JOSEF ŠUSTA A KAREL STLOUKAL UČITEL A ŽÁK – VZOR A POKRAČOVATEL?
Josef Šusta and Karel Stloukal - The teacher and the Pupil – The paragon and the Successor?

Summary/Abstract: Two important historians of the first half of the twentieth century, Josef Šusta (1874–1945) and Karel Stloukal (1887–1957), are the focus of this paper. The author examines the relations between Šusta as a teacher and his student Stloukal as parallel lives within the framework of their discipline – history – and the period. The study examins Šusta’s fundamental influence on Stloukal’s career and explains clearly to what extent Šusta and Stloukal were affected by the Czech and Central European intellectual milieu. It was embodied in the educational paths that both of them followed. The correspondence of Stloukal with Šusta restores our understanding of Stloukal’s determination to pursue career as a university teacher and Šusta’s rising as his protector. It is possible to observe Šusta’s patronage in case of Stloukal’s senior lectureship and professorship (chapter IV.). It was not easy for Stloukal to replace Šusta, who became respected in Europe as a representative of Czech historiography. However, Šusta’s chair remained empty, despite his retirement; the political reality of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia suppressed university life as such (chapter V.). Stloukal himself experienced how cruel historical reality can be: the dream of holding the chair was substituted with imprisonment after half of a year. Šusta, who became president of the Czech Academy of Science and Art in the meantime, again took an active role in Stloukal’s liberation from the concentration camp. Their relationship was linked also by co-operation in the scientific field. Šusta was chief editor of the History of Mankind and Stloukal was co-author thanks to Šusta’s selection. Nevertheless, the Nazi regime ended the publishing of this broad-minded project. According to Šusta, Stloukal should have been a keeper of this heritage after the war (chapter VI.). Josef Šusta, under strong pressure due to an accusation of collaboration, decided to leave this world by suicide three weeks after liberation. His last letter to Karel Stloukal was a petition to finish and publish his Memoirs, History of Mankind, and his history of the Czech Lands under Charles IV. But Stloukal didn’t have either Šusta’s patience and qualities nor the external conditions to finish his teacher’s work. The communist coup in 1948 liquidated free scientific thought and only Memoirs was published. Karel Stloukal himself became a second rate historian for the new regime and he was retired in conditions which were similar to Šusta’s retirement.

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