Lennon Wall in Prague

On 1 December 2020, the Museum of the Memory of the 20th Century published the book Lennon's Wall in Prague: Studies, Interviews, Documents. This is the second, substantially revised edition of the publication about the forty years of the famous Prague site, which includes studies, interviews, documents and an extensive pictorial supplement with many period photographs by Lubomir Kotek, Karel Cudlín, Jiří Volk and other photographers. The authors of the monograph, Petr Blažek, Filip Pospíšil and Roman Laube, deal not only with the gradual transformation of the Lennon Wall and the community around it, but also with the previous tradition of inscriptions on this site. Since 1981, annual gatherings of Lennon's fans have been held in and around Velkopřevorské náměstí on the anniversary of the British musician and peace activist's death. Under the influence of a police crackdown, they gradually grew into anti-regime demonstrations, with petitions signed demanding the introduction of a replacement civil service, the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Czechoslovakia, the release of political prisoners and the abolition of nuclear weapons.  Some participants in these meetings were among the co-founders of opposition groups in the late 1980s, notably the Independent Peace Association - Initiative for the Demilitarisation of Society (IPS) and the John Lennon Peace Club (MKJL). The Lennon Wall also played a significant role after 1989, which is described for the first time in this publication. The commemoration of Lennon's memory did not only remain an activity of the adherents of subcultures, but also reflected contemporary disputes about the nature of society, its past and its future. The Lennon Wall also became a major tourist attraction, a commercial commodity and even an inspiration for protest movements on the other side of the globe.  The book was published with the support of the State Culture Fund of the Czech Republic.

     



The main distributor of Lennon's Wall in Prague is Kosmas.cz.

BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA OF THE BOOK

Title: Lennon's Wall in Prague: studies, interviews, documents
Authors: Petr Blažek, Roman Laube, Filip Pospíšil
Publisher: Museum of Memory of the XXth Century
EAN: 9788090798908
978-80-907989-0-81
Description: 1x book, paperback, 536 pages, Czech
Size: 16,5 × 24 cm

Cover
Table of contents
Introduction

Interview with Petr Blažek about the book Lennon's Wall for the Second Time (Knižní novinky, vol. 20, no. 3-4, 2021, p. 26).

DEBATE ON THE HISTORY OF THE LENNON WALL

December 8, 2020 marks the fortieth anniversary of John Lennon's death. The most unknown echo of this tragic event in Prague is the memorial on Velkopřevorské náměstí. The Museum of the Memory of the Twentieth Century has published a book on the history of Lennon's Wall in Prague and, in cooperation with the Kampa Museum, has prepared an online debate on the same topic at the Werich Villa in Kampa. The authors of the book Petr Blažek, Filip Pospíšil and Roman Laube took part in the debate. The meeting was introduced by Jiří Pospíšil, chairman of the board of trustees of the Jan and Meda Mládek Foundation of Prague. The debate was shown on 8 December 2020 at 8 p.m. via social networks Museum of the Memory of the 20th Century and its channel on YouTube.

The topic of Lennon's Wall in Prague is also the subject of three podcasts by the Museum of the Memory of the XXth Century with Pepín Maraczi, Petr Blažek and Filip Pospíšil, written by editor Pavel Hlavatý. You will learn how the Lennon Wall came into being and how its appearance changed, what the repressive crackdown on the annual youth gathering on 8 December looked like before 1989, and where other Lennon Walls were created that were inspired by the Prague model.