Zdeněk Nejedlý
| Zdeněk Nejedlý | |
|---|---|
Zdeněk Nejedlý in July, 1945.
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| Minister of Culture and Education | |
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In office 5 April 1945 – 2 July 1946 |
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| Preceded by | Emanuel Moravec |
| Succeeded by | Jaroslav Stránský |
| Minister of Culture and Education | |
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In office 25 February 1948 – 31 January 1953 |
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| Preceded by | Jaroslav Stránský |
| Succeeded by | Ernest Sýkora |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
10 February 1878 Litomyšl, Kingdom of Bohemia, Austria-Hungary |
| Died | 9 March 1962 (aged 84) Prague, Czechoslovakia |
| Political party | Communist Party |
| Spouse(s) | Marie Brichtová |
| Alma mater | Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague |
Zdeněk Nejedlý (February 10, 1878 in Litomyšl, Bohemia – March 9, 1962 in Prague) was a Czech musicologist, music critic, author, and politician whose ideas dominated the cultural life of what is now the Czech Republic for most of the twentieth century. Although he started out merely reviewing operas in Prague newspapers in 1901, by the interwar period his status had risen, guided primarily by socialist political views. This combination of left wing politics and cultural leadership made him a central figure in the early years of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic after 1948, where he became the first Minister of Culture and Education. In this position he was responsible for creating a statewide education curriculum, and was associated with the early 1950s expulsion of university professors.
Son of the East Bohemian composer and pedagogue Roman Nejedlý (1844–1920), Zdeněk Nejedlý had the good fortune to be born in Litomyšl, the historic birthplace of the composer Bedřich Smetana, the so-called "Father of Czech music" and a significant figurehead in the Czechs' nineteenth-century National Revival movement. His formal education in music began with Josef Šťastný at the Litomyšl Gymnasium (1888–1896), alongside instruction in Czech history. In 1896 he moved to Prague to study at Charles University, where he attended lectures in positivist history with Jaroslav Goll and music aesthetics with Otakar Hostinský, finally receiving his doctorate in 1900. Hostinský, a great proponent of Smetana's music, suggested that Nejedlý study composition and music theory with his like-minded colleague, Zdeněk Fibich, whose personality and tastes had a profound effect on his young student. Although his first publications were devoted to Czech history, after Fibich's death in 1900 Nejedlý devoted himself to musicology, authoring a monograph entitled Zdenko Fibich, Founder of the Scenic Melodrama in 1901 as a first attempt at gaining greater recognition for his mentor. That these efforts were directed against the musical establishment of Prague (who he felt had victimized Smetana, Fibich, and Hostinský) was made clear by his first foray into music criticism that same year, in an attack on Antonín Dvořák's opera Rusalka shortly after its premiere.
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