Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (1850-1937) - The first president of Czechoslovakia (1918)

Milan Rastislav Stefánik (1880-1919) (left)- and Edvard Beneš(1884-1948) (right) were instrumental in the foundation of Czechoslovakia after the World War I in 1918

Václav Havel (*1936) was president of Czechoslovakia and Czech Republic in the years 1989-2003

“Of course, Václav Havel cannot be counted as a great political leader. The opportunities for him to shape world events were limited by the institutional weakness of the Czech presidency and the size of the Czech Republic. But despite these handicaps, Havel cast a long shadow, partly because of the multidimensional character of his life. He has been at various times a playwright, a dissident, a philosopher, and a president. In all those roles, he has exhibited extraordinary determination, originality, irony, and humor. What was perhaps even more impressive was Havel’s dedication to the principle of individual responsibility. Havel’s greatness resides in his being a spokesman for, and an exemplar of, the highest and therefore the most difficult kind of moral behavior.”

From Václav Havel. Civic Responsibility in the Postmodern Age by James F. Pontuso (reprinted with permission)

14th Century Illumination, Prague