Karel Altman: On Pubs, the Practice of Being a Pub Regular and the Taprooms of Karlín

What is the influence that a pub has on its neighbourhood, who is the proper pub regular, what were the legendary Karlín taprooms like and how to drown one’s sorrows over the closure of a favourite pub? The historian and ethnologist Karel Altman has been focusing on the pub theme and all around it for many years. In his book “Zlatá doba štamgastů pražských hospod” (Golden Times of the Barflies of Prague’s Pubs) he dealt with the distinct cultural and social phenomenon of being a pub regular, the bearers of which are members and permanent guests of various types of inns that were in existence in the 19th and the first half of the 20th century, the era that we consider their golden age. Altman portrayed there the fun moments in the life of Prague’s inns, the relation of their regular guests to their favourite taproom and how it was manifested. However, he does not only look into the history of the most famous inns, pubs and taprooms, but he is above else interested in the relationships that arise in the real-world environment – whether within a group of regular guests and groups of pub attenders or between the pub company and its staff.

Karel Altman is a Czech historian and ethnologist. He works as a researcher at the Brno branch of the Institute of Ethnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences. His scientific work focuses mainly on the development of Brno society and Altman combines in it knowledge rooted directly in both historiography and ethnology. Among his renowned publications are those that focus on Brno inns and pubs, various informal associations and societies at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries in Brno, and on the Tramping movement. Karel Altman is the author (or co-author) of publications such as “Krčemné Brno: O hostincích, kavárnách a hotelech, ale také hospodách, výčepech a putykách v moravské metropoli” (2003) and “Brno: Zájezdní hostince a hotely” (2012), but also two books focusing on Prague: “Zlatá doba štamgastů pražských hospod” (2003) and “Praha u piva” (2015).

The lecture is a part of the programme of the project The Snake Pub.