The Good Soldier Švejk

This article seeks to trace a little-known episode from Hašek's tumultuous life, set in a region that the author of The Good Soldier Švejk seldom visited. In Turnov, on 27 October 1912, Hašek caused a scandal by ridiculing the Serbs, who were fighting the First Balkan War at the time. This happened in front of an audience that harboured strong sympathies for Serbia, sympathies that Hašek himself no doubt shared. Thus, it remains a mystery why he chose to foul his own nest to such a degree. Was it a clumsy attempt to be funny? Simply an urge to provoke? Was he drunk? Pure mischief and recklessness? It could have been any combination of those factors, but it sums up Jaroslav Hašek in the end. Nothing was sacred to him, not even his convictions. Like a child, he rarely considered the consequences of his actions, and time after time he pulled the rug from under his own feet.

Hůla's research

Břetislav Hůla reporting to Zdena Ančík.

LA-PNP,24.4.1951

News about this incident first caught my eye when, in 2015, I studied the correspondence between Břetislav Hůla and Zdena Ančík, in which the former, between 1948 and 1951, described (and handed over) the results of his impressive research, an effort for which he has been given scant credit. Alois Hatina (1886-1940), a former politician and friend of Jaroslav Hašek, told Hůla about a scandal that erupted when Hašek gave a talk at the Turnov branch of Sokol in which he described the low cultural level and poor hygiene of the South Slavs. One Bohuslav Novotný confirmed the incident, which allegedly resulted in a furious report in a local newspaper. According to Hatina, Hašek had been hounded off the premises and even beaten[e].

The diligent Břetislav Hůla traced the origins of this story by browsing local newspapers. Hašek was invited to speak at an "evening of Czech humour" arranged by the women's section of Sokol on Sunday, 27 October 1912. Unfortunately, Hůla never found the alleged furious report on the event.

In biographies

The Sokol building in Turnov, scene of Jaroslav Hašek's 'performance' on 27 October 1912.

In the standard biography on Hašek, Toulavé house (The Wandering Gosling), Radko Pytlík mentions this curious episode. The local chapter of Sokol invited Hašek to be a speaker for Strana mírného pokroku v mezích zákona, but he did not deliver what was expected, and the audience was not entertained. Worse, he provoked them by making fun of the Serbs, who at the time were fighting the First Balkan War, and allegedly he also made derogatory comments about the social and hygienic conditions in the Balkans. In the end, local Sokol members chased him across the garden restaurant.

Later, Pytlík provided slightly contradictory information about the incident[d] (he relocated it to Náchod), but other biographers seem to have overlooked the incident altogether (Cecil Parrott does not mention it). The information that Radko Pytlík provided leans on Břetislav Hůla's research, but he also seems to have drawn from other sources.

31. října 1912, v době balkánské války, účinkoval například na akademii ženského odboru Sokola v Turnově jako řečník Strany mírného pokroku. Nesplnil však očekávání, publikum nepobavil. Zesměšňoval však dočasné vítězství Srbů a mluvil o ubohých sociálních a hygienických poměrech na Balkáně. Místními Sokoly byl hnán přes celou zahradní restaurací, dokonce prý inzultován.

Radko Pytlík, 1971, "Toulavé house"

With more information becoming available through the digitisation of historical newspapers, it is now possible to describe the episode in more detail and also correct inaccuracies in Pytlík's books and Hatina's account. Let us therefore try to recreate the events based on newspaper reports from around the time the incident happened.

An evening of Czech humour

Advert for the evening of Czech humour.

Listy pojizerské,20.10.1912

On 20 October 1912 Listy pojizerské, a local newspaper in Turnov, announced that in a week the women's section of the Sokol would arrange an "evening of Czech humour". A group of literati were invited, and Hašek was presented as the main attraction (a). He was assigned two timeslots under the headline Causerie dobrodružstvi ze života autorova. Among the other participants were Josef Mach and Karel Pelant, both associated with Hašek's Strana mírného pokroku v mezích zákona. The session was to start at 7:30 PM [b].

Young Czech indignation

Krakonoš,10.11.1912

Listy pojizerské does not seem to have reported on the event. The rival newspaper Krakonoš (a regional mouthpiece of Mladočeši) in Jičín did so, but only two weeks later[c].

At Sokolovna Hašek grabbed the headlines for all the wrong reasons. According to Krakonoš his first stage act fell completely flat; the listeners did not appreciate his craving for recognition. Still worse was to come. In the second part, he told a story of a Serbian shepherd who became a colonel, making fun of the South Slavs who, at the time, were fighting the First Balkan War.

This did not go down well with an audience that sympathised strongly with Serbia. The story caused an uproar in the crowd, and many left the hall in disgust. As he started to tell another story, he was asked to stop, but he reacted by swearing at the audience. This caused a further uproar that ended when Hašek stepped down from the stage and left the building. Only an intervention by the mayor calmed the deeply offended audience.

Lebt in Prag ein tschechischer Schriftsteller...

Bohemia,31.10.1912

Krakonoš was not the first to react. On 31 October 1912, four days after the infamous event, Bohemia published its version of the story [f]. It was even more colourful and ironic than the report in Krakonoš. The story was unsigned but written in a style that bears the traces of Egon Erwin Kisch, the soon-to-be famous "raging reporter" who worked for this newspaper at the time.

From what source Bohemia obtained the information is unknown, but the content suggests that Hašek himself may have had a hand in it. Allegedly, the unfortunate speaker was bombarded with food from the buffet and was hounded off the stage, and it could have ended badly had not the organiser dr. Práčník protected him and called the k.k. Landwehr guards! Hašek and Kisch were friends, and the story may have passed from one to the other over a beer or two... The unknown writer in Bohemia also added an ironic anti-Czech twist, words that are unlikely to have come from Hašek.

More indignation

Krakonoš,24.11.1912

Bohemia's ironic article did not go unnoticed, and was even picked up by a Salzburg newspaper and reproduced word for word[g]. More significantly, Krakonoš again reported on the incident, now obviously triggered by the news in Bohemia. A complete translation was provided, and at the end, parts of the content were debunked.

Hašek had not been chased by an angry crowd. He had firmly but tactfully been asked to leave the stage and even the building without any of the drama that Bohemia described. They also berated Hašek for not only having ridiculed the fighting Serbs but also making fun of Turnov. Thus, Krakonoš obviously suspected or assumed that Hašek was indeed Bohemia's source[h].

Other variations

In 1923 České Slovo provided a note that probably refers to the same event, but with a very different account. The organisers waited in vain for Hašek to arrive, then announced that his talk was cancelled. From the back a voice was then heard: "but I am after all here, I have been sitting here drinking since the morning!"[i]

Literature

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• Vešer českého humoru, Listy pojizerské,20.10.1912 [a]
• Ženský odbor Sokola v Turnově, Listy pojizerské,20.10.1912 [b]
• Der hinausgeworfene Heldensänger, Bohemia,31.10.1912 [f]
• Der hinausgeworfene Heldensänger, Salzburger Volksblatt,3.11.1912 [g]
• Ženský odbor Sokola v Turnově, Krakonoš,10.11.1912 [c]
• Jaroslav Hašek, Krakonoš,24.11.1912 [h]
• In memoriam Jaroslava Haška, Rudé právo,30.3.1923 [i]

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• Zesnulý Alois Hatina..., LA-PNPBřetislav Hůla,24.4.1951 [e]
• Toulavé house, Radko Pytlík,1971
• Jaroslav Hašek: Data, fakty, dokumenty, Radko Pytlík,2013 [d]
• Historie turnovského Sokola, Sokol Turnov