague 2000.
  • Richard Georg Plaschka : Introduction, in: The Czech Society 1848-1918, Vol. 1, Vienna (inter alia) 1994, pp. 15-28
  • Jan Havránek : Dílo Otty Urbana v contextu soudobé historiography, in: Badatelsképroblemémy 19. století. Sborník k nedožitým šedesátinám profesora Otty Urbana, Praha 2000, pp. 39–44.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Urban, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Czechoslovak historian
DATE OF BIRTH December 9, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH Bílovec
DATE OF DEATH May 7, 1996
Place of death Prague