Agents of a Civilising Mission? Czechs Abroad
In the late nineteenth century, Czech architects were prominent agents of the ‘civilising mission’ adopted by Austria-Hungary towards many of its ‘peripheral’ territories. Karel Pařík (1857–1942), for example, was significant in the remodelling of Sarajevo under Habsburg colonial rule. After 1918, Czechoslovakia had its own ‘peripheral’ zone: sub-Carpathian Ruthenia, treated contemporaries argued, as a colony in all but name. Moreover, Czechoslovaks were not only involved in different cases of ‘internal colonialism’; some also became representatives of the European modernization of other cultures.
The National Museum of Bosnia and Hercegovina in Sarajevo. Designed by Karel Pařík. (c) Archive by Jiří Kuděla and Jan Boněk
The Hiroshima Peace Memorial (Genbaku Dome) in Japan. Originally the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall designed by Jan Letzel. (c) Profimedia
Park Hotel in Shanghai, China. Designed by László Hudec. Archive of the Canada-based family collection. (c) Alvin Hudec
The architects Jan Letzel (1880–1925) and Antonín Raymond (1888–1976) pursued careers in Japan, Ladislav Hudec (1893–1958) was a major figure in the modernization of Shanghai, while František Sammer (1907–1973) participated in projects for India or Algeria. What were their goals? Czechs saw themselves as ‘helping’ other territories ‘modernize’, but the idea of ‘modernizing’ was a common colonial trope that privileged European societies as ‘advanced’ in relation to others. In the 1960s and 1970s, Czechoslovaks architects and designers were prominent in newly decolonised states in Asia and Africa, and have come to attention recently as agents of a global anti-colonial socialism. Yet should this supposed ‘solidarity’ between Czechoslovakia and the decolonised global south be taken at face value? Or does it deserve a more critical analysis?