The Good Soldier Švejk

	The Good Soldier Švejk
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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, a large number of fictional and real people (and animals) are mentioned; either through the narrative, Švejk's anecdotes, or indirectly through words and expressions.

This web page contains short write-ups on the people that 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 of which the names first appear. The chapter headlines are from Zenny Sadlon's recent translation (2000-2009) and will in most cases differ from Cecil Parrott's version from 1973.

The quotes in Czech are copied from the on-line 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 on-line.

The names are coloured according to their role in the novel, illustrated by the following examples:

Dr. Grünstein as a fictional character who is 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 a number of seemingly fictional characters are inspired by living persons. Examples are Oberleutnant Lukáš, Major Wenzl and many others. This are still listed as fictional because they are literary creations that are only partly inspired by their like-sounding "models".

Military ranks and some 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 This means that Captain Ságner is still referred to as Hauptmann although the term is now obsolete, having been replaced by Kapitän.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.

People index of people, mythical figures, animals ... (588) Show all

I. In the rear

Introduction (6)

Napoléon Alexander the Great Švejk Artemis Herostratus Hašek

2. The good soldier Švejk at police headquarters (5)

Detective Brixi Columbus Jesus Christ Lombroso Jan Nepomucký

3. Švejk before the court physicians (10)

Mr. Demartini Murderer Valeš Pontius Pilate Prokop Švejk Mrs. Antonie Švejková Doctor Heveroch Rittmeister Rotter Wölfin Doctor Kallerson Doctor Weiking

4. They threw Švejk out of the madhouse (9)

Virgin Mary The Pope King of England Saint Wenceslaus Archbishop Saint Cyril Saint Methodius Publisher Otto General Windischgrätz

5. Švejk at the district police station in Salmova street (3)

Inspektor Braun Císař Nero Josef Mareček

6. Švejk at home again, having broken through the vicious circle (4)

The Devil Čimpera Miss Mařena Detective Kalous

7. Švejk goes in the military (5)

Doctor Pávek Mucius Scaevola Lynch Doctor Bautze Marschall Radetzky

8. Švejk as a malingerer (16)

Giordano Bruno Galileo Franta Henčlů Doctor Grünstein Macuna Pokorný Kovařík Koťátko Socrates Baronesse von Botzenheim Editor Filip Shrapnel Footman Johann Babinský Emperor Wilhelm II. Prince Eugen

9. Švejk in the garrison prison (14)

Mr. Klíma Mr. Slavíček Stabsprofus Slavík Feldwebel Řepa Hauptmann Linhart Feldkurat Katz Archbishop Kohn Machar Páter Albán François de Sales Auditor Bernis Korporal Říha Josef Koudela Infanterist Maixner

10. Švejk as a military servant to the field chaplain (16)

Odysseus Toník Pubkeeper Serabona Mařka Soldier Franta Polizeikommissar Drašner Mařena Epicurus Oberleutnant Feldhuber Oberleutnant Helmich Oberst Just Doctor Batěk Hauptmann Šnábl Oberleutnant Mahler Hauptmann Fišer Mrs. Kejřová

11. Švejk rides with the field chaplain to serve a field mass (6)

Saint Adalbert Guillotin Teacher Kolařík Pivoňka Oberleutnant Witinger Dalton

12. A religious debate (12)

Heine Susanna in the bath Papin Brahms Saint Augustine John the Baptist Saint Joseph Saint Serapion Saint Ludmila Saint Bernhard Herod Boccaccio

13. Švejk goes to provide the last rites (10)

Božena Němcová Mr. Tauchen Saint John Chrysostom Boušek Oberleutnant Janata Leutnant Prášek Hauptmann Wichterle Oberleutnant Machek Feldkurat Matyáš Professor Zenger

15. Catastrophe (8)

Oberst Kraus Mannlicher Schiller Poet Vierordt Bagmaker Kuneš General Laudon Božetěch Graf Crenneville

Afterword to the first volume, "In the rear" (5)

Doctor Guth Saint Aloysius Monk Eustach Mrs. Laudová Olga Fastrová

II. At the front

2. Švejk's budějovická anabasis (55)

Xenophon Caesar Toníček Mašků Pantáta Melichárek Jew Herrman Jareš Fürst Schwarzenberg (st.) Fürst Schwarzenberg (ml.) Kořínek Wachtmeister Flanderka Oberleutnant Berger Wachtmeister Bürger Pepík Vyskoč Starý Procházka Minister für Landesverteidigung Gendarm Rampa Pejzlerka Nicholas Nikolaevich Hus Butcher Chaura Palacký Rittmeister König Wachtmeister Matějka Hercules Pubkeeper Rampa Fähnrich Koťátko Einjährigfreiwilliger Materna Leutnant Anton Doctor Masák Icarus Oberst Schröder Einjährigfreiwilliger Wohltat Saint Agnes Kriegsminister Pushkin Publisher Kočí Korporal Althof Gefreiter Müller Feldwebel Sondernummer Fähnrich Dauerling Feldmarschall Conrad Hauptmann Adamička Major Wenzl Kadettstellvertreter Zítko Hauptmann Ságner Carpenter Mlíčko Kanonýr Jabůrek Leutnant Pelikán Oberleutnant Kretschmann Hauptmann Spíro Mrs. Schreiterová Oberleutnant Dankl Leutnant Schleisner Hauptmann Skoday Einjährigfreiwilliger Marek

III. The famous thrashing

1. Across Magyaria (52)

Feldoberkurat Ibl King Carlo Alberto Fahnenführer Hrt Archduke Joseph Ferdinand Telephone operator Chodounský Korporal Matějka Oberleutnant Macek Jurajdová Professor Herold Detective Chodounský Detective Stendler Mr. Zemek Mrs. Grotová Detective Stach Mr. Stern Mr. Grot Ludwig Ganghofer Kronek Albert Bügler von Leuthold Archduke Albrecht Bronckhorst-Gronsveld Leutnant Dub Kerckhoffs Kircher Oberleutnant Fleissner Ronovský Róža Šavaňů Metal caster Adamec Nikodém Zugsführer Zyka Kolařík Kozel čeledín Vomel Oberleutnant Šeba Ordonnanz Matušič General Woinovich Sir Edward Grey Greinz Judas Iscariot General Ritter von Herbert Udo Kraft General Mazzuchelli General Benedek Bahnhofskommandant Zykán Offiziersdiener Batzer Fürst Schwarzenberg General Merveldt General Dankl Archduke Friedrich Doctor Welfer Major Koch

IV. The famous thrashing continued

2. Spiritual consolation (3)

Oberleutnant Wurm Růžena Gaudrsová Porter Faustýn

	I. In the rear
	15. Catastrophe

Oberst Kraus von Zillergut, Friedrich

Kraus was a colonel at some barracks in Prague (presumably Karlín), he originated from the Salzburg area. He was the owner of the stolen dog Fox (who was named Max for the short period he belonged to Oberleutnant Lukáš).

Kraus was a price idiot and also had plenty of other despicable qualities. He was probably the most stupid of the many officers that are described in the novel. He had a habit of explaining the most obvious things, which drove his colleagues to insanity. Despite of all this he had advanced in the military hierarchy thanks to good connections, a fact the author uses to emphasise the rottenness of the Habsburg Empire.

After running into Oberleutnant Lukáš who was promenading with Fox/Max, Kraus made sure that Lukáš and Švejk were sent to the front. This was an important turning point in the novel which from now on mostly uses military life as a backdrop to the plot.

Background

Colonel Kraus does not have any obvious model from real life, and the author gives little biographical information that could help to identify him. With his grotesque stupidity one must assume that the colonel is a caricature, but some of his character traits may well have been borrowed from officers or other people that Hašek knew. Not even the geographical name Zillergut gives any clue as no such place can be identified, be it on modern maps or in historical newspapers.

The theories of Augustin Knesl

Seemingly Augustin Knesl is the only researcher that has made a serious attempt at identifying a model for the idiotic colonel. Allegedly he is inspired by a certain Friedrich Kraus who studied civil engineering at the German technical high school in Prague. This Kraus was born in 1880 and Knesl claims that he was a colonel and served at the Prague garrison. Knesl also maintain that Kraus had a mania for explaining the most obvious things.

Unfortunately Knesl's conclusions are unconvincing. As usual he naively accepts information from the novel as facts, and thus concludes that Kraus was a colonel in Prague. However no trace of such a colonel exist, be it in Schematismus (1914) or in the Prague address books. The closest are some reservists, but none of them served in Prague in 1914. Not even in k.k. Landwehr can any such officer be traced.

Friedrich Kraus was a quite common name, so Hašek may well have known a few of them, and there is good reason to believe that Knesl's engineering student actually lived. Apart from this there is little tangible information and the parallel to Knesl's write-up on Feldkurat Katz is striking: the researcher dug out a person with some similarities to the literary figure, but then assumed that additional information can be deduced from The Good Soldier Švejk.

A fellow student

One Kraus who Hašek may have known was Bedřich (Friedrich), a fellow student at the gymnasium in Žitná ulice from 1893 to 1896. This Kraus hailed from Karlín and studied five years above Hašek, so he would probably have been no more than a peripheral acquaintance.

Rector Řežábek

In the Hašek biography The Bad Bohemian, Cecil Parrott notes that rector of Obchodní akademie, Řežábek was detested by the author who targeted him in a scathing satire printed in Karikatury in 1908. Parrott observed that Řežábek, like colonel Kraus, demanded that "sub-ordinates" greet him already at distance and woe betide he who didn't!

Cecil Parrott: "The Bad Bohemian"

Režábek's insistence that the students should greet him from a long way off recalls Colonel Kraus von Zillergut in "The Good Soldier Švejk". Woe betide anyone who failed to notice him! The culprit was given a dressing down before the whole class and his crime was recorded in the class book. In addition his marks for good behaviour were slashed and he was led off to the Rector's office, where he got a second dressing down and his parents were told of his unheard of behaviour.

Quote(s) from the novel

[I.15] Plukovník Bedřich Kraus, mající též přídomek von Zillergut, po nějaké vesničce v Solnohradech, kterou jeho předkové prožrali již ve století osmnáctém, byl úctyhodným pitomcem.

[I.15] Scházela mu polovička levého ucha, kterou mu usekl jeho protivník za mládí v souboji kvůli prostému konstatování pravdy, že Bedřich Kraus von Zillergut je prachpitomý chlap.

[I.15] Před nadporučíkem stál plukovník Kraus von Zillergut. Nadporučík Lukáš zasalutoval a stál před plukovníkem, omlouvaje se, že neviděl.

[I.15] "Pane nadporučíku," hrozným hlasem řekl plukovník Kraus, "nižší šarže musí vždy vzdát čest vyšším. To není zrušeno.

Credit: CP, Augustin Knesl

Also written:Bedřich Kraus von Zillergutcz

Literature

Devátá výroční zpráva cís. král. vyššího gymnasia v Žitné ulici v Praze, František Gresl,1896

Mannlicher, Ferdinand Karl Adolf Josef

*30.1.1848 Mainz - †20.1.1904 Wien

Mannlicher is indirectly referred to by the Mannlicher rifle, called manlicherovka in the novel. The theme here is Oberst Kraus who was obsessed with this rifle and therefore got the nickname "Mannlicher idiot" (Manlichertrottel).