Hašek's legendary Cynological Institute was a short-lived dog-trading firm founded by Hašek and his wife shortly after he left his post as editor of Svět zvířat. It matters in the context of The Good Soldier Švejk because Švejk's occupation as a dog dealer was largely inspired by his creator's brief career as proprietor of the “institute”.
,16.11.1910
,21.4.1914
After his dismissal from Svět zvířat in 1910, Hašek established his dog-trading business under the imaginative name Kynologický ústav (Cynological Institute). From 16 November 1910 onwards, adverts appeared in Prager Tagblatt, Národní listy and Čech, offering purebred dogs at prices “half those” charged by the Hundeparks and breeding institutions — an obvious dig at his former employer on the hill above Klamovka (see Fuchsův psinec). One notice proclaimed the firm the only one of its kind in Central Europe and warned against “mix-ups”, no doubt another swipe at Fuchs.
From 24 November 1910, the rival responded with unusually verbose adverts, once again claiming to be world-famous and warning against mix-ups. On 27 November and throughout the following week, notices from the competing dog-sellers even appeared side by side in Prager Tagblatt. The advertising battle seems to have been short-lived, at least in the paper's pages: Hašek's last known entry was on 7 December, while his competitor continued placing adverts for the rest of the year before returning to the usual briefer notices.
The business was officially registered on 24 November in his wife Jarmila Hašková's name, at Košíře no. 1125, below Klamovka. It is unlikely, however, that the dogs could have been kept there, since the recently married couple lived in a flat.
By February 1911 the firm had gone bankrupt, and several accounts describe what happened. Josef Mach wrote that Hašek imported two hyenas from Hamburg for a circus that ultimately refused them; the loss on that deal was one reason the business collapsed. There are also reports of pedigrees being tampered with and of his agent Čížek stealing dogs — themes with obvious parallels in The Good Soldier Švejk. Mach confirms that Čížek was put on trial for dog theft.
The couple were also taken to court, but on 9 March 1912 their lawyer František Papoušek wrote to inform them that the proceedings had been discontinued.
In literature
Hašek himself immortalised the business in two near-identical stories, Můj obchod se psy and Kynologický ústav. The former was included in the 1915 book Můj obchod se psy a jiné humoresky. The volume has been reprinted several times, and the title story was even filmed. The narrative is vague about where the dogs were kept, but suggests that the kennel was “in the countryside”, a motif that also appears in The Good Soldier Švejk.
Literature
- Kynologický ústav, Jaroslav Hašek,17.4.1914
- Můj obchod se psy a jiné humoresky, ,1915
- Živnotenský list, ,24.11.1910
- Kynologický ústav, ,17.11.1910
- Kynologisches Institut, ,23.11.1910
- Kynologický ústav, ,27.11.1910
- Kynologický ústav, ,30.11.1910
- Papoušek, František, ,9.3.1912
- Haškův svět zvířat, Augustin Knesl,1988