Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie leaving Sarajevo Town Hall on 28 June 1914, five minutes before the
assassination.
The Good Soldier Švejk has an exceptionally rich cast of characters. Alongside those who play a direct part in the plot, a great many
fictional and real people (and animals) are mentioned throughout the narrative, in Švejk's anecdotes, and in the
book's idioms and turns of phrase.
This page offers brief entries on the people referenced in the novel, from Napoléon in the introduction to Hauptmann Ságner in
the final lines of the unfinished Part Four. The list is sorted in the order in which names first appear. Chapter
headings follow Zenny Sadlon's recent translation (1999–2026) and, in most cases, differ from Cecil Parrott's 1973 version.
The Czech quotations are taken from the online version of The Good Soldier Švejk provided by Jaroslav Šerák and link to the relevant chapter. The
toolbar provides direct links to Wikipedia, Google Maps, Google Search, svejkmuseum.cz, and the novel online.
The names are colour-coded according to their role in the novel, as illustrated by the following examples:
Dr. Grünstein, a fictional character directly involved in the plot.
Fähnrich Dauerling, a fictional character who is not part of the plot.
Heinrich Heine, a historical person.
Note that many seemingly fictional characters are inspired by real people. Examples include Oberleutnant Lukáš, Major Wenzl, and many
others. These are still listed as fictional, since they are literary creations only partly inspired by their
similarly named 'models'.
Military ranks and other titles related to Austrian officialdom are given in German, in accordance 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referred to as Hauptmann, even though the term is now obsolete and has been replaced by Kapitän. Civilian titles
denoting profession, etc., are translated into English. This also applies to ranks in the nobility where a direct
translation exists.
Pávek
was a medical doctor from Vinohrady who prescribed Švejk bromium against his rheumatism, belligerence and exaggerated patriotism.
Background
The address book of Prague (1910) does not show up any doktor Pávek. This also goes for the address book of Vinohrady (1912).
The surname Pávek also shows up in the story How Mr. Cetlička voted from 1913, but here there is no question of a doctor.
Quote(s) from the novel
[I.7] A tak byl probuzen obtloustlým pánem, který mu chvíli držel ruku na čele a říkal:
„Nebojte se, já jsem doktor Pávek z Vinohrad - ukažte ruku - tenhle teploměr si dejte pod paždí... Tak - ukažte jazyk - ještě víc - držte jazyk - na co zemřel váš pan otec a vaše matka?“
A tak v době, kdy Vídeň si přála, aby všichni národové Rakousko-Uherska dávali nejskvělejší příklady věrnosti a oddanosti, předepsal doktor Pávek Švejkovi proti jeho vlasteneckému nadšení brom a doporučoval statečnému a hodnému vojínu Švejkovi, aby nemyslil na vojnu.
Mucius Scaevola
is mentioned in an article in Pražské úřední noviny and compared to Švejk in the news about the incident where Švejk gets pushed off to the draft commission in a wheel-chair. The headline reads: "The patriotism of a cripple".
Background
Mucius Scaevola
was a known figure from ancient Rome who through his bravery is supposed to have saved the city during the Etruscan siege of 508 BC. He was sent to the enemy's camp to murder king Porsena but was captured. To show the king how little physical sufferings meant to a Roman soldier he held his hand in the fire without showing any signs of pain. The king released Mucius and offered peace. It has not been established if this story has a factual background but is in any case based on the writing of Roman historian Titus Livius.
Symbol in stories of war heroism
Mucius and his burnt hand often appears as symbolism in stories about heroic deeds that the press of the Dual Monarchy printed during the war, particularly during the summer of 1915. References can also be found in the Czech press, even before the war. Amongst the papers that printed these stories in 1915 were Neue Freie Presse and Pester Lloyd. One such story appeared in June 1915 and was printed in several newspapers, including Pester Lloyd. It refers to an attack on Italian coastal defences by Porto Corsini on 24 May 1915, led by Admiral Miklos Horthy. The admiral is better known as the inter-war and World War II Hungarian dictator who led his country to war as an ally of Nazi Germany.
Reuse of themes
Many themes from the novel have earlier appeared in short stories by Jaroslav Hašek, so also Mucius: Jak se Baluška naučil lhát (How Baluška learned to lie), first printed in Právo lidu, Dělnická besídka, 2 March 1913.
Quote(s) from the novel
[I.7] O celé této události objevil se v „Pražských úředních novinách“ tento článek:
[I.7]Vlastenectví mrzáka: Včera dopoledne byli chodci na hlavních pražských třídách svědky scény, která krásně mluví o tom, že v této veliké a vážné době i synové našeho národa mohou dáti nejskvělejší příklady věrnosti a oddanosti k trůnu stařičkého mocnáře. Zdá se nám, že se vrátily doby starých Řeků a Římanů, kdy Mucius Scaevola dal se odvésti do boje, nedbaje své upálené ruky.
Lynch
is mentioned indirectly by the term "lynching". It is Prager Tagblatt who report that Czech agents of the Entente tried to lynch the cripple Švejk as he was wheeled to Odvodní komise in a wheelchair. The brave cripple was protected by Germans.
Background
Lynch
(Charles or William) are both the probable candidates for the etymological origin of the term "lynching". Both lived in the 18th century, were judges and the circumstance was the American war of independence (1776-1783). In the US the term was later mostly used in connection with abuses directed against blacks. Austrian newspapers used the term "Lynchjustiz" already before 1840, mostly in connection with cases in the US (but not exclusively there).
It has not been possible to find anything in Prager Tagblatt that relates to the quote from the novel and fatal lynching was unusual amongst civilians in Austria-Hungary, even during the war. Arbitrary justice was however widespread at the front. It was used against both the enemy population and own subjects who were suspected of co-operating with the enemy. The victims were mostly Ukrainians and South Slavs.
Quote(s) from the novel
[I.7] Ve stejném smyslu psal i Prager Tagblatt, který končil. svůj článek slovy, že mrzáka dobrovolce vyprovázel zástup Němců, kteří ho svými těly chránili před lynčováním ze strany českých agentů známé Dohody.
Bautze
was head officer at the medical examination board at Střelecký ostrov. He exposed all malingerers in the most efficient and ruthless manner. He is the man behind one of the most famous quotes from Švejk: Das ganze tschechische Volk ist eine Simulantenbande (the whole Czech nation is a pack of malingerers). Švejk suffered the same fate as the other 11,000 malingerers Bautze had smoked out during his ten weeks in service.
Background
Bautze has no obvious model but we know with near certainty that Jaroslav Hašek in mid December 1914 appeared before the Landsturm draft commission at Střelecký ostrov. He would have known who examined him, and might have borrowed traits for his literary figure from this person. Still no dr. Bautze is found in the address books of Prague from the years before the war.
In an article in Květy from 7 September 1968Jaroslav R. Veselý claimed that some doctor Halbhuber examined Josef Švejk at Střelecký ostrov, and his claim at first sight seems worth investigating. Franz Halbhuber was indeed an army doctor and by all accounts extremely cruel to the soldiers who were unlucky enough to get within his reach. He sent hundreds of ill and crippled soldiers back to the front and was also known as a German chauvinist, all this making him very unpopular amongst the Czech population.
There are however many reasons to doubt the veracity of Veselý's account. Halbhuber served in Prague only from late 1916 to 1918. He was "Oberstabsarzt" at Vojenská nemocnice na Karlově náměstí, and before that he had been in the same function in Košice and Litoměřice. That he was involved with the Landsturm draft commission (see Odvodní komise) in 1914 as Veselý claims, is difficult to believe, particularly in view of a news item from Pester Lloyd24 October 1914 that says Halbhuber at the time, in Košice, was receiving a delegation led by Hungarian prime minister Count Tisza. October 1914 was precisely when Josef Švejk and others who were born in 1892 would have appeared before the commission (Josef was by all accounts to appear on the 20th, that is if the story about him being "superarbitrated" is true at all ...). Some temporary assignment can obviously not be ruled out, but for this to be verified, Halbhuber's military records would need to be consulted.
Still it is quite possible that Halbhuber and other brutal medics may have inspired the author to create the characters Bautze and Doctor Grünstein. Halbhuber had a number of similarities with both of them, for instance treating seriously ill people as malingerers and sending them to the front. In addition he was notoriously infamous so Hašek surely knew about him.
Halbhuber's predecessor as "Oberstabsarzt", MUDr. Jaromír Pečírka, may be the person who examined Hašek at Střelecký ostrov in 1914, or at least led the draft commission. But that he in any way served as model for those very German medics appears improbable. Pečírka was Czech and his obituary contradicts any suggestion that he in any way had anything in common with the two obnoxious doctors that Švejk encountered.
Quote(s) from the novel
[I.7] Zejména ne vrchní vojenský lékař Bautze. Byl to muž neúprosný, který ve všem viděl podvodný pokus uniknout vojně, frontě, kulce a šrapnelům.
Známý jest jeho výrok: „Das ganze tschechische Volk ist eine Simulantenbande.“
Za deset týdnů své činnosti vymýtil z 11.000 civilistů 10.999 simulantů a byl by se dostal na kobylku i tomu jedenáctitisícímu, kdyby nebyla toho šťastného člověka právě v tom okamžiku, když na něho zařval „Kehrt euch!“ ranila mrtvice.
„Odneste toho simulanta,“ řekl Bautze, když zjistil, že je muž mrtev.
Radetzky is mentioned 13 times in The Good Soldier Švejk.
Radetzky
is mentioned when Švejk is led past a statue of him on the way to the garrison prison at Hradčany. Švejk obviously honoured him by saluting.
Radetzky is mentioned several times later in the novel. He appears in the article that deputy Béla Barabás wrote in Pester Lloyd and claims centre stage during the field mass that Feldoberkurat Ibl serves in Királyhida before the march battalion's departure to the front.
The Radetzky March is mentioned directly in [IV.1]. This happened in Dobromil where the not very sober interrogator/interpreter hums it but adds his own lyrics.
Background
Radetzky
was a famous Czech nobleman and Austrian field marshal. He was Austria's most prominent commander in the first half of the 19th century and distinguished himself during the war in Italy in 1848/49 where his armies emerged victorious in the battles of Custozza, Santa Lucia and Novara. He served in Austria's army for 72 years, under five emperors, participated in 17 field operations, and was decorated 146 times.
In 1848 JohannStrauss the Elder composed the famous Radetzky March which even today is played at the end of the ViennaNew Year Concerts.
Der Soldatenfreund Kalender 1915
Der Soldatenfreund Kalender 1915
According to Hašek, the content of Feldoberkurat Ibl's field mass was drawn from a military calendar, and this is undoubtedly true. Much of the sermon comes from the 1915 edition of Der Soldatenfreund, pages 72 and 73.
This and other text fragments from the calendar can be found verbatim in Ibl's field mass.
Velký zábavný kalendář 1915
The story is called Gott Erhalte! and is narrated by An Old Officer. It also includes an illustration from the battlefield depicting the dying Fahnenführer Hrt (here called Veit) in conversation with Radetzky.
The wording of Feldoberkurat Ibl's sermon suggests that Hašek took the story from a corresponding Czech edition of the calendar. In Hašek's estate, now held at LA-PNP, there is a calendar containing this very story. In Velký zábavný kalendář (second part), the story appears on pages 62 and 63. Here the hero is called Vít. Why Hašek renamed him Hrt can only be a matter of speculation.
See Kriegskalender for more on the use of motifs from military calendars in The Good Soldier Švejk.
The statue
The memorial at Malostranské náměstí that Švejk saluted in 1914, removed in 1919.
The statue that is mentioned in The Good Soldier Švejk and that Švejk saluted was removed in 1919 and stood at Malostranské náměstí. It is now stored in the Lapidárium in Holešovice, a subsidiary of the National Museum.
Quote(s) from the novel
[I.7] Bajonety svítily v záři slunce a na Malé Straně obrátil se Švejk před pomníkemRadeckého k zástupu, který je vyprovázel: „Na Bělehrad! Na Bělehrad!“ A maršálek Radecký snivě se díval ze svého pomníku za vzdalujícím se dobrým vojákem Švejkem s rekrutskou kytkou na kabátě, kulhajícím na starých berlích, zatímco sděloval nějaký vážný pán lidem kolem, že vedou desentéra.
[I.8] Že budou nepřemožitelnými válečníky, pamětlivými na slávu Radeckého i prince Eugena Savojského.
[I.8] Z těch lumpů by ani Radecký, ani ten váš princ Eugen Savojský nevychovali vojáky.
[II.4] ... o čemž svědčí celá řada vynikajících českých vojevůdců, z nichž vzpomínáme slavné postavy maršálka Radeckého a jiných obranců rakousko-uherského mocnářství.
[III.1] Von nám dával takovej pěknej příklad z dějin naší armády, když ještě sloužil Radeckej a s večerními červánky slučoval se voheň, jak hořely stodoly na bojišti, jako kdyby to byl viděl.
[III.1] Milí vojáci," řečnil vrchní polní kurát Ibl, "tak tedy si myslete, že je rok osmačtyřicátý a že vítězstvím skončila bitva u Custozzy, kde po desetihodinovém úporném boji musil italský král Albert přenechati krvavé bojiště našemu otci vojínů, maršálkovi Radeckému, jenž v 84. roce svého života dobyl tak skvělého vítězství.
