Exhibition: "Václav Havel. Politics and Conscience!"

19 May 2017. About 20 large-size panels will document the life of the Czech dramatist, essayist, human rights activist, politician and president Václav Havel. With images and English-language texts, the panels will trace Havel’s experiences in the different stages of his life – as an artist, as a dissident, politician and philosopher. The historic documents will underline his active commitment to the freedom of thought and action, as well as his faith in peaceful cooperation. In addition to this, the exhibition will underline the following current issues:

• "The Danger of New Dictatorships"
• "Aggression Caused By Globalisation"
• "Ukraine Should Decide Its Own Future"
• "Europe as an Example of Peaceful Coexistence"

The Czech Embassy in Berne and the Language Center of the University of St.Gallen will welcome guests to the vernissage on 29 May 2017 at 5 p.m. The exhibition will be opened by the representative of the Embassy. The welcoming address will be given by Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schmid, Professor at the HSG’s School of Humanities and Social Sciences. After the vernissage, an aperitif with Czech specialities will be served.

Honorary HSG doctorate for Václav Havel

A short time after the political changeover in 1990, the HSG awarded Václav Havel an Honorary Doctor’s degree in Political Sciences. With this doctorate, he was honoured "for his literary and political work, for the courage with which he stood up for the needy and for his convictions, for his individual accomplishment in the intellectual preparation and practical realisation of the peaceful revolution in his home country, for the proclamation of that spirit of reconciliation that alone can truly regenerate life after wars and revolutions, and as a representative of the nameless women and men of the Prague Spring, of Charter 77 and of the 1989 revolution in Czechoslovakia," as the laudation expressed it.

"Even though from my point of view, we awarded the degree too late after the political changeover, all of us were always very proud to have such an Honorary Doctor," said Rolf Dubs, expert in business and former President of the HSG, in a contribution of the occasion of the Václav Havel Memorial Day.