SOCIAL ACTIVISTS from Czechia

Top 6

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Czech Social Activists of all time. This list of famous Czech Social Activists is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

1. Jan Hus (1369 - 1415)

With an HPI of 80.66, Jan Hus is the most famous Czech Social Activist.  His biography has been translated into 79 different languages on wikipedia.

Jan Hus (; Czech: [ˈjan ˈɦus] ; c. 1370 – 6 July 1415), sometimes anglicized as John Hus or John Huss, and referred to in historical texts as Iohannes Hus or Johannes Huss, was a Czech theologian and philosopher who became a Church reformer and the inspiration of Hussitism, a key predecessor to Protestantism, and a seminal figure in the Bohemian Reformation. Hus is considered to be the first Church reformer, even though some designate the theorist John Wycliffe. His teachings had a strong influence, most immediately in the approval of a reformed Bohemian religious denomination and, over a century later, on Martin Luther. After being ordained as a Catholic priest, Hus began to preach in Prague. He opposed many aspects of the Catholic Church in Bohemia, such as its views on ecclesiology, simony, the Eucharist, and other theological topics. Hus was a master, dean and rector at the Charles University in Prague between 1409 and 1410. Alexander V issued a Papal bull that excommunicated Hus; however, it was not enforced, and Hus continued to preach. Hus then spoke out against Alexander V's successor, Antipope John XXIII, for his selling of indulgences. Hus' excommunication was then enforced, and he spent the next two years living in exile. When the Council of Constance assembled, Hus was asked to be there and present his views on the dissension within the Church. When he arrived, with a promise of safe-conduct, he was arrested and put in prison. He was eventually taken in front of the council and asked to recant his views. He refused. On 6 July 1415, he was burned at the stake for heresy against the teachings of the Catholic Church. After Hus was executed, the followers of his religious teachings (known as Hussites) refused to elect another Catholic monarch and defeated five consecutive papal crusades between 1420 and 1431 in what became known as the Hussite Wars. Both the Bohemian and the Moravian populations remained majority Hussite until the 1620s, when a Protestant defeat in the Battle of the White Mountain resulted in the Lands of the Bohemian Crown coming under Habsburg dominion for the next 300 years and being subject to immediate and forced conversion in an intense campaign of return to Catholicism.

2. Bertha von Suttner (1843 - 1914)

With an HPI of 72.60, Bertha von Suttner is the 2nd most famous Czech Social Activist.  Her biography has been translated into 85 different languages.

Baroness Bertha Sophie Felicitas von Suttner (pronounced [ˈbɛʁtaː fɔn ˈzʊtnɐ]; née Countess Kinsky von Wchinitz und Tettau; 9 June 1843 – 21 June 1914) was an Austro-Bohemian noblewoman, pacifist and novelist. In 1905, she became the second female Nobel laureate (after Marie Curie in 1903), the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and the first Austrian and Czech laureate.

3. Jan Palach (1948 - 1969)

With an HPI of 69.80, Jan Palach is the 3rd most famous Czech Social Activist.  His biography has been translated into 59 different languages.

Jan Palach (Czech pronunciation: [jan ˈpalax]; 11 August 1948 – 19 January 1969) was a Czech student of history and political economics at Charles University in Prague. His self-immolation in 1969 at age 20 was a political protest against the end of the Prague Spring resulting from the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 by the Warsaw Pact armies.

4. Emilie Schindler (1907 - 2001)

With an HPI of 59.65, Emilie Schindler is the 4th most famous Czech Social Activist.  Her biography has been translated into 20 different languages.

Emilie Schindler (German: [eˈmiːli̯ə ˈʃɪndlɐ] ; née Pelzl [ˈpɛltsl̩]; 22 October 1907 – 5 October 2001) was a Sudeten German-born woman who, with her husband Oskar Schindler, helped to save the lives of 1,200 Jews during World War II by employing them in his enamelware and munitions factories, providing them immunity from the Nazis. She was recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by Israel's Yad Vashem in 1994.

5. Joseph von Sonnenfels (1732 - 1817)

With an HPI of 53.08, Joseph von Sonnenfels is the 5th most famous Czech Social Activist.  Her biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Joseph Freiherr von Sonnenfels (1732 – 25 April 1817) was an Austrian and German jurist and novelist. He was among the leaders of the Illuminati movement in Austria, and a close friend and patron of Mozart. He is also the dedicatee of Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 15, Op. 28, which was published in 1801.

6. Miroslav Tyrš (1832 - 1884)

With an HPI of 50.52, Miroslav Tyrš is the 6th most famous Czech Social Activist.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Miroslav Tyrš (born Friedrich Emanuel Tirsch, in Czech: Bedřich Tyrš; 17 September 1832 – 8 August 1884) was a Czech philosopher, art historian, sports organizer and together with Jindřich Fügner the cofounder of the Sokol movement.