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516. Hovory o Praze. Pražský rodák Rainer Maria Rilke
516. Talks about Prague. Rainer Maria Rilke, born in Prague
Event by: Klub Za starou Prahu
Location: National Technical Museum, Kostelní 1320/42, Praha 7
Discussions and lectures
About event
It is taught by Ing. Gabriela Kalinová
This year 2026 is unusually rich in round anniversaries. At its end, on December 29, we will remember one of them - the 100th anniversary of the death of Rainer Maria Rilke, the most important German poet of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.
The poet Rainer (originally René) Maria Rilke rests in the Swiss soil of Raron. However, it is not generally known that he died as a citizen of the Czechoslovak Republic. He welcomed its creation and maintained good relations with it until his death. He was a citizen of the world, he wrote poems in several languages (in addition to German, French and Russian), but he never forgot that his hometown was Prague.
Not only his second collection Larenopfer/Oběť larům, published in the winter of 1895 even before he left Prague, but also the prose Zwei Prager Geschichten/Two Prague Stories was dedicated to this. In both works, he lovingly describes not only the objects of old Prague, but also pays tribute to figures of Czech history (M. J. Hus) and culture. His poem about the author of the Czech national anthem, J. K. Tyl, is something more – it is also evidence of his visit to the Czech Ethnographic Exhibition. Rilke corresponded with outstanding personalities of Czech literature (J. Vrchlický, S. Čech, J. Zeyer). Zeyer's niece, Valerie David from Rhonfeld, was instrumental in the publication of both the first and second Rilke collections (she directly financed the first, and designed the cover for the second).
Most of Rilk's relatives are buried in Prague, his grandparents, including grandfather Johann († 1853), were originally buried in the Malostranské cemetery. The ancestors Valerie Davidová from Rhonfeld and Sidonie Nádherná from Borutín also found their last resting place here.
These places will be mentioned in the lecture.
This year 2026 is unusually rich in round anniversaries. At its end, on December 29, we will remember one of them - the 100th anniversary of the death of Rainer Maria Rilke, the most important German poet of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.
The poet Rainer (originally René) Maria Rilke rests in the Swiss soil of Raron. However, it is not generally known that he died as a citizen of the Czechoslovak Republic. He welcomed its creation and maintained good relations with it until his death. He was a citizen of the world, he wrote poems in several languages (in addition to German, French and Russian), but he never forgot that his hometown was Prague.
Not only his second collection Larenopfer/Oběť larům, published in the winter of 1895 even before he left Prague, but also the prose Zwei Prager Geschichten/Two Prague Stories was dedicated to this. In both works, he lovingly describes not only the objects of old Prague, but also pays tribute to figures of Czech history (M. J. Hus) and culture. His poem about the author of the Czech national anthem, J. K. Tyl, is something more – it is also evidence of his visit to the Czech Ethnographic Exhibition. Rilke corresponded with outstanding personalities of Czech literature (J. Vrchlický, S. Čech, J. Zeyer). Zeyer's niece, Valerie David from Rhonfeld, was instrumental in the publication of both the first and second Rilke collections (she directly financed the first, and designed the cover for the second).
Most of Rilk's relatives are buried in Prague, his grandparents, including grandfather Johann († 1853), were originally buried in the Malostranské cemetery. The ancestors Valerie Davidová from Rhonfeld and Sidonie Nádherná from Borutín also found their last resting place here.
These places will be mentioned in the lecture.