What's in a Prague street name

Originally published on X on 27 January 2024.

Jan Opletal was born on either 31 December 1914 or 1 January 1915 to a poor family in Lhota nad Moravou, near Olomouc. He was the youngest of eight children.

He had to work from a very early age to support his family, but also excelled at sports and was an outstanding athlete and gymnast at his local Sokol.

After graduating high school with top grades in all but one subject in 1934, he was unable to go to university for financial reasons, and joined the military.

Transferring to Prague, he took up courses at the Institut français and also started to learn English and Spanish. After completing his military service in 1936, he enrolled at Charles University’s Faculty of Medicine.

On 28 October 1939, the 21st anniversary of the founding of Czechoslovakia – and about seven months after the Nazi occupation of Bohemia and Moravia had begun – 100,000 demonstrators took to the streets of Prague. Opletal was one of them.

The crowd tried to proceed from Vodičkova to Karlovo náměstí, but, with the Nazi police appearing, they were forced to retreat onto Žitná. It was here that Opletal was shot in the stomach by an unknown assailant.

He died on 11 November, aged 24.

His funeral was held four days later, and became another massive demonstration against the Nazis.

On the night of 16-17 November, the Nazis responded by executing nine students, sending 1,200 students to a concentration camp, and closing the Czech universities entirely.

The names of those nine students don’t get said enough. They were Bedřich Koula (26), František Skorkovský (30), Jan Černý (24), Jan Weinert (24), Jaroslav Klíma (26), Josef Adamec (29), Josef Matoušek (33), Marek Frauwirth (28) and Václav Šaffránek (18).

Two years later in London, 17 November was declared as International Students’ Day, and still is.

And it was on 17 November 1989, sixty years after Opletal died, that Czech students would hold a demonstration which was brutally put down by riot police.

Within eleven days, the Communists’ monopoly on power in Czechoslovakia would be no more.

On the corner of Opletalova and Václavák, you have The Flow, which controversially replaced Dům U Turků and the premises of the former Pražská akciová tiskárna / Prague Stock Printing Company.

The Neo-Renaissance Daněk Palace, at number 19, used to host the Prognostic Institute of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, but is now used by the Regional Directorate of the Municipal Police for Prague 1.

The Institute of Economic Studies of Charles University operates a bit further down, at number 26.

As does the Autoclub of the Czech Republic (number 45).

And there’s a student dorm at number 38 called Jednota; its location by the train station must be pretty incredible if you’re the sort of student who goes back to their home town every weekend so their mum can do their washing.

Finally, the views from Opletalova onto said train station don’t always look wonderful, but last Saturday they certainly did.