Pravda vítězí

The motto on the standard of the Czech President

Monument to soldiers of the Czechoslovak legions in France

Pravda vítězí ( German Truth wins , Latin Veritas Vincit ) is the motto of the Czech Republic and the former Czechoslovakia .

history

The motto goes back to a letter from Jan Hus to Johann von Rabstein in 1413, in which he wrote: Super omnia vincit veritas (Truth wins over everything). One possible source is the apocryphal 3 Esdras 3:12, which says: But wins over everything the truth.

In 1916 Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk , who later became the first Czechoslovak President, designed the motto in its current form. In 1918 it was declared the official motto of Czechoslovakia and was this until 1992, whereby after the Velvet Revolution from 1990 to 1992 the Latin version Veritas Vincit was used. Pravda vítězí is the current motto of the Czech President and is enshrined in the constitution as a national symbol .

literature

• Czech Republic - Constitution. Servat.unibe.ch. December 16, 1992. Retrieved November 6, 2011.

Web links

Commons : Pravda vítězí  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ Speech at the symposium on Master Jan Hus Václav Havel on December 17, 1999
2. ↑ Old Jewish literature outside the Bible. Translated and explained by Paul Rießler . Augsburg 1928, p. 248