The Good Soldier Švejk

The Fateful Adventures of the Good Soldier Švejk (commonly known as The Good Soldier Švejk) by Jaroslav Hašek is rich in geographical references, whether through the plot itself, in dialogues, or in the author's narrative voice. Hašek was unusually well-travelled and had a photographic memory for geographical (and other) details. Geography mattered to him: eight of the 27 chapter headings in the novel contain geographical names.

This website will, in due course, provide a complete overview of the novel's geographical references, from Prague in the introduction to Klimontów in the unfinished Part Four. It includes continents, states (including defunct ones), cities, market squares, city gates, regions, districts, towns, villages, mountains, mountain passes, oceans, lakes, rivers, caves, channels, islands, streets, parks, and bridges.

The list is sorted according to the order in which the names appear in the novel. The chapter headings are taken from Zenny Sadlon's recent translation (1999–2026); in most cases, these differ from Cecil Parrott's translation from 1973.

The Czech quotations are taken from the online version of The Good Soldier Švejk provided by Jaroslav Šerák and link to the relevant chapter. The toolbar provides direct links to Wikipedia, Google Maps, Google Search, svejkmuseum.cz, and the novel online.

The names are colour-coded according to their role in the novel, as illustrated by the following examples:

	North Bohemia
czSeverní ČechydeNordböhmennnNordböhmen

cz de en Search Map

North Bohemia is mentioned in the epilogue to part Part One, where the narrator states that Feldkurat Katz was a procurator at a paint factory in North Bohemia. Places from the region rarely feature in The Good Soldier Švejk; among the few cases are Podmokly and Terezín.

Background

North Bohemia is a vaguely defined geographical area that refers to the area that today roughly makes up the counties Ústecký kraj and Liberecký kraj. Important towns in the area are Liberec, Děčín, Ústi nad Labem, Litoměřice, Teplice, Jablonec, Turnov, Most and Chomutov. The region is mountainous, industrialised and has extensive mining. Until 1945, the majority of the population reported German as their everyday language.

Military

Militarily, the region reported to KORPS-KO9 (Leitmeritz - Litoměřice) and the following recruitment districts fell fully or partially within this area: 42 (Terezín), 92 (Chomutov) and 94 (Turnov).

Hašek and North Bohemia

In The Good Soldier Švejk, the area hardly figures at all and Hašek spent very little time there. In 1904, however, he had an intermezzo in Lom, where he wrote for the anarchist newspaper Omladina and took part in agitation among the miners. He also worked in a mine for a short period.

The stay ended badly, as Hašek and a friend went on a drinking binge, sold a bicycle that belonged to the prominent anarchist Bedřich Kalina and consumed the proceeds from the sale[a]. Kalina later added that Hašek's mother had to pay for the bike[b]. Judging by the pieces he published in Omladina, his time in Lom lasted for only a few weeks, starting in late June 1904.

Quote(s) from the novel

[I. Doslov] Otto Katz je též na živu. Je to skutečná figurka polního kuráta. Hodil to všechno po převratě na hřebík, vystoupil z církve, dělá dnes prokuristu v jedné továrně na bronz a barviva v severních Čechách. Psal mi dlouhý dopis, ve kterém vyhrožuje, že si to se mnou spořádá. Jeden německý list přinesl totiž překlad jedné kapitoly, kde je vylíčen, jak skutečně vypadal. Navštívil jsem ho tedy a dopadlo to s ním velice dobře. Ve dvě hodiny v noci nemohl stát na nohou, ale kázal a říkal: „Já jsem Otto Katz, polní kurát, vy gypsové hlavy.“

Literature

Kdo byli Karel Vohryzek a Bedřich Kalina?, Pavel Koukal [a]
Dopis Zd. Ančíkovi, Břtislav Hůla,29.3.1949 [b]

References
a	Kdo byli Karel Vohryzek a Bedřich Kalina?	Pavel Koukal	2025
b	Dopis Zd. Ančíkovi	Břtislav Hůla	29.3.1949

		The Good Soldier Švejk
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	I. In the rear
	Afterword to the first volume, "In the rear"

	I. In the rear
	Afterword to the first volume, "In the rear"