What's in a Prague street name

Sinkulova was built in 1892.

It was initially called Krušinova, after Hynek Krušina z Lichtenburka, a noble who first fought on the Hussite side in the 1400s, then on the side of the Catholics.

Having been lengthened by taking over another street in the 1930s, the street has had its present name since 1948.

Václav Sinkule was born on Legerova in Prague’s New Town (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2023/12/24/prague-2-day-8-legerova/) in 1905. Legerova houses Prague’s main train station, which is very convenient when you consider that Sinkule’s father was a baggage handler there.

Sinkule went to secondary school on Žitná (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/02/27/prague-2-day-36-zitna/), but transferred to the Prague Business Academy, graduating in 1924.

After his military service in Košice, he returned to Prague, took a job at the Czech Commercial Bank, and joined the Communist Party.

In the early 1930s, Sinkule became a researcher at what is now the Prague University of Economics and Business (VŠE), and started to work as a journalist. He also ran for election to the National Assembly.

Sinkule eventually became editor of Rudé právo, the Communists’ official newspaper, and travelled to Spain to report on the Civil War there.

When the Nazis occupied the Czech Lands in 1939, Sinkule started clandestine work for the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, especially in South Moravia.

The Gestapo arrested him in February 1941 in Pankrác. After a stint in Terezín, he was sent back to Pankrác later in the year, but, in March 1942, he was transferred to Mauthausen concentration camp.

He was executed there on 20 April 1942, aged 37.

A dormitory of VŠE in Dejvice is also named after him.

Marie Cibulková, another victim of the Nazis who was discussed yesterday (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2025/05/20/prague-4-day-97-marie-cibulkove/), lived on Sinkulova.