Podnikatelské legendy první republiky a jejich – Miketa Kamil (2021)

They were the cream of the entrepreneurial crop of the First Republic. Thanks to their ideas, original projects, and top-notch products, the first Czechoslovak Republic rose among the six most developed countries in the world. They secured well-paid jobs for tens of thousands of Czech workers, technicians, engineers, and scientists. Many became legends during their lifetime... Then came two harsh blows of fate. The occupation by Hitler's troops, which overnight turned many from the Czechoslovak entrepreneurial elite into Jewish prisoners in concentration camps. Many did not survive. The second blow was the communist coup in 1948. This again threw the surviving industrialists into prison cells. The subsequent nationalization buried their already interrupted business plans forever. Or at least for the next three generations. The modern successors of Baťa, Kolben, Křižík, and Laurin, to whom the second part of this book is dedicated, revived free enterprise in what was then Czechoslovakia after 1989. Although they did not have to contend with the ruthless Gestapo or equally harsh practices of the StB, their path to the top was certainly not easy. They fought hundreds of battles against the ossified post-socialist apparatus, modern Czech...