In his memoir A Musician’s Blood (Musikantenblut) the apprentice locksmith and later court musician Wenzel Abert (1842-1915) describes his...

The bearded Rübezahl lives in the Riesengebirge, the Giant Mountains with their snow-capped peaks; here, his moods and whimsies are...

The stories by blind author Oskar Baum (1883-1942) collected here offer the reader a unique take on the early 20th century: Baum’s...

In this poetic diary, literary historian Peter Becher guides us through a Prague reality deeper than the touristy façade. This sensitive...

It is the pinnacle of a lifelong passion – through over fifty years of meticulous detective work, Hartmut Binder has helped shape our image...

This lavish edition sweeps the reader into the lost world of old imperial Prague: it includes over a thousand historic photographs and...

This latest work by Hartmut Binder represents nothing less than the first comprehensive biography of Gustav Meyrink to meet the needs of a...

Kafka was a subject of the Austrian empire, yet his relationship with its capital city is uncharted territory for scholars of his work. As a...

This opulently illustrated book was the first to bring together accounts of all Kafka’s trips to Switzerland and Italy, on which his main...

This fully revised edition of Kafka specialist Hartmut Binder’s stroll through Prague remains as useful as it is entertaining. It includes...

There are now fewer and fewer voices who can tell us about their childhoods in the 1940s and 1950s. Helmut Birkhan, long-serving medieval...

When we speak of the work of Franz Kafka (1883-1924), we instinctively think of his literary work. It is less well known that Kafka also...

The English adventurer and writer Daniel Defoe (1660-1731) only completed his first and most famous novel The Life and Strange Surprizing...

The most well-known Austrian animal story is familiar to generations of readers and has become a true classic, with many film and television...

Parentless children, stranded by the war — Swiss teacher Olga Fierz tells the moving story of a unique rescue mission in a topsy-turvy era....

But the book also tells of magnificent concert performances, accomplished pieces of theatre and especially of exhilarating friendships in...

The 1848 musical novella The Poor Fiddler transports the reader to 19th-century Vienna. The Austrian dramatist Franz Grillparzer (1791-1872)...

A woman’s life in wartime. A young Bohemian girl, dressed as a boy, gets caught up in the turmoil of the Thirty Years’ War, loses her...

Wilhelm Hauff (1802-1827) had only just turned twenty-five when he wrote The Beggar of the Pont des Arts, a subtle and sensitive story that...

By the 19th century, the simple, humorous stories that Johann Peter Hebel (1760-1826) published over the years in the Rhenisch Fireside...

“Give me upright men and capable officers” demanded Empress Maria Theresa of the commander in charge of the first “military hothouse” at its...

In one of the most fascinating technological success stories in the world, Škoda combines the traditions of a hundred-year-old motoring...

“I will always be considerably more grateful to you for sending back my manuscripts than for their publication,” wrote Kafka coyly to the...

Franz Kafka’s Letter to Father can be seen as a key to understanding the Prague author’s life and work. The monologue is both accusatory and...

“The words that can be said about this book are merely tentative asides. A person must glean for himself line by line how the ominous...

“Somebody must have defamed Josef K., for without having done anything wrong, he was arrested one morning. His landlady’s cook, who always...

“The story that I’m writing, which, I must say, is laid out into the endless … is called The Missing One (Der Verschollene) and takes place...

Late evening on St Nicholas Street, Prague. The family flat has finally fallen silent and Franz’s parents and sisters have gone to bed. Only...

Doctor, let me die...

Golden Lane in the wartime winter of 1916/17: Kafka retreats to the quiet of the little house at number 22 for a few...

Many young visitors to Kafka’s little cottage at Prague Castle exclaim something along the lines of “They inflicted Kafka on us at school!”....

August 1944. Young Czech forced labourers are fleeing Vienna to set up a resistance group in Moravia. 21-year-old Božena works in a...

“Here is a praiseworthy and useful book, simple yet difficult, light yet dark: the lives, passions and sorrows of the saints, known as the...

Diether Krywalski is an author and editor of literary studies and guides, and a contributor to the Lexikon der Weltliteratur. In recent...

Tales from Shakespeare is the abiding legacy of English poet Charles Lamb (1775-1834). This book sweeps us into Shakespeare’s realm and...

In December 1936, the Nazi state stripped Thomas Mann of his German citizenship. But this blow missed its mark – the Nobel laureate and most...

Stroke by stroke, character by character, Paul Leppin’s prose sketches capture the image of Prague . Paul Leppin chats pensively about the...

According to Prague-German author Paul Leppin (1878-1945), the streets of his home city “led one astray and ill fortune lurked on the...

This elegant edition of tales from Brno is based on a collection made by Leopold Masur, which appeared in 1934 in what was then...

Once a generation a psychic epidemic sweeps through the Jewish Town with lightning speed, gripping the souls of the living for some purpose...

“The demons of the past are stirring in the unworldly old aristocrats of Prague Castle, and the old men are shocked by their own misspent,...

These tales from Moravia’s hidden capital were published in 1892 and illustrated by José Hilber. This beautiful edition will delight any...

The Czech author Božena Němcová (1820-1862), born in Vienna, paints an entirely unsentimental portrait of the country habits and customs of...

Jan Neruda first unveiled his Prague Tales from the Little Quarter in 1878. These stories usher the reader back to the first half of the...

Egon Schiele had many faces: the exceptionally talented artistic genius; the sensitive creator of peaceful landscapes and the shameless...

Alphonse Mucha is world famous for his seductively beautiful panneaux and posters. As a decorative artist he shaped the appearance of a...

This little booklet is a collection of the must-see sights of Prague: the lofty Castle, the famous Charles Bridge, the Old Town Square with...

The Czech poet Vítězslav Nezval (1900-1958) produced an extensive body of modernist work. As well as drama and translations, he left a...

Strangely, one aspect of bygone Prague life seems to have escaped researchers in their many accounts: Prague was not only a university city...

It would be hard to find another city in Europe so overflowing with stories, tales, and legends as the Old City of Prague. They tell of...

American storyteller Edgar A. Poe’s (1809 Boston - 1849 Baltimore) detective stories have such impact and intensity that even George Orwell...

When Austria was still Bohemian ... that was “many years ago”, and now when Austrians and Czechs look at each other across the border,...

At the beginning of 1903, a pupil at the military academy in Wiener-Neustadt, Franz Xaver Kappus, sends a few poems to Rainer Maria Rilke,...

“I believe this book contains a few kernels which may grow into trees,” Rainer Maria Rilke revealed in a letter to a friend in 1900, shortly...

Sacrifice to the Lares (1895), the collection of poems written by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) when he was only twenty years of age, is...

This book is sheer past. Homeland and childhood – both of them long remote – form its background. – Today I would not have written it this...

One of the most beautiful German-language Prague novels, Innocens by Ferdinand von Saar (1833–1906) is set on the Vyšehrad, a fortress...

This biography follows in the footsteps of Styrian poet Dr Hans Kloepfer, whose poems such as Dahoam, Da Ruß and Spätherbst are firmly...

The Bohemian Forest: it is like a melancholy song that truly tugs on our heartstrings. Monotonous, unchanging, the wood and gloomy moorland...

O Prague, O solemn city, O city of martyrs, musicians and pretty maids …, O Prague, how much of my freedom-loving soul you have taken from...

A museum guide to the Goldmakers’ Lane featuring rare images, background information and a wealth of details.

According to legend, the...

Prague has been one of the most significant cities in European Judaism for many centuries. Alongside notable buildings such as the Old-New...

This anthology of German tales from Moravia is devoted to a small Central European country that is still little known to this day. The...

Just as in the days of the Emperor, people flock to the Czech Republic today to savour tasty local specialities, ranging from the fine...

From Tafelspitz to Kaiserschmarren – the Imperial Court Kitchen was more than just a collection of fine delicacies, prepared by the best...

A hundred years ago, as the First World War came to an end after four brutal years, a lethal pandemic was gaining ground: the Spanish...

The Golden Lane in Prague. In the past, its charming and colourful little houses were mainly inhabited by simple and poor people. For many...

“Franz Kafka was Prague and Prague was Franz Kafka”, Johannes Urzidil once wrote. And indeed, following the traces of Kafka’s life, your way...

“Kafka was Prague and Prague was Kafka. Never was Prague so perfect, so typical of herself as she was during Kafka’s lifetime, and never...

Established in the late 18th century, Franzensbad (Františkovy Lázně) with its bubbling, healing spring, elegant buildings and extensive...

A Water Prince living in the Moldau, talking animals, flying demons, packs of thieves and kind-hearted folk, intermingled with frequent...

Baden – a Biedermeier spa town, nestling amid vine-covered hillsides – is home to the Old Town’s charming alleyways, immaculate baths and...

Baden – a Biedermeier spa town, nestling amid vine-covered hillsides – is home to the Old Town’s charming alleyways, immaculate baths and...

I could only live in three cities: Weimar, Karlsbad and Rome.

Johann Wolfgang Goethe

He is the Jugendstil master, the founder of the Vienna Secession; his paintings – which sell for record prices – and his lifestyle are the...

The sun, a great poet, wrote a lovely tale down on our earth with a golden pen.

Jiří Wolker

Two professions, two callings: there is a long and eminent list of doctors who have also been authors – not least among them being Friedrich...

Franz Kafka was born in Prague; his writing has fascinated generations of readers all over the world and includes some of the most famous...

On a cold January night in 1756, a child is born in Salzburg’s Getreidegasse: his name is to become known across the world: Wolfgang Amadeus...

Prague is the second city after Salzburg to be inseparably linked with the name of Mozart. Here in the Bohemian capital he enjoyed his...

‘Stick on!’ cries the dashing young man who wants to court the Princess, and soon everyone is stuck to his little magic wagon: the sooty...

Prague is known as the Rome of the north, Kafka’s city, the city of a hundred spires. This illustrated volume, with excellent photography...

informative: This compact and detailed guide is packed with interesting and precise descriptions of all the important buildings and...

Prague is known as the Rome of the north, Kafka’s city, the city of a hundred spires. This illustrated volume, with excel­lent photography...

Prague is known as the Rome of the North, Kafka’s city, and the City of a Hundred Spires. This illustrated guide features excellent...

Exploring the coffee houses of Prague is a rewarding pastime. From the kavárna of old Prague to the jazz café of the music-loving Czechs n...

An introduction to Vienna: an encounter with the medieval city, the residence of the Habsburg dynasty and one of Europe’s most important...

Culture is big in Prague. There are huge cultural events, and smaller, more intimate occasions. Modern jazz is generally something of a...

Peter Rosegger embodies the dreamlike ascent from simple Alpine farm lad to the celebrated prince among poets of his days. Millions were...

Doctor Faustus lived between approximately 1480 and 1539; to this day he remains the embodiment of humanity in striving for knowledge and...

In his masterpiece, the story High Forest, Adalbert Stifter describes the love of two sisters at the time of the Thirty Years’ War. At their...

These stories, published in 1840, brought the young Adalbert Stifter literary acclaim. He had long seen himself as a painter and scarcely...

A simple pitch burner moves to the forest with his family to avoid the plague. It is a worthwhile undertaking to compare the two versions of...

Once upon a time, every river bend, every mountain peak and every church tower had its own story to tell; adventurers and pitch-burners...

Austria in 1854: The young Bavarian Duchess Elisabeth takes the hand of the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph in marriage in the festively...

This cultural study is the most exhaustive collection of Bohemian folk dances as recorded by Alfred Waldau from the mid-19th century...

Just like other European nations, the Czechs have a treasure trove of fairytales that has been lovingly handed down over the centuries. Some...

Are halušky and škubánky a mys­tery to you? Have you never heard of lívance and vdolky? Then you’re on the right track with this culinary...

Born in Northern Bohemia, the German-Jewish author Dan Weinstein (born 1925) set his futuristic novel in a ruinous post-apocalyptic world....

Franz Joseph defined his era and exemplified the old Austria. Installed on the throne as a young prince in 1848, he governed the Imperial...

Popularly known as the Waltz Kings, Johann Strauss I and II shaped the musical fortunes of Austria for almost a century. The father brought...

Maria Theresa of Austria – a Baroque concerto grosso, a cantata of beauty, magnificence and imperial splendour. Juliana Weitlaner has been...

Beethoven needs no introduction. There are already plenty of accounts of his life and work, and there will undoubtedly be no shortage of...

Oskar Wiener’s (b. 1873 in Prague, †1944 in Theresienstadt) Old-Prague Peep Show (1912) displayed images and figures of the city stemming...

This little book is a valuable companion in everyday life, on trips or on big and small adventures. Write down your thoughts and be inspired...

Is it possible to read Kafka’s Metamorphosis in just a few seconds? It is now, thanks to this flick book which transforms the great literary...

The new Vitalis Minibooks are an ideal small gift at an unbeatable price, a colourful compliment in miniature format, not only useful for...

The new Vitalis Minibooks are an ideal small gift at an unbeatable price, a colourful compliment in miniature format, not only useful for...

A miniature book on Franz Kafka, perfect to flick through, pick apart, put up on your wall and put down. As small as a large stamp and as...

The new Vitalis Minibooks are an ideal small gift at an unbeatable price, a colourful compliment in miniature format, not only useful for...