Who are we? – Establishment and Mission

As a legal entity, the Václav Havel Library was established and registered as a non-governmental, non-profit making organization on 26th July 2004 by means of Act No. 248/1995 Coll. and as such was included on the Public Benefit Organizations Register, which is administrated by the Municipal Court in Prague under section O, file number 338 (identification number 27169413).

The mission of the Library is to preserve the works and legacy of Václav Havel by placing them in their proper historical context and by highlighting the enduring vitality of the ideas and ideals his life story embodies. Inspired, in part, by the American model of presidential libraries, the Václav Havel Library aims to house Mr. Havel’s works and papers, to document the complex battle for democracy and freedom in the second half of the 20th century, and to stimulate discussion, research, publications and education about the ongoing struggle for human rights and the challenges of post communist political and civic engagement.

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Diary entry for 5. December 2005, To the Castle and Back

„In short, Being has a memory. And thus even my insignificance – as a bourgeois child, a laboratory assistant, a soldier, a stagehand, a playwright, a dissident, a prisoner, a president, a pensioner, a public phenomenon, and a hermit, an alleged hero but secretly a bundle of nerves – will remain here for ever, or rather not here, but somewhere. But not, however, elsewhere. Somewhere here.“

Václav Havel:
Diary entry for 5. December 2005, To the Castle and Back
2006