All of Heinrich Böll’s interviews and written statements on the Prague Spring, edited by René Böll and with numerous illustrations and photographs.
On 20 August 1968, at the invitation of the Czechoslovakian Writers’ Union, Heinrich Böll trav-eled to Prague. His visit to the Czech Republic took a dramatic change when shortly afte his arrival the troops of the Warsaw Pact moved in and the occupation began.
Böll, together with his wife Annemarie and son René, spent four days in the city where the dream of “socialism with a human face” was brutally shattered. The resistance at every social strata of the population in Prague made a deep impression on him. Böll did what he could to express his solidarity, speaking on the radio and describing his observation of the events for local newspapers. When he left, he promised his fellow writers in Czechoslovakia to report on and write about what he had seen, as much and as often as possible. Böll kept his word. The results of his commitment are collected for the first time in this book.
In addition to the interviews and essay-like commentaries published or broadcast at the time, the volume also includes previously unpublished journal entries, letters and notes by the au-thor. This material is enhanced with photographs by René Böll and memorabilia from those turbulent days in Prague.
