František Palacký

František Palacký was born in Hodslavice on June 17, 1798. Appointed official historiographer of the Bohemian estates in 1838, Palacký produced his monumental five-volume Dějiny národu českého v Čechách a v Moravě (History of the Czech Nation in Bohemia and Moravia).

He interpreted Czech history as a continuous moral struggle for democratic freedom and spiritual conscience against external autocracy. Presiding over the historic Slavic Congress of 1848 in Prague, he articulated the doctrine of Austro-Slavism, famously stating that if Austria did not exist, it would have to be invented—only to later assert that before Austria was, the Czech nation was, and when Austria is gone, it will still remain.