This issue is in german and english language and dedicated to Czech theatre. It appears in a year in which the Czech Republic celebrates anniversaries for a number of events that loom large in its history: the foundation of Czechoslovakia in 1918 and the Munich Agreement of 1938 which wiped the country off the map again for a number of years, the Communist Putsch of 1948 by which Czechoslovakia became part of the Eastern Bloc behind the Iron Curtain for forty years, the Soviet occupation of 1968 and finally the establishment of the Czech Republic in 1993 – 25 years ago.
Czech theatre has influenced the history and the political development of the country, starting with the process of national emancipation in the 18th and 19th centuries up to the Velvet Revolution of 1989. Although this edition focuses largely on the current state of contemporary Czech theatre and introduces its key protagonists, historical reflections inevitably figure as well, sketching the lines along which theatre culture has developed.