
Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie leave the Sarajevo Town Hall on 28 June 1914, five minutes before the assassination.
The Good Soldier Švejk is a novel with an unusually rich array of characters. In addition to the many who directly form part of the plot, many fictional and real people (and animals) are mentioned through the narrative, Švejk's anecdotes, or indirectly through words and expressions.
This web page contains short write-ups on the people the novel refers to, from Napoléon in the introduction to Hauptmann Ságner in the last few lines of the unfinished Part Four. The list is sorted in the order in which the names first appear. The chapter headlines are from Zenny Sadlon's recent translation (1999-2024) and will, in most cases, differ from Cecil Parrott's version from 1973.
The quotes in Czech are copied from the online version of The Good Soldier Švejk provided by Jaroslav Šerák and contain links to the relevant chapter. The toolbar has links for direct access to Wikipedia, Google Maps, Google search, svejkmuseum.cz and the novel online.
The names are coloured according to their role in the novel, illustrated by the following examples:
- Dr. Grünstein, as a fictional character directly involved in the plot.
- Fähnrich Dauerling, as a fictional character who is not part of the plot.
- Heinrich Heine as a historical person.
Note that living persons inspire many seemingly fictional characters. Examples are Oberleutnant Lukáš, Major Wenzl and many others. These are still listed as fictional because they are literary creations that are only partly inspired by their like-sounding "models".
Military ranks and other titles related to Austrian officialdom are given in German and in line with the terms used at the time (explanations in English are provided as tooltips). This means that Captain Ságner is still referred to as Hauptmann, although the term is now obsolete, having been replaced by Kapitän. Civilian titles denoting profession, etc., are translated into English. This also goes for ranks in the nobility, at least where a direct translation exists.
















