What's in a Prague street name

Originally published on 2 March 2023.

Albertov was built in 1905.

Eduard Albert was born in Žamberk in 1841, and studied medicine in Vienna, graduating in 1867. Six years later, he became head of the surgical clinic in Innsbruck.

In 1881, he applied for a similar position in Prague, but was turned down. He had more success later in the year, when he became head of the First Surgical Clinic in Vienna. He stayed in the role until 1900.

He also ran a private clinic, tending to various Habsburgs but also to F. L. Rieger and Karl Kramář, all while being a pro-Czech member of the Reichstag.

Among his other pro-Czech activities included patriotic gatherings at his villa in Žamberk, a friendship with Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, and participation (and, ultimately, side-switching) in the rows about the Zelenohorský Manuscript (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/08/22/prague-2-day-91-lumirova/).

Albert died at his villa in 1900, but is buried in Vienna. The villa now hosts this plaque.

Meanwhile, Albertov is the location of Charles University’s Science and Medicine Faculties.

On the afternoon of Friday, 17 November 1989, hundreds and later thousands of people gathered at Albertov for a demonstration commemorating the same day sixty years earlier, when the Nazis closed the Czech universities and murdered student protestor Jan Opletal.

Footage of the demonstration is here.

The demonstrators decided to march to nearby Vyšehrad, to the grave of Karel Hynek Mácha.

While the demo was officially over by early evening, the crowd decided to march to the centre of Prague. Nine days later, Communist rule in Czechoslovakia would be over.