The Legal Dispute Between Václav Hanka and David Kuh in the Light of Actions Taken by the Austrian Police Against the ‘Awakeners’ of the Czech Nation

Abstract

This essay presents the activity of the Austrian secret police that led to legal action being taken up in 1859. That year, Václav Hanka sued David Kuh, the founder and editor of the Prague newspaper “Tagesbote aus Böhmen”, for defamation, after the latter published a series of anonymous articles in his paper, accusing Hanka of forging The Queen’s Court Manuscript and The Green Mountain Manuscript. For several decades, both works influenced the shaping of the Czech political nation, and as it later transpired, the Aus­trian police were behind the attacks on their authenticity. Further piquancy is added by the fact that thirty years later, Hanka was indeed recognised as the author of the aforementioned manuscripts.

Keywords

• bohemia
• national revival
• police
• provocation
• czechs