Olga Havlová
First Lady of the Czech Republic
In role 2 February 1993 – 27 January 1996
President	Václav Havel
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Dagmar Havlová
First Lady of Czechoslovakia
In role 29 December 1989 – 20 July 1992
President	Václav Havel
Preceded by	Viera Husáková
Succeeded by	Position abolished
Personal details
Born	Olga Šplíchalová (1933-07-11)11 July 1933 Žižkov, Prague, Czechoslovakia
Died	27 January 1996(1996-01-27) (aged 62) Prague, Czech Republic
Resting place	Vinohrady Cemetery, Prague
Nationality	Czechoslovak, Czech
Spouse	Václav Havel (1964–1996; her death)

Olga Havlová (Šplíchalová; 11 July 1933 in Prague – 27 January 1996 in Prague) was a Czech dissident, activist, and the first wife of Václav Havel, the last President of Czechoslovakia and first President of the Czech Republic.^[1] Havlová, the inaugural First Lady of the Czech Republic and final First Lady of Czechoslovakia, was the founder of the Committee of Good Will and a signatory of Charter 77.

Early life

Olga Havel was born in Žižkov, "one of the roughest, working-class districts of Prague",^[2] in a working-class family. She spent her childhood in a way typical for such a harsh environment. Her parents split up when she was six years old. In a large family, also including Olga's older sister Jaroslava's family (a single mother of five children), any free hand was useful. Therefore, it was obvious that Olga cared for her young nieces and nephews since her childhood. As a child, she also attended Milíčův dům (Milíč House in Prague) established by Přemysl Pitter. Olga used to spend a lot of time in libraries where she acquired her strong lifelong love of literature. Although her family's life was modest, Olga's mother used to take her children to cinema and theatre quite often. After graduating from secondary school, Olga became a trainee in the Tomáš Baťa factory, where she also worked afterwards. In the course of working on a sewing machine, she lost four fingers on her left hand.

When she was about twenty, she was an enthusiastic theatre lover and attended the drama classes of Professor Lydie Wegener. Together with her other pupils, she acted in an amateur theatre performance in Divadlo Na slupi (which does not exist anymore). During the 1950s, she went through a number of different jobs. She worked, e.g., as an accountant, a store keeper, a sales assistant.

Olga first met Václav Havel at the Prague writer's hangout Café Slavia^[3] in the early 1950s and married him in 1964. During the 1960s, her husband became a respected author both at home and in Europe. In the second half of the 1960s, he - as a writer and a contributor to the cultural magazines - was involved in a democratization process, particularly in the field of culture. He advocated freedom of speech, independence of culture, return of full-fledged civil rights. During the years 1961–67, Olga Havel worked at the theatre Divadlo Na zábradlí (Theatre on the Balustrade) where her husband was also active until 1968. Václav Havel made no secret of the fact that, despite the diversity of personalities and family environment as well as all the usual problems of life and crises, Olga meant a lot to him. He appreciated how quickly this seemingly ordinary young woman from Žižkov became a part of the Prague intellectual environment of the 1950s and '60s, that she was an attentive first reader and critic of his essays and dramatic works, a valuable supporter and collaborator in the difficult years of Charter 77 as well as a lifelong partner.

In 1967, the Havels bought a country estate in the foothills called Hrádeček. Later on, when Václav Havel was gradually losing not only a possibility to find a job but also some contacts and friends in Prague, the couple moved to their cottage and practically lived there until November 1989. Olga Havel, a passionate mushroom-picker and nature-lover, fell in love with the place just like her husband. She was fond of gardening and taking her dogs for long walks to the forest. They alternated moments of peace and seclusion used by Václav for his work with a rich social life, of which they were hospitable organizers.

As a Czechoslovak dissident

Following the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968 until the Velvet Revolution in 1989, Václav Havel could not publish openly in his home country, theatres were not allowed to stage his plays and he was gradually pushed out of the public cultural activities and became one of the most prominent dissidents. As a fighter against continuously intensified totalitarian regime, he was persecuted by the secret police (Státní bezpečnost),^[4] he was often detained, interrogated and imprisoned. Olga Havel was always an important back up to her husband; she supported him in all his dissident activities and she was also involved in them. She was described as "full of forthright, even earthy common sense. A shrewd, intuitive judge of people, calm but tough, and with a natural dignity".^[5] After he was sentenced to four and a half years of imprisonment, Olga Havel together with her brother-in-law Ivan Havel took over responsibilities and obligations in samizdat Edition Expedition, which was led by Václav before. In relation to the prosecution for transporting prohibited printed material, she was accused of subversion of a republic in the case of "Karavan". Her prosecution was abolished after the fall of the Communist government.

Olga Havel was the addressee of the intellectually deep, philosophically and existentially toned letters sent by Václav Havel during the years 1979 – 1983 from prison. Some of them were intended not only to her but also to the philosophically minded circle of friends with whom he - through the letters - tried to think through different things and they tried to help him stay intellectually active. Letters to Olga, (Dopisy Olze) a selection of these letters, forms one of the most important books of Václav Havel, was first published in 1983 in the Edition Expedition. Olga also organized meetings, distributed manuscripts and participated in the Charter 77 activities. She signed Charter 77 in 1982.

In the difficult years of insecurity, persecution and imprisonment of her husband, Olga fully and with joy used the opportunity to escape from the difficulties of everyday life by joining Hrobka (Tomb), the circle of friends organizing various humorous activities. Václav Havel characterized this circle accurately: "In the early 1980s, I was – like several of my friends - imprisoned, conditions outside were harsh and so Hrobka was created as a way of self-defence; it was a cheerful community of imprisoned dissidents' wives, those who remained at large and their friends." Olga soon became one of the organizers of a diverse range of cultural and social activities and thus she returned to her creative interests from the years of amateur theatre. She added to the community life not only as a regular hostess of costumed garden parties at Hrádeček on the occasion of her birthday but, first of all, she herself came up with many ideas and inspiration.

In 1987, Olga co-founded Originální Videojournal, the samizdat video news magazine which documented the activities of dissent in pictures and informed about the present political and cultural situation in Czechoslovakia openly. She actively worked in the magazine and focused mainly on ecological topics. In late 1985, she initiated a magazine O divadle (About Theatre), and as a member of the editorial staff she helped mainly with economic and production issues.

After November 1989

See also

• Letters to Olga

References and notes

External links

• http://www.vdv.cz/en/ – Olga Havel Foundation website
• http://pitter.eu/en/node/130 - Prague Milíč House