Today we are looking at Pestrý týden from 1926 – Vintage Covers from Czech Weekly News. Pestrý týden (Variety or Varied Weekly news) was a popular illustrated magazine during the First and Second Czechoslovak Republic during the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. It was published November 2, 1926 to April 28, 1945 and it maintained a very high standard of both written and photographic news.
The emergence of the magazine was initiated by Karel Neubert, who remained with it until its demise in the year of 1945. It included the very talented top photojournalists of the day, including Karel Hajek, Vaclav Jiru and Ladislav Sitenský. In the early years, the editorial circle consisted of: Milena Jesenská, a journalist, Vratislav Hugo Brunner, a graphic artist, Adolf Hoffmeister, a painter, poet and founding member of Devetsil and publisher Karel Neubert. This group of editors were seeking to create a new intellectual magazine.
In the late twenties, Jaromíra Johna took charge and influenced production to convert from an elite intelligentsia readership to more of a family oriented middle class. With this new focus, their readership grew and the magazine was soon printing in the hundreds of thousands of copies each week. They were in the top for the period, competing with such publications as Pražský ilustrovaný zpravodaj, Letem světem, Světozor, Ahoj, Star, Světový zdroj zábavy, Eva, Hvězda československých paní a dívek and List paní a dívek.
In 1940, Pestrý týden became an official publication showing the joy of life – an offshoot of a single socio-political movement in the Protectorate – the National Union (organizaci Radost ze života or Joy of Life Organization). The protectorate period of time for the magazine began a gradual and qualitative decline. Gradually, Pestrý týden broke away from the concept of a news sheet and, with the exception of German supplied – and highly ideologically distorted news – they wrote on topics of an indeterminate time.
Thanks to its publisher and editor Karl Neubert, they did not promote German Nazi ideology more than the authorities forced upon them. (Yes, there are some incredible Nazi propaganda photos snuck into a few issues which we’ll be posting the in future.) Pestrý týden ceased its publication shortly before the outbreak of the Prague Uprising in 1945. In less than a month, the former editors created a new weekly newspaper called Svět v obrazech or The World in Pictures.
Václav Neubert and sons, based out of Smíchov printed the issues and it was in print for over twenty years, Pestrý týden published a total of 963 issues during its existence and our goal is to share the covers here over time.
What we are sharing today are the covers from the first year, 1926.
Because they began in November, there were only nine issues for 1926.
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