What's in a Prague street name

Originally published on Twitter on 4 January 2023.

Wenzigova was built in 1893.

Josef Wenzig was born in Prague in 1807. After working as a private tutor, he became a professor at the Prague German School, staying there from 1833 to 1849, when he set up the První česká reálka (First Czech Secondary School) on Ječná.

In 1853, he was made director of all such schools in Bohemia (Realschulen), and, unlike the Habsburgs, favoured education in Czech.

Wenzig also wrote several plays and opera librettos, most famously for Smetana’s operas Dalibor and Libuš. His four-act libretto about the Battle of Vítkov was never put to music.

Wenzig spent his final years in Trutnov, where he died in 1876, although he’s buried in Olšany Cemetery.