Teplická NEJ…

The MOST EROTIC moment of J W Goethe’s life

Wed, 29 Mar 2017 19:37:26 +0100

The prince of poets, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, had his first meeting with Beethoven, the premiere of his own theatre play that did not take place, and experienced the most erotic moment of his life in Teplice. He was sixty and she was twenty-five, he had known her from her childhood days and her name was Bettina von Arnim. This breath-taking moment is described by Milan Kundera in his novel Immortality (Nesmrtelnost).

The MOST CULTURED mayor

Wed, 29 Mar 2017 19:35:46 +0100

M. Wolfram was not only the head of the town hall but also an artist who attracted big crowds to Teplice.

Teplice really brimmed with life at one point. The fame of the spa town attracted a varied range of guests, and was graced by royalty and elevated by noted artists every year. Teplice evidently had a lot to offer, but it had to gain its reputation of “the Salon of Europe” and to maintain it by exercising the utmost care. If the spa town was to be one of the centres of European social and cultural events, it was necessary for it to be headed by a personality that would represent its standards appropriately. Thus, the mayor should not only be a capable officer and a conscientious administrator of public affairs; moreover, this position required the ability to communicate with the intellectual elite of the time and, in fact, to influence it.

The BEST architecture of 1989

Wed, 29 Mar 2017 19:34:45 +0100

Karel Hubáček is an icon of Czech postmodernism; his House of Culture is the best piece of modern architecture in Teplice.

When an architect is awarded the Perret Prize it is like a film director winning an Oscar. It is a peak that is hard to reach again. Luckily, Karel Hubáček is not just the creator of one work. The Liberec transmitter and hotel on Ještěd may be a taster, but the designer of them managed to create other innovative – and much respected – works as well. One such work, which won the main prize at the Interarch World Biennale in Sofia in 1989, is the House of Culture in Teplice.

The BEST musical arranger of 1928

Wed, 29 Mar 2017 19:33:56 +0100

August Stradal arranged the works of musical greats for the piano.

The Stradals were regarded as one of the most respectable families in Teplice in the second half of the 19th century. Franz Stradal was a lawyer, long-standing councillor (even the mayor for a short time), deputy and until 1858 also the owner of the Ústí nad Labem to Teplice railway line, a rapidly developing enterprise that grew richer due to coal mining.

The MOST POPULAR group in the Czech Republic

Wed, 29 Mar 2017 19:33:02 +0100

Kabát, from Teplice, still sell out stadiums 26 years after their first album.

No other band has won the Český slavík (Czech Nightingale) award nine times in the popular vote. Kabát (The Coat), who formed at the end of the Socialist era, capture the spirit of the post-revolution era through the lyrics of Milan Špalek. Whether it was an allegory about the mafia capitalism of the early nineties (Colorado), lyrics about working in a mine (Dole v dole) or about politics and business “being like an octopus” (Banditi di Praga), Kabát do a good job of expressing what most of the nation was talking about in the pubs.

The first professor of palaeobotany

Wed, 29 Mar 2017 19:32:14 +0100

How the ownership of coal mines led Karl to academic achievements.

Karl Rudolph was born at the right time and in the right place: In 1881 he was born into the family of Teplice architect Hermann Rudolph, who was just finishing the design for a new local synagogue, and work on the construction of a train station on the Ústí nad Labem to Teplice track was waiting for him a short time later. Just like other gentlemen with connections to the railway, he participated both in governing the town and in developing business.

The OLDEST surviving relic of Beuron art

Wed, 29 Mar 2017 19:29:41 +0100

A convent, the chapel of which has been hiding its interesting interior decoration for many years, was in operation for less than a century in Teplice.

Today, hardly anybody notices the buildings of the convent on the busy Alejní Street: it is overshadowed by the more majestic grammar school on the opposite side. Nevertheless, the convent – and, in particular, its chapel – merit attention. Due to the bombing of Prague at the end of the Second World War, the interior decor is the oldest fully preserved relic of what is known as Beuron art.

The LARGEST theatre in the Sudetenland

Wed, 29 Mar 2017 19:28:07 +0100

The largest theatre outside Prague came into existence as a demonstration of German supremacy over the town.

The declaration of Czechoslovakia in October 1918 brought Teplice mayor Dr. Ernst Walther into action. He ruled a town where more than 90% of the inhabitants were German and he did not identify himself with the new state at all. Two days following the official formation of the republic, he, together with virtually all of the town’s elite, espoused the idea of the independent state of Deutschböhmen.

The OLDEST tram line

Wed, 29 Mar 2017 19:26:25 +0100

Teplice has had a functional urban public transport system for 120 years.

“It’s fun and it doesn’t cost much!” the Teplice-Šanov Gazette (Teplitz-Schonauer Anzeiger) wrote on 27th June 1895, about a track that had just been put into operation in what today is 28. října (28**th October) Street. The slogan was enticing: the number of customers for the transport company rose steadily until 1959 when the Teplice trams were put out of use.

The OLDEST radon spa in the world

Wed, 29 Mar 2017 19:24:25 +0100

Although it is mainly Jáchymov that the world associates with radioactivity, Teplice spa beats it by several years when it comes to offering the inhalation of radon.

On the threshold of the 20th century, radioactivity was a hot topic. It was discovered in 1896 by Henri Becquerel and seven years later Marie Skłodowska Curie won a Nobel Prize for developing the theory of the radioactivity. A mere two years later, Dr. Mache and Dr. Meyer were already touring spas in what are now the Ústí nad Labem (Aussig an der Elbe) and Karlovy Vary (Carlsbad) regions, conducting measurements to ascertain whether or not the waters spouting from the depths of the earth happen to be radioactive too. And in Teplice, the fame of which was slowly fading, there actually was radioactive water!

The OLDEST spa in the Czech lands

Wed, 29 Mar 2017 19:23:46 +0100

The opening of the 861st spa season? By no means!

Great celebrations are probably in store for the residents of Teplice in 2154. If spa seasons are counted as they have been to date, it will be the 1,000th anniversary in 139 years, or rather a presumed anniversary, as the numbering of spa seasons is based on shaky foundations just like the discovery of the local springs, which Wenceslaus Hajek of Libočan dated as being in 762.

The LARGEST synagogue in Bohemia

Wed, 29 Mar 2017 19:22:47 +0100

Jewish people were the largest and most distinctive minority in Teplice at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Their synagogue formed part of the town for a mere 56 years.

Luck favoured the Jews in Teplice in the second half of the nineteenth century – they were in no danger in the multicultural environment of the European spa town – in fact the opposite was the case. Well developing industry needed capable traders and bankers – and many a Jewish person managed to fill these roles. In the period when imposing buildings were springing up in Teplice like mushrooms, Jews accounted for nearly 10% of the population. However, most people had no desire to segregate them in any way – most Jews in Teplice were religiously liberal and fully integrated within what was then the elite. Not only factory owners, but also members of the municipal board, doctors and lawyers came from within their ranks. Considering the fact that all of them also spoke German, many people regarded them as Germans.

The FINEST work of Matthias Braun

Wed, 29 Mar 2017 19:21:01 +0100

One of the top Baroque sculptors created his best work in Teplice.

There are not many Baroque monuments in Teplice but the most noticeable of them is worth visiting. The plague column of the Holy Trinity on Castle Square (Zámecké náměstí) is ranked among the top works of European Baroque sculpture.

Matthias Braun was born near Innsbruck, Tyrol. Cistercians that were based nearby soon recognised his carving and sculpting talents and sent him on the standard “Italian journey”. In Rome, the young artist was able to get acquainted with the relatively new works of Borromini and Bernini. Profoundly influenced by them, he set up his own workshop in Prague in 1710. He registered for the sculptors’ guild with his statuary of the Vision of St Luthgard, intended for Charles Bridge. His first work immediately secured him huge popularity, and the nobility continued to use his services from then on.

The MOST FAMOUS porcelain factory in the Art Nouveau style

Wed, 29 Mar 2017 19:16:35 +0100

What is the most famous product from Teplice? Perhaps glass produced by AGC? Actually no, it is Art Nouveau porcelain. Perfect craftsmanship, modern Art Nouveau design and – as a period journal writes – “very attractive looking women’s bosoms that bear witness to a lively conception of refined taste”. All of this brought the Trnovany factory which manufactured vases, jugs, cans and figures called Riesner, Stellmacher & Kessel Amphora to the top of its area of industry.

The first Czech professional cyclist

Wed, 29 Mar 2017 19:14:54 +0100

The German Czech Kudela was a star of the new sport of professional cycling.

Which cyclist has not heard of the legendary Jaroslav Cihlář, the best post-war sprinter?! But who knows Emanuel Kudela, a racing ace in sprint cycling, a tandem rider and, of course, a native of Teplice?

Kudela was born on 26th July 1876. He was a trader’s apprentice, but at the age of 19 he began to pursue modern cycling, first road cycling and then indoor cycling. He was particularly successful on the tandem, paired with the German riders Oskar Peter and Paul Mündner, or the American Woody Hedspath.

The BIGGEST photographic empire in Austria-Hungary

Wed, 29 Mar 2017 19:14:05 +0100

A photographic entrepreneur of European calibre started his business in Teplice.

Carl Pietzner had worked his way up: starting with assistant work in the first photographic studios in both Prussia and Russia he eventually became the owner of his own business at the age of 24. It was 1877 when the young entrepreneur arrived in Šanov where he took over an already existing studio.

The setting of the world-renowned spa town, which literally swarmed with the cream of society, meant a great opportunity for Pietzner. It was wealthy visitors to the spa town that visited his Art Institute for Photography, (portrait) Painting and Collotype. His earnings were rapidly rising and so Pietzner gradually established around 17 branches where up to 300 people worked. You would have found them in the vicinity of Teplice (in Duchcov, Most, Ústí nad Labem, Děčín (Tetschen), Karlovy Vary (Carlsbad)…), but also in big cities such as Vienna, Berlin, Salzburg or Bremen.

The first professor of geology

Wed, 29 Mar 2017 19:12:49 +0100

The proverb that nobody is prophet at home does not apply to the Teplice native Gustav Karel Laube – the town where he came into the world and also where he is buried is grateful to him for the most precious thing it possesses – its spa springs. This April, 92 years will have passed since his death.

13th February 1879 was a dark day in the history of Teplice. An inrush of groundwater at a mine between Lahošť and Duchcov resulted in the level of the healing springs dropping and the spa buildings being closed down three days later. The reputation of the world-renowned spa town of Teplice was tarnished literally overnight, and many guests packed their bags and never came back. It was necessary to take swift action. The experts who were invited by the town council to save the springs included Gustav K Laube, the first professor of mineralogy and geology at Karl-Ferdinand University. And it was him who succeeded in detecting the thermal waters less than three weeks later.

The BIGGEST symphony orchestra in the region

Wed, 29 Mar 2017 19:11:36 +0100

The ensemble in Teplice has been active since 1838 and it is currently the only philharmonic in the Ústí nad Labem Region.

Until the 18th century, one needed to go to church, the opera or theatre to enjoy good music. The church and the aristocracy were the ones who commissioned most new pieces. The development of civil rights, free enterprise and the townspeople becoming increasingly more self-confident resulted, at the start of the 19th century, in the genesis of new types of orchestras that differed from their predecessors in both form and focus.

The first telephone line in the Czech lands

Wed, 29 Mar 2017 19:10:16 +0100

People were able to make phone calls in the Czech lands – between Duchcov and Ledvice – a mere 5 years after Bell’s ground-breaking invention and 3 years after the first telephone line in the United States.

This was in 1881, and the Teplice District had the greatest steam power in the entire country at its disposal. It was there that the industrial heart of the monarchy was beating; and it was there where money from German, Austrian and English banks was flowing. Among the 77 lignite mines of the then mining district, you would have found only one giant open-pit quarry, that is, a mine of the same extent and with the same methods of extraction that we see in the same area today. It was Richard Hartmann’s facility, located between Ledvice and Chotějovice, where coal had been extracted from 1869.