Scrapbook compiled by Josef Hanselmayer, Prague/Graz 1943/1968

As Warsaw Pact troops were destroying hopes of “Communism with a human face” in Czechoslovakia in 1968, a teacher and geologist from Graz found himself caught up in the action. Josef Hanselmayer (1904–1980) had wanted to visit Prague for an educational conference, but unexpectedly became one of the few eye-witnesses to photograph the demonstrations and street battles. He also noted the protest slogans on the walls and the stories told to him by friendly colleagues, later writing them down in this scrapbook. A few pages further on, he stuck in other documents that connect his biography to Prague. They are Hanselmayer’s meteorological measurements for the German Wehrmacht, which he had compiled a quarter of a century earlier in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia.

Associated dates: 1943/1968, glued-in additions and comments 1970–1979

Place: Graz, Austria/Prague, Czechoslovakia

Height: 25.5 cm

Width: 18 cm

Depth: 4 cm

Acquisition: Donation