Jan Křen
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Jan Křen | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Jan Křen in 2014 | |
| Born | 22 August 1930 |
| Died | 7 April 2020 (aged 89) Prague, Czech Republic |
| Occupation | Historian |
Jan Křen (22 August 1930 – 7 April 2020) was a Czech historian, academic, dissident during Czechoslovakia's communist era, and a Charter 77 signatory. He specialized in the study of Czech-German relations.[1][2][3]
In 1960s, Křen became one of the first Czechoslovak historians to document and research the expulsion of the Sudeten Germans from the country at the end of World War II.[2] He was originally a member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia from 1949 to 1969, but was expelled in 1970 over his opposition to the Warsaw Pact invasion.[1][2] Křen was also fired as professor and forced to work as a manual laborer.[2] He became involved with the pro-democracy dissident movement, being one of the founding signatories of Charter 77 and began holding a series of underground seminars held covertly in apartments and universities.[1][2] Křen was also a co-founder of the Samizdat historical studies journal.[2] In 1980s, he published one of his best known books, "Conflicting Communities. Czechs and Germans 1780–1918", through his own Sixty-Eight Publishers – an illegal, underground publisher. The book was later published in Germany.[2]
In 1989, Křen founded the Institute of International Studies at Charles University and served as its first director.[2] [4] He also co-founded and chaired the Czech-German Commission of Historians and was involved with the Czech-German Fund of the Future.[2] Křen was a visiting professor at German universities in Berlin, Bremen and Marburg.[2]
President of Germany awarded Křen the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2000.[2] In 2002, President of the Czech Republic Václav Havel, a fellow Charter 77 signatory, awarded Křen the Medal of Merit.[1] He also won the 2006 Magnesia Litera book award for best educational book for "Two Centuries of Central Europe."[2]
