Václav Havel

Havel was born in Prague on 5 October 1936{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/dec/18/vaclav-havel|title=Václav Havel obituary|newspaper=The Guardian|first=W. L.|last=Webb|date=18 December 2011|access-date=18 December 2011}} into a wealthy family celebrated in Czechoslovakia for its entrepreneurial and cultural accomplishments. His grandfather, Vácslav Havel, a real estate developer, built a landmark entertainment complex on Prague's Wenceslas Square. His father, Václav Maria Havel, was the real estate developer behind the suburban Barrandov Terraces, located on the highest point of Prague—next door to which his uncle, Miloš Havel, built one of the largest film studios in Europe.{{cite book |last=Zantovsky |first=Michael |date=2014 |title=Havel: A Life |url=https://archive.org/details/havellife0000anto/page/16 |location=New York |publisher=Grove Press |pages=[https://archive.org/details/havellife0000anto/page/16 16 (family accomplishments), 55 (marriage)] |isbn=9780802123152 }} Havel's mother, Božena Vavrečková,{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/article-1G2-3416000082/havel-vaclav-1936.html|title=Havel, Vaclav, Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia.com|access-date=18 December 2011}} also came from an influential family; her father was a Czechoslovak ambassador and a well-known journalist.

File:Vaclav Havel 1965.jpg

In the early 1950s, because of his class background, Havel entered into a four-year apprenticeship as a chemical laboratory assistant and simultaneously took evening classes at a gymnasium. He completed his secondary education in 1954.

For political reasons, he was not accepted into any post-secondary school with a humanities program; therefore, he opted for studies at the Faculty of Economics of the Czech Technical University in Prague but dropped out after two years.{{cite web|url=http://www.vaclavhavel.cz/cs/vaclav-havel/zivotopis/1936-1959 |title=::.Václav Havel.::The official website of Václav Havel, writer, dramatist, dissident, prisoner of conscience, human rights activist, former president of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic |publisher=Vaclavhavel.cz |access-date=2013-11-19}} On 9 July 1964, Havel married Olga Šplíchalová.

File:Václav Havel, Obvestilo, Drama SNG v Ljubljani.jpg by the Ljubljana Drama Theatre in 1969]]

The intellectual tradition of his family was essential for Havel's lifetime adherence to the humanitarian values of the Czech culture.{{cite web|url=http://www.hrad.cz/en/president-of-the-cr/former-presidents/vaclav-havel.shtml |title=Václav Havel – Prague Castle |publisher=Hrad.cz |access-date=2013-11-19}} After finishing his military service (1957–59), Havel had to bring his intellectual ambitions in line with the given circumstances, especially with the restrictions imposed on him as a descendant of a bourgeois family. He found employment in Prague's theatre world as a stagehand at Prague's Theatre ABC – Divadlo ABC, and then at the Theatre on Balustrade – Divadlo Na zábradlí. Simultaneously, he was a student of dramatic arts by correspondence at the Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (DAMU). His first own full-length play performed in public, besides various vaudeville collaborations, was The Garden Party (1963). Presented in a series of Theatre of the Absurd, at the Theatre on Balustrade, this play won him international acclaim. The play was soon followed by The Memorandum, one of his best known plays, and The Increased Difficulty of Concentration, all at the Theatre on Balustrade. In 1968, The Memorandum was also brought to The Public Theater in New York, which helped to establish Havel's reputation in the United States. The Public Theater continued to produce his plays in the following years. After 1968, Havel's plays were banned from the theatre world in his own country, and he was unable to leave Czechoslovakia to see any foreign performances of his works.{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/politics-obituaries/8964095/Vaclav-Havel.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/politics-obituaries/8964095/Vaclav-Havel.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Václav Havel |newspaper=The Telegraph |access-date=2013-11-19}}{{cbignore}}

File:Havel a Dubček, Laterna Magica 24.listopad 1989.jpg leader Alexander Dubček at a meeting in the Laterna Magika theatre in Prague on 24 November 1989]]

During the first week of the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968, Havel assisted the resistance by providing an on-air narrative via Radio Free Czechoslovakia station (at Liberec). Following the suppression of the Prague Spring in 1968, he was banned from the theatre and became more politically active.Havel, V. (1975). [http://vaclavhavel.cz/showtrans.php?cat=eseje&val=1_aj_eseje.html&typ=HTML "Letter to Dr. Husak"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130305233451/http://vaclavhavel.cz/showtrans.php?cat=eseje&val=1_aj_eseje.html&typ=HTML |date=5 March 2013 }} He took a job at Krakonoš brewery in Trutnov, an experience he wrote about in his play Audience.{{cite news|last1=Rissanen|first1=Mika|author-link=Mika Rissanen|title=From the brewery to the presidency|url=https://www.academia.edu/36177542|access-date=17 March 2018}} This play, along with two other "Vaněk" plays (so-called because of the recurring character Ferdinand Vaněk, a stand in for Havel), became distributed in samizdat form across Czechoslovakia, and greatly added to Havel's reputation of being a leading dissident (several other Czech writers later wrote their own plays featuring Vaněk).Goetz-Stankiewicz, Marketa. The Vanӗk Plays, 1987, University of British Columbia Press This reputation was cemented with the publication of the Charter 77 manifesto, written partially in response to the imprisonment of members of the Czech psychedelic rock band The Plastic People of the Universe;{{Cite web

| first = Richie | last = Unterberger

| date= 26 February 2007

|title=Plastic People of the Universe |url=http://www.richieunterberger.com/ppu.html|access-date=2023-03-17|website=www.richieunterberger.com}} Havel had attended their trial, which centered on the group's non-conformity in having long hair, using obscenities in their music, and their overall involvement in the Prague underground movement.{{Cite book|author=Eda Kriseová|title=Václav Havel: The Authorized Biography|publisher=St. Martins Press|translator-last=Crain|translator-first=Caleb|pages=98–99, 168, 202|year=1993|isbn=0-88687-739-3|url=https://archive.org/details/vaclavhavelautho0000kris}} Havel co-founded the Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Prosecuted in 1979. His political activities resulted in multiple imprisonments by the authorities, and constant government surveillance and questioning by the secret police (Státní bezpečnost). His longest period in prison, from May 1979 to February 1983, is documented in letters to his wife that were later published as Letters to Olga.

He was known for his essays, most particularly The Power of the Powerless (1978), in which he described a societal paradigm in which citizens were forced to "live within a lie" under the Communist regime.Václav Havel, The Power of the Powerless, in: Václav Havel, et al The power of the powerless. Citizen against the state in central-eastern Europe, Abingdon, 2010 pp. 10–60 {{ISBN|978-0-87332-761-9}} In describing his role as a dissident, Havel wrote in 1979: "we never decided to become dissidents. We have been transformed into them, without quite knowing how, sometimes we have ended up in prison without precisely knowing how. We simply went ahead and did certain things that we felt we ought to do, and that seemed to us decent to do, nothing more nor less."{{Cite book|author=Keane, John|title=Václav Havel: A Political Tragedy in Six Acts|publisher=Basic Books|year=2000|page=[https://archive.org/details/vaclavhavelpolit00john/page/264 264]|isbn=0-465-03719-4|url=https://archive.org/details/vaclavhavelpolit00john/page/264}}

Samuel Beckett's 1982 short play, Catastrophe, was dedicated to Havel while he was held as a political prisoner in Czechoslovakia.'Catastrophe', Collected Shorter Plays of Samuel Beckett (New York: Grove P, 1994) pp. 295–302 {{ISBN|0-8021-5055-1}}. Havel wrote the short play Mistake in response to Beckett.{{Fact|date=April 2024}} Both plays were published by Index on Censorship, which in 2022 requested a followup play on similar themes from the Iranian playwright Reza Shirmarz.{{cite journal | url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/03064220211068702 | doi=10.1177/03064220211068702 | title=My dramatic tribute to Samuel Beckett and Catastrophe | date=2021 | last1=Frary | first1=Mark | journal=Index on Censorship | volume=50 | issue=4 | pages=51–59 }}

{{More citations needed section|date=June 2019}}

File:Karol sidon.jpg (left), his friend and later chief Czech rabbi]]

File:Flag of the President of the Czech Republic.svg during the interwar period.]]

On 29 December 1989, while he was leader of the Civic Forum, Havel became President of Czechoslovakia by a unanimous vote of the Federal Assembly. He had long insisted that he was not interested in politics and had argued that political change in the country should be induced through autonomous civic initiatives rather than through the official institutions. In 1990, soon after his election, Havel was awarded the Prize For Freedom of the Liberal International.{{cite web|url=http://www.liberal-international.org/editorial.asp?ia_id=707|title=Václav Havel (1990)|publisher=Liberal-international.org|access-date=2 December 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111026170223/http://www.liberal-international.org/editorial.asp?ia_id=707|archive-date=26 October 2011}}Stanger, Richard L. [http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=767 "Václav Havel: Heir to a Spiritual Legacy"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050827041919/http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=767 |date=27 August 2005 }}. The Christian Century (Christian Century Foundation), 11 April 1990: pp. 368–70. Rpt. in religion-online.org ("with permission"; "prepared for Religion Online by Ted & Winnie Brock"). ["Richard L. Stanger is senior minister at Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims in Brooklyn, New York".]Tucker, Scott. [http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-15388151.html "Capitalism with a Human Face?"]. The Humanist (American Humanist Association), 1 May 1994, "Our Queer World". Retrieved 21 December 2007. ["Václav Havel's philosophy and musings."]

In 1990, Czechoslovakia held its first free elections in 44 years, resulting in a sweeping victory for Civic Forum and its Slovak counterpart, Public Against Violence. Between them, they commanded strong majorities in both houses of the legislature, and tallied the highest popular vote share recorded for a free election in the country. Havel retained his presidency.{{citation needed|date=July 2017}}

Despite increasing political tensions between the Czechs and the Slovaks in 1992, Havel supported the retention of the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic prior to the dissolution of the country. Havel sought re-election in 1992. Although no other candidate filed, when the vote came on 3 July, he failed to get a majority due to a lack of support from Slovak deputies. The largest Czech political party, the Civic Democratic Party, let it be known that it would not support any other candidate. After the Slovaks issued their Declaration of Independence, he resigned as president on 20 July, saying that he would not preside over the country's breakup.{{Cite news|last=Engelberg|first=Stephen|date=1992-07-21|title=Vaclav Havel: Still Puckish, Still a Politician, No Longer President|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/07/21/world/vaclav-havel-still-puckish-still-a-politician-no-longer-president.html|access-date=2023-03-17|issn=0362-4331}}

However, when the Czech Republic was created as one of two successor states, he stood for election as its first president on 26 January 1993, and won. Although he was nominally the new country's chief executive, the framers of the Constitution of the Czech Republic intended to vest most of the real power in the prime minister. However, owing to his prestige, he still commanded great moral authority, and the presidency acquired a greater role than the framers intended. For instance, largely due to his influence, the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSCM), successor to the KSC's branch in the Czech Lands, was kept on the margins for most of his presidency. Havel suspected that the KSCM was still an unreformed Stalinist party.{{cite book |title=The World Today Series: Nordic, Central and Southeastern Europe |last=Thompson |first=Wayne C. |year=2008 |publisher=Stryker-Post Publications |location=Harpers Ferry, West Virginia |isbn=978-1-887985-95-6}}

Havel's popularity abroad surpassed his popularity at home,{{cite news|last=Ponikelska |first=Lenka |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-18/czechs-mourn-havel-as-leaders-gather-to-plan-funeral-1-.html |title=Czech Cabinet Meets to Plan Havel's Funeral as EU Holds Minute of Silence |newspaper=Bloomberg.com |date=19 December 2011 |publisher=Bloomberg |access-date=2013-11-19}} and he was often the object of controversy and criticism. During his time in office, Havel stated that the expulsion of the indigenous Sudeten German population after World War II was immoral, causing a great controversy at home. He also extended general amnesty as one of his first acts as president, in an attempt to lessen the pressure in overcrowded prisons as well as to release political prisoners and persons who may have been falsely imprisoned during the Communist era. Havel felt that many of the decisions by the previous regime's courts should not be trusted, and that most of those in prison had not received fair trials.{{cite web|url=http://old.hrad.cz/president/Havel/speeches/1990/0101_uk.html|title=Havel's New Year's address|publisher=Old.hrad.cz|access-date=2 December 2011}} However, critics claimed that this amnesty led to a significant increase in the crime rate:{{cite journal|last1=Janda|first1=Vojtěch|title=Listopad 1989: Se svobodou přišel zločin|journal=Deník|date=3 October 2009|url=http://www.denik.cz/z_domova/listopad_zlocin20091002.html|access-date=1 February 2016}} the total number of crimes doubled,{{cite book|title=Analýza trendů kriminality v roce 2010|year=2011|publisher=Institut pro kriminologii a sociální prevenci|location=Praha|isbn=978-80-7338-117-2|pages=124–128|url=http://lpxp.sweb.cz/392.pdf|access-date=1 February 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160214210121/http://lpxp.sweb.cz/392.pdf|archive-date=14 February 2016}} as did the number of murders.{{cite book|title=Analýza trendů kriminality v roce 2010|year=2011|publisher=Institut pro kriminologii a sociální prevenci|location=Praha|isbn=978-80-7338-117-2|page=129|url=http://lpxp.sweb.cz/392.pdf|access-date=1 February 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160214210121/http://lpxp.sweb.cz/392.pdf|archive-date=14 February 2016}}{{cite web|title=Počet vražd v České republice|url=https://www.czso.cz/csu/czso/cr_od_roku_1989_vrazdy|website=czso.cz|publisher=Český statistický úřad|access-date=1 February 2016}} Several of the worst crimes in the history of the Czech criminology were committed by criminals released in this amnesty.{{cite web|last1=Jedlička|first1=Miloslav|title=Jozef Slovák: pětinásobný vrah|url=http://kriminalistika.eu/muzeumzla/slovak/slovak.html|website=kriminalistika.eu|access-date=1 February 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160115165750/http://kriminalistika.eu/muzeumzla/slovak/slovak.html|archive-date=15 January 2016|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|last1=Jedlička|first1=Miloslav|title=Roman Kučerovský|url=http://kriminalistika.eu/muzeumzla/bezdekova/bezdek.html|website=kriminalistika.eu|access-date=1 February 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303021230/http://kriminalistika.eu/muzeumzla/bezdekova/bezdek.html|archive-date=3 March 2016|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|last1=Jedlička|first1=Miloslav|title=Vraha tří žen našli kriminalisté po třinácti letech. Díky DNA|url=http://brno.idnes.cz/vraha-tri-zen-nasli-kriminaliste-po-trinacti-letech-diky-dna-pl6-/brno-zpravy.aspx?c=A080920_1051265_brno_taj|website=iDnes.cz|access-date=1 February 2016|date=2008-09-20}} Within four years of the Velvet Revolution (and following another two amnesties declared by Havel), criminality had more than tripled since 1989. According to Havel's memoir To the Castle and Back, most of those who were released had less than a year to serve before their sentences ended, but statistics contradict Havel's claims.{{citation needed|date=July 2017}}

In an interview with Karel Hvížďala (included in To the Castle and Back), Havel expressed his feeling that it was his most important accomplishment as president to have contributed to the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact. According to his statement the dissolution was very complicated. The infrastructure created by the Warsaw Pact was part of the economies of all member states, and the Pact's dissolution necessitated restructuring that took many years to complete. Furthermore, it took time to dismantle the Warsaw Pact's institutions; for example, it took two years for Soviet troops to fully withdraw from Czechoslovakia.{{Citation needed|date=December 2011}}

File:Clinton-Linden.jpg, King Juan Carlos I of Spain and Simone Veil in 2000]]

Following a legal dispute with his sister-in-law Dagmar Havlová (wife of his brother Ivan M. Havel), Havel decided to sell his 50% stake in the Lucerna Palace on Wenceslas Square in Prague, built from 1907 to 1921 by his grandfather, also named Václav Havel (spelled Vácslav,) one of the multifunctional "palaces" in the center of the once booming pre-World War II Prague. In a transaction arranged by Marián Čalfa, Havel sold the estate to Václav Junek, a former Communist spy in France and head of the soon-to-be bankrupt conglomerate Chemapol Group, who later openly admitted that he bribed politicians of the Czech Social Democratic Party.{{cite web | first=Paul | last=Berman | url=http://www.columbia.edu/~js322/nyl/1997/n5/havel.html | title=The Poet of Democracy and His Burdens | work=The New York Times Magazine | date=11 May 1997 | access-date=18 March 2006 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060528191303/http://www.columbia.edu/~js322/nyl/1997/n5/havel.html | archive-date=28 May 2006 | url-status=dead }} (original inc. cover photo), as rpt. in English translation at Newyorské listy (New York Herald). Retrieved 29 April 2007.

His close friend was Ivan Medek, who became the chief of the president's office.PRECLÍK, Vratislav. Masaryk a legie (Masaryk and legions), váz. kniha, 219 pages, first issue – vydalo nakladatelství Paris Karviná, Žižkova 2379 (734 01 Karvina, CZ) ve spolupráci s Masarykovým demokratickým hnutím (Masaryk democratic movement, Prague), 2019, {{ISBN|978-80-87173-47-3}}, str. 24-25, s. 151, s. 157, s. 169, s. 184, s. 185

In January 1996, Olga Havlová, his wife of 32 years, died of cancer at 62. In December 1996, Havel who had been a chain smoker for a long time, was diagnosed with lung cancer.{{cite web|url=http://www.radio.cz/en/article/36022 |title=Vaclav Havel |publisher=Prague Radio.cz |access-date=2013-11-19}} The disease reappeared two years later. He quit smoking. In 1997, he remarried, to actress Dagmar Veškrnová.{{Cite news|date=2003-10-09

| last= Greene | first = Richard Allen

|title=Vaclav Havel: End of an era|language=en-GB|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2710977.stm|access-date=2023-03-17}}

Havel was among those influential politicians who contributed most to the transition of NATO from being an anti-Warsaw Pact alliance to its present form. Havel advocated vigorously for the inclusion of former-Warsaw Pact members, like the Czech Republic, into the Western alliance.{{Cite conference

| first= Václav | last= Havel

| chapter-url= http://www.csdr.org/96Book/Havel.htm | chapter=NATO: The Safeguard of Stability and Peace In the Euro-Atlantic Region

| title=European Security: Beginning a New Century

| editor1= George A. Joulwan

| editor2= Roger Weissinger-Baylon | conference= XIIIth NATO Workshop: On Political-Military Decision Making

| location= Warsaw

| date= 19–23 June 1996

}}{{cite web|last=Žižek|first=Slavoj|url=http://www.lrb.co.uk/v21/n21/zize01_.html|title=Attempts to Escape the Logic of Capitalism. Book review of Václav Havel: A Political Tragedy in Six Acts, by John Keane|work=London Review of Books|date=28 October 1999|access-date=21 December 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090415033140/http://lrb.co.uk/v21/n21/zize01_.html|archive-date=15 April 2009}}

Havel was re-elected president in 1998. He had to undergo a colostomy in Innsbruck when his colon ruptured while he was on holiday in Austria.{{Cite news|agency=Associated Press|date=1998-08-05|title=Havel's Medical Condition Seems to Worsen|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/08/05/world/havel-s-medical-condition-seems-to-worsen.html|access-date=2023-03-17|issn=0362-4331}}

On 30 January 2003, Havel signed The letter of the eight supporting planned U.S. invasion of Iraq.{{cite news |title=Vaclav Havel among 'European Eight' backing George W. Bush in US stance on Iraq |url=https://english.radio.cz/vaclav-havel-among-european-eight-backing-george-w-bush-us-stance-iraq-8070403 |work=Radio Prague International |date=31 January 2003}}{{cite news |title=Full text of letter written by eight European leaders |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/full-text-of-letter-written-by-eight-european-leaders-1.459198 |newspaper=The Irish Times |date=30 January 2003}}

Havel left office after his second term as Czech president ended on 2 February 2003. Václav Klaus, one of his greatest political adversaries, was elected his successor as president on 28 February 2003. Margaret Thatcher wrote of the two men in her foreign policy treatise {{em|Statecraft}}, reserving the greater respect for Havel. Havel's dedication to democracy and his steadfast opposition to communist ideology earned him admiration.{{Cite magazine

|last=Welch|first=Matt|date=May 2003|title=Velvet President|url=https://reason.com/2003/05/01/velvet-president-2/|access-date=2023-03-17|magazine=Reason|language=en-US}}[http://www.czech.cz/en/czech-republic/history/famous-czechs-of-the-past-century/vaclav-havel/ Václav Havel "Famous Czechs of the Past Century: Václav Havel"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070608050606/http://www.czech.cz/en/czech-republic/history/famous-czechs-of-the-past-century/vaclav-havel/ |date=8 June 2007 }} – English version of article featured on the official website of the Czech Republic.{{cite web|url=http://www.prague-life.com/prague/vaclav-havel |title=Václav Havel |publisher=Prague Life |access-date=2013-11-19}}

File:Jiri Jiroutek Havel Vaclav, Praha 2006.jpg

File:Národní třída (2010).jpg

Beginning in 1997, Havel hosted Forum 2000, an annual conference to "identify the key issues facing civilisation and to explore ways to prevent the escalation of conflicts that have religion, culture or ethnicity as their primary components". In 2005, the former president occupied the Kluge Chair for Modern Culture at the John W. Kluge Center of the United States Library of Congress, where he continued his research on human rights.{{cite web

|url=https://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=3697 |title=Václav Havel: The Emperor Has No Clothes Webcast (Library of Congress) |publisher=Loc.gov |access-date=2013-11-19}} In November and December 2006, Havel spent eight weeks as a visiting artist in residence at Columbia University. The stay was sponsored by the Columbia Arts Initiative and featured "performances, and panels centr[ing] on his life and ideas", including a public "conversation" with former U.S. President Bill Clinton. Concurrently, the Untitled Theater Company No. 61 launched a Havel Festival, the first complete festival of his plays in various venues throughout New York City, including The Brick Theater and the Ohio Theatre, in celebration of his 70th birthday.{{Cite web

| url= http://www.untitledtheater.com/havel/havel.html

| title= the Life and Art of Václav Havel: New York City, October through December 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061116094847/http://untitledtheater.com/havel/havel.html |archive-date=16 November 2006}}Capps, Walter H. [http://www.crosscurrents.org/capps.htm "Interpreting Václav Havel"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070703114922/http://www.crosscurrents.org/capps.htm |date=3 July 2007 }}. Cross Currents (Association for Religion & Intellectual Life) 47.3 (Fall 1997). Retrieved 21 December 2007.{{Cite web

| url=http://www.havel.columbia.edu

| title=Havel at Columbia: Václav Havel: The Artist, The Citizen, The Residency

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090922052727/http://havel.columbia.edu/ |archive-date=22 September 2009 }}{{cite web |url=http://www.gg.ca/honours/search-recherche/honours-desc.asp?lang=e&TypeID=orc&id=9675 |title=Honours: Order of Canada: Václav Havel |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051210181747/http://i.onmeda.de/nav/e1_selbsttests.gif |archive-date=10 December 2005 |access-date=21 December 2007 |url-status=dead}}{{cite web |url=http://www.untitledtheater.com/havel/havel.html |title=The Havel Festival : Václav Havel |publisher=Untitledtheater.com |access-date=2013-11-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061116094847/http://untitledtheater.com/havel/havel.html |archive-date=16 November 2006 |url-status=dead }}{{cite web |url=http://www.untitledtheater.com/havel/havel-festival.html |title=The Havel Festival |publisher=Untitledtheater.com |access-date=2013-11-19 |archive-date=8 January 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150108060642/http://www.untitledtheater.com/havel/havel-festival.html |url-status=dead }} Havel was a member of the World Future Society and addressed the Society's members on 4 July 1994. His speech was later printed in THE FUTURIST magazine (July 1995).{{cite web |url=http://www.wfs.org/content/vaclav-havel-transcendence |title=Václav Havel on Transcendence | World Future Society |publisher=Wfs.org |access-date=2013-11-19 |archive-date=10 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120110081807/http://www.wfs.org/content/vaclav-havel-transcendence |url-status=dead }}

Havel was greatly admired by Czech citizens. In the poll taken for the 2005 TV show Největší Čech (the Czech spin-off of the BBC 100 Greatest Britons), Havel placed third.

Havel's memoir of his experience as president, To the Castle and Back, was published in May 2007. The book mixes an interview in the style of Disturbing the Peace with actual memoranda he sent to his staff and modern diary entries and recollections.{{cite news|url= https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/aug/16/biography1|title=Czechout|last=Pinder|first=Ian| date=16 August 2008|work=The Guardian|location=UK|access-date=28 August 2008}}

On 4 August 2007, Havel met with members of the Belarus Free Theatre at his summer cottage in the Czech Republic in a show of his continuing support, which has been instrumental in the theatre's attaining international recognition and membership in the European Theatrical Convention.{{Cite web

| archive-date= 27 September 2007

| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927154904/http://www.dramaturg.org/?lang=en&menu=expand_article&article_id=9786366144

| url=http://www.dramaturg.org/?lang=en&menu=expand_article&article_id=9786366144

| url-status= dead

| title= Belarus Free Theatre meet Vaclav Havel

| date = 13 August 2007

| first= Anna| last= Tikhanovich

| publisher= Belarus Free Theatre

}}Michael Batiukov, [http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=35833 "Belarus 'Free Theatre' is Under Attack by Militia in Minsk, Belarus"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131111181145/http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=35833 |date=11 November 2013 }}, American Chronicle, 22 August 2007. Retrieved 31 August 2007.

Havel went on a hunger strike in 2007 to support Kurdish doctor and human rights activist Yekta Uzunoglu in his legal battle. A former president going on a hunger strike to support the legal battle of a foreigner in his country was a first in world history.{{Cite web|date=2007-03-22|title=Vaclav Havel to hold symbolic hunger strike|url=https://english.radio.cz/vaclav-havel-hold-symbolic-hunger-strike-8474659|access-date=2021-05-22|website=Radio Prague International|language=en}}{{Cite web|last=ČTK|date=2007-03-23|title=Havel symbolicky hladověl za Uzunoglua|url=https://ihned.cz/c1-20736800-havel-symbolicky-hladovel-za-uzunoglua|access-date=2021-05-22|website=Hospodářské noviny (iHNed.cz)|language=cs}}

Havel's first new play in almost two decades, Leaving, was published in November 2007, and was to have had its world premiere in June 2008 at the Prague Vinohrady Theatre,Adam Hetrick, [https://archive.today/20130131111750/http://www.playbill.com/news/article/112899.html "Václav Havel's Leaving May Arrive in American Theatres"], Playbill, 19 November 2007. Retrieved 21 December 2007. but the theater withdrew it in December as it felt it could not provide the technical support needed to mount the play.{{Cite web

| first = Daniela| last= Lazarová

|date=14 December 2007|title=Will it be third time lucky for Vaclav Havel's play "Leaving"?|url=https://english.radio.cz/will-it-be-third-time-lucky-vaclav-havels-play-leaving-8601077|access-date=2023-03-17|website=Radio Prague International|language=en}} The play instead premiered on 22 May 2008 at the Archa Theatre to standing ovations.{{cite web|url=http://www.praguemonitor.com/en/344/arts_in_prague/23308|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080530225800/http://www.praguemonitor.com/en/344/arts_in_prague/23308 |archive-date=30 May 2008|title=Everyone loves Havel's Leaving|access-date=23 March 2011}} Havel based the play on King Lear, by William Shakespeare, and on The Cherry Orchard, by Anton Chekhov; "Chancellor Vilém Rieger is the central character of Leaving, who faces a crisis after being removed from political power." The play had its English language premiere at the Orange Tree Theatre in London and its American premiere at The Wilma Theater in Philadelphia. Havel subsequently directed a film version of the play, which premiered in the Czech Republic on 22 March 2011.{{cite web|last=Feifer|first=Gregory|url=http://www.rferl.org/content/havel_film_leaving_premieres_prague/2347368.html|title=Havel Film Premieres in Prague|publisher=Rferl.org|date=23 March 2011|access-date=2 December 2011}}

Other works included the short sketch Pět Tet, a modern sequel to Unveiling, and The Pig, or Václav Havel's Hunt for a Pig, which was premiered in Brno at Theatre Goose on a String and had its English language premiere at the 3LD Art & Technology Center in New York, in a production from Untitled Theater Company No. 61, in a production workshopped in the Ice Factory Festival in 2011{{cite web|url=http://host.theatre.cz/art/clanek.asp?id=22091|title=DIVADLO.CZ: Of Pigs and Dissidents|publisher=Host.theatre.cz|date=29 June 2010|access-date=2 December 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110818012735/http://host.theatre.cz/art/clanek.asp?id=22091|archive-date=18 August 2011}}{{cite web|last=Callahan|first=Dan|url=http://www.thelmagazine.com/gyrobase/summer-preview-performance/Content?oid=2087702|title=Summer Preview: Performance | Theater Reviews | The L Magazine – New York City's Local Event and Arts & Culture Guide|date=11 May 2011|publisher=The L Magazine|access-date=2 December 2011|archive-date=19 January 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120119144725/http://www.thelmagazine.com/gyrobase/summer-preview-performance/Content?oid=2087702|url-status=dead}} and later revived as a full production in 2014, becoming a New York Times Critic's Pick.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/13/theater/the-pig-or-vaclav-havels-hunt-for-a-pig-a-wry-czech-tale.html|title= A Song-And-Dance Survival Strategy|newspaper=nytimes.com|date=12 March 2014}}

In 2008, Havel became a Member of the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation. He met U.S. President Barack Obama in private before Obama's departure after the end of the European Union (EU) and United States (US) summit in Prague in April 2009.{{cite web|url=http://praguemonitor.com/2009/04/08/havels-gift-obama-be-displayed-prague-gallery|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090411163613/http://praguemonitor.com/2009/04/08/havels-gift-obama-be-displayed-prague-gallery |archive-date=11 April 2009|title=Havel's gift for Obama to be displayed in Prague gallery | Prague Monitor|access-date=23 March 2011}} Havel was the chair of the Human Rights Foundation's International Council and a member of the international advisory council of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.{{cite web|url=http://www.victimsofcommunism.org/about/internationaladvisors.php|title=International Advisory Council|publisher=Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110610171747/http://www.victimsofcommunism.org/about/internationaladvisors.php|archive-date=10 June 2011|access-date=20 May 2011|url-status=dead}}

Havel was a supporter of the Campaign for the Establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly, an organisation which campaigns for democratic reformation of the United Nations, and the creation of a more accountable international political system.{{Cite news|url=http://en.unpacampaign.org/supporters/overview/?mapcountry=allnob&mapgroup=nob|title=Supporters|work=Campaign for a UN Parliamentary Assembly|access-date=2017-09-26|language=en-US}} From the 1980s, Havel supported the green politics movement, partly due to his friendship with the co-founder of the German Alliance 90/The Greens party Milan Horáček.{{cite web |url=http://denikreferendum.cz/clanek/12129-vaclav-havel-byl-soucasti-odvekeho-lidskeho-snazeni-o-lepsi-svet |title=Václav Havel byl součástí odvěkého lidského snažení o lepší svět |publisher=Denikreferendum.cz |date=2011-12-19 |access-date=2013-11-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120103101546/http://denikreferendum.cz/clanek/12129-vaclav-havel-byl-soucasti-odvekeho-lidskeho-snazeni-o-lepsi-svet |archive-date=3 January 2012 |url-status=dead }}{{cite web |url=http://prehravac.rozhlas.cz/audio/2511911 |title=Český rozhlas Plus (archiv – Portréty) |publisher=Prehravac.rozhlas.cz |date=2011-12-18 |access-date=2013-11-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120106201926/http://prehravac.rozhlas.cz/audio/2511911 |archive-date=6 January 2012 |url-status=dead }} From 2004 until his death, he supported the Czech Green Party.{{cite web |url=http://www.novinky.cz/domaci/178277-zelene-podporil-havel-vymezuji-se-proti-top-09.html |title=Zelené podpořil Havel, vymezují se proti TOP 09 – |publisher=Novinky.cz |access-date=2013-11-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120104013411/http://www.novinky.cz/domaci/178277-zelene-podporil-havel-vymezuji-se-proti-top-09.html |archive-date=4 January 2012 |url-status=dead }}{{cite web |url=http://www.novinky.cz/domaci/169021-zeleni-predstavili-sve-sympatizanty-havla-schwarzenberga-a-holubovou.html |title=Zelení představili své sympatizanty – Havla, Schwarzenberga a Holubovou |publisher=Novinky.cz |access-date=2013-11-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120103235718/http://www.novinky.cz/domaci/169021-zeleni-predstavili-sve-sympatizanty-havla-schwarzenberga-a-holubovou.html |archive-date=3 January 2012 |url-status=dead }}{{cite web|url=http://tn.nova.cz/zpravy/domaci/havel-pred-podporil-volbami-zelene-tovarny-srovnal-s-koncentraky.html |title=Havel podpořil zelené. Srovnal továrny s koncentráky |date=18 May 2009 |publisher=Tn.nova.cz |access-date=2013-11-19}}{{cite web |url=http://zpravy.tiscali.cz/vaclav-havel-vyzyva-obcany-k-volbe-strany-zelenych-17745 |title=Aktuální zpravodajství | Václav Havel vyzývá občany k volbě Strany zelených | Tiscali.cz |publisher=Zpravy.tiscali.cz |access-date=2013-11-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304061827/http://zpravy.tiscali.cz/vaclav-havel-vyzyva-obcany-k-volbe-strany-zelenych-17745 |archive-date=4 March 2016 |url-status=dead }}

File:Pietní shromáždění na Václavském náměstí při příležitosti úmrtí Václava Havla v roce 2011 (22).JPG in Prague on the day of his death on 18 December 2011]]

A week before his death, he met with his long-time friend, the Dalai Lama, in Prague;{{cite news|title=Dalai Lama pays 'friendly' visit to Prague|url=http://www.praguepost.com/news/11401-dalai-lama-pays-friendly-visit-to-prague.html|access-date=18 December 2011|newspaper=The Prague Post}} Havel appeared in a wheelchair. He died in the morning of 18 December 2011, at the age of 75, at his country home in Hrádeček.{{cite news|first1=Dan|last1=Bilefsky|first2=Jane|last2=Perlez|title=Václav Havel, Former Czech President, Dies at 75|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/19/world/europe/vaclav-havel-dissident-playwright-who-led-czechoslovakia-dead-at-75.html|newspaper=The New York Times|date=18 December 2011}}{{cite news|title=Václav Havel, Czech statesman and playwright, dies at 75|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16236393|website=BBC News|publisher=BBC|date=18 December 2011}}{{cite journal |url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/feb/09/vaclav-havel-1936-2011/|first=Paul|last=Wilson|title=Václav Havel (1936–2011)|date=9 February 2012 |journal=The New York Review of Books |volume=59 |issue=2 |access-date=21 January 2012}}

Prime Minister Petr Nečas announced a three-day mourning period from 21 to 23 December, the date announced by President Václav Klaus for the state funeral. The funeral Mass was held at Saint Vitus Cathedral, celebrated by the Archbishop of Prague Dominik Duka and Havel's old friend Bishop Václav Malý. During the service, a 21 gun salute was fired in the former president's honour, and in accordance with the family's request, a private ceremony followed at Prague's Strašnice Crematorium. Havel's ashes were placed in the family tomb in the Vinohrady Cemetery in Prague.{{Cite web|title=Václav Havel to be given state funeral and highest military honors|url=http://www.radio.cz/en/section/curraffrs/vaclav-havel-to-be-given-state-funeral-and-highest-military-honors|website=Radio Prague|date=20 December 2011 |access-date=21 December 2011}} On 23 December 2011, the Václav Havel Tribute Concert was held in Prague's Palác Lucerna.{{Cite news|first1=Jana|last1=Záhorková|first2=Čeněk|last2=Třeček|title=Hudebníky napěchovaná Lucerna vzdala hold Havlovi, zazpívala i Vega a Král|url=https://kultura.zpravy.idnes.cz/zacina-vecirek-pro-havla-klani-se-lucerna-s-plastiky-a-kralem-pr2-/hudba.aspx?c=A111223_173136_hudba_jaz|newspaper=Mladá fronta Dnes|date=23 December 2011|language=cs}}

File:Václav Havel 2014 Václavské náměstí.JPG on 17 November 2014, the 25th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution.]]

File:VaclavHavelAirport.JPG was renamed to Václav Havel Airport Prague]]

Within hours Havel's death was met with numerous tributes, including from U.S. President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister David Cameron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former Polish President Lech Wałęsa. Merkel called Havel "a great European", while Wałęsa said he should have been given the Nobel Peace Prize.{{cite news|title=World Reacts To Václav Havel's Death|url=http://www.rferl.org/content/world_reaction_to_havel_death/24425874.html|access-date=18 December 2011|newspaper=Radio Free Europe}} The Russian Embassy sent an official condolence on behalf of the President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.{{Cite web|first=Jan|last=Richter|title=Russian embassy says condolence on Václav Havel's death was sent to President Klaus|url=http://www.radio.cz/en/section/news/russian-embassy-says-condolence-on-vaclav-havels-death-was-sent-to-president-klaus|access-date=20 December 2011|newspaper=Radio Prague|date=20 December 2011 }} Slovakia declared 23 December a day of national mourning.{{cite web | url=https://spectator.sme.sk/c/20042023/slovakia-declares-december-23-as-official-day-of-mourning-for-vaclav-havel.html | title=Slovakia declares December 23 as official day of mourning for Václav Havel|website=The Slovak Spectator|date=20 December 2011}}

At the news of his death, former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, a native of Czechoslovakia, said, "He was one of the great figures of the 20th Century", while Czech expatriate novelist Milan Kundera said: "Václav Havel's most important work is his own life."{{cite news|url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,804614,00.html|url-status=live|title=A Continent Mourns the Passing of Vaclav Havel|newspaper=Der Spiegel|access-date=18 December 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111220172408/http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,804614,00.html|archive-date=20 December 2011}} Leader of Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia, Vojtěch Filip, stated that Havel was a very controversial person and that his words often conflicted with his deeds. He criticized Havel for having supported the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, repeating the charge that Havel had called the event a "humanitarian bombing",{{Cite news|title=Czech politicians express sorrow over Václav Havel's death|url=http://praguemonitor.com/2011/12/19/czech-politicians-express-sorrow-over-v%C3%A1clav-havels-death|url-status=dead|newspaper=Prague Daily Monitor|date=19 December 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120510062142/http://praguemonitor.com/2011/12/19/czech-politicians-express-sorrow-over-v%C3%A1clav-havels-death|archive-date=10 May 2012}} although Havel had expressly and emphatically denied ever using such a phrase.Václav Havel, K Falbrově lži, Mladá fronta Dnes 24 May 2004: Obskurní pojem "humanitární bombardování" jsem samozřejmě nejen nevymyslel, ale nikdy ani nepoužil a použít nemohl, neboť mám – troufám si tvrdit – vkus. {{In lang|cs}}

An online petition organized by one of the best-known Czech and Slovak film directors, Fero Fenič, calling on the government and the Parliament to rename Prague Ruzyně Airport to Václav Havel International Airport attracted—in a week after 20 December 2011—support of over 80,000 Czech Republic and foreign signatories.{{cite news|title=Petition to name the Prague – Ruzyne airport Václav Havel International Airport|url=http://vaclavhavelairport.com/|website=Václav Havel International Airport|access-date=27 December 2011}} It was announced that the airport would be renamed the Václav Havel Airport Prague on 5 October 2012.{{Cite web|first=Christian|last=Falvey|title=Government renames airport after Havel, but botches translation|url=http://www.radio.cz/en/section/curraffrs/government-renames-airport-after-havel-but-botches-translation|website=Radio Prague|date=22 March 2012|access-date=19 November 2023}}{{cite web|url=http://vaclavhavelairport.com/|title=Letiště Václava Havla|website=Václav Havel International Airport|access-date=19 November 2023}}

Reviewing a new biography by Michael Žantovský, Yale historian Marci Shore summarized his challenges as president: "Havel's message, 'We are all responsible, we are all guilty,' was not popular. He enacted a general amnesty for all but the most serious criminals, apologized on behalf of Czechoslovakia for the post-World War II expulsion of the Sudeten Germans and resisted demands for a more draconian purge of secret police collaborators. These things were not popular either. And as the government undertook privatization and restitution, Havel confronted pyramid schemes, financial corruption and robber baron capitalism. He saw his country fall apart (if bloodlessly), becoming in 1993 the Czech Republic and Slovakia."{{Cite news|last=Shore|first=Marci|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/28/books/review/havel-a-life-by-michael-zantovsky.html|title='Havel: A Life,' by Michael Zantovsky|newspaper=The New York Times|date=26 December 2014|access-date=17 March 2023|issn=0362-4331}}

In 1986, Havel received the Erasmus Prize, in 1989 the Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels, and in 1990, he received the Gottlieb Duttweiler Prize for his outstanding contributions to the well-being of the wider community. In the same year he received the Freedom medal.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}}

In 1993, he was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.{{cite web|url = http://www.rslit.org/content/fellows|title = Royal Society of Literature All Fellows|publisher = Royal Society of Literature|access-date = 9 August 2010|url-status = dead|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100305070326/http://www.rslit.org/content/fellows|archive-date = 5 March 2010}}

On 4 July 1994, Václav Havel was awarded the Philadelphia Liberty Medal. In his acceptance speech, he said: "The idea of human rights and freedoms must be an integral part of any meaningful world order. Yet I think it must be anchored in a different place, and in a different way, than has been the case so far. If it is to be more than just a slogan mocked by half the world, it cannot be expressed in the language of departing era, and it must not be mere froth floating on the subsiding waters of faith in a purely scientific relationship to the world."[http://www.constitutioncenter.org/libertymedal/recipient_1994_speech.html 1994 Speech Václav Havel – Liberty Medal], National Constitution Center

Havel was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1995.{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=V%C3%A1clav+Havel&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-12-20|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}

In 1997, Havel received ex aequo the Prince of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities{{Cite news|url=https://elpais.com/diario/1997/04/12/sociedad/860796001_850215.html|title=Havel y la CNN comparten el Príncipe de Asturias de Comunicación y Humanidades|date=1997-04-12|work=El País|access-date=2020-02-13|language=es|issn=1134-6582}} and the Prix mondial Cino Del Duca.{{Cite web|url=http://www.fondation-del-duca.fr/prix-mondial|title=Prix mondial|date=2014-04-11|website=Fondation Simone et Cino Del Duca|language=fr|access-date=2020-02-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200101092228/http://www.fondation-del-duca.fr/prix-mondial|archive-date=1 January 2020|url-status=dead}}

In 1998, the jury of the Europe Theatre Prize awarded him a special prize by the President Jack Lang.{{Cite web |title=Palmares Europe Theatre Prize |url=https://www.premioeuropa.org/palmares/ |access-date=2022-12-21 |website=Premio Europa per il Teatro |language=it-IT}}

In 2001, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.{{Cite web|title=Vaclav Havel|url=https://www.amacad.org/person/vaclav-havel|access-date=2021-12-20|website=American Academy of Arts & Sciences|language=en}}

In 2002, he was the third recipient of the Hanno R. Ellenbogen Citizenship Award presented by the Prague Society for International Cooperation. In 2003, he was awarded the International Gandhi Peace Prize by the government of India for his outstanding contribution towards world peace and upholding human rights in most difficult situations through Gandhian means; he was the inaugural recipient of Amnesty International's Ambassador of Conscience Award for his work in promoting human rights;Shipsey, Bill. [http://www.artforamnesty.org/aoc/biog_havel.html "Václav Havel: Ambassador of Conscience 2003: From Prisoner to President – A Tribute"] He also received Seoul Peace Prize in 2004.{{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20060621133537/http://www.artforamnesty.org/aoc/biog_havel.html |date=21 June 2006 }}. Amnesty International (October 2003). Retrieved 21 December 2007. he received the US Presidential Medal of Freedom;{{Cite web|url=http://www.radio.cz/en/section/curraffrs/havel-to-receive-us-presidential-medal-of-freedom|title=Havel to receive U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom|website=Radio Prague International|date=23 July 2003|language=en|access-date=2020-02-13}} and he was appointed as an honorary Companion of the Order of Canada.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/vaclav-havel-associated-values-with-canada-johnston-1.744493|title=Vaclav Havel associated values with Canada: Johnston|date=2011-12-23|website=CTVNews|language=en|access-date=2020-02-13}}

File:Moscow rally 24 December 2011, Sakharov Avenue -1.JPG in Moscow, 24 December 2011]]

In 2008 he was also awarded the Giuseppe Motta Medal for support for peace and democracy.{{cite web |url=http://motta.gidd.eu.org/#!medal-winners-2008/cypa |title= Giuseppe Motta Medal|website=motta.gidd.eu.org |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222040927/http://motta.gidd.eu.org/#!medal-winners-2008/cypa |archive-date=22 February 2014}} As a former Czech President, Havel was a member of the Club of Madrid.{{cite web|url=http://www.clubmadrid.org|title=The Club of Madrid|publisher=Clubmadrid.org|access-date=2 December 2011|archive-date=14 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171114204710/http://www.clubmadrid.org/|url-status=dead}} In 2009 he was awarded the Quadriga Award,{{cite web|title=Havel gets Quadriga award|first=Daniela|last=Lazarová|url=https://english.radio.cz/havel-gets-quadriga-award-8411996|publisher=Radio Prague International|access-date=17 May 2024|date=4 October 2009}} but decided to return it in 2011 following the announcement of Vladimir Putin as one of the 2011 award recipients.{{Cite news|last=Kulish|first=Nicholas|date=2011-07-16|title=German Group That Cited Putin as 'Role Model' Cancels Prize After Outcry|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/17/world/europe/17germany.html|access-date=2023-03-17|issn=0362-4331}}

Havel also received multiple honorary doctorates from various universities such as the prestigious Institut d'études politiques de Paris (Sciences Po) in 2009,{{cite web|title=Honorary Doctorates|url=http://vaclavhavel.cz/index.php?sec=1&id=8|access-date=23 December 2008}} and was a Foreign Associate Member of the French {{lang|fr|Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques|italic=no}} from October 1992 until his death.{{Cite web|url=https://academiesciencesmoralesetpolitiques.fr/1992/10/27/installation-de-m-vaclav-havel-comme-membre-associe-etranger-au-fauteuil-laisse-vacant-par-le-deces-de-ugo-papi/|title=Installation de M. Vaclav Havel comme membre associé étranger au fauteuil laissé vacant par le décès de Ugo Papi|date=27 October 1992|website=Academie des Sciences Morales et Politiques|access-date=25 January 2019}}

On 10 October 2011, Havel was awarded by the Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili with the St. George Victory Order.{{youTube|SYd2k7qOxtk|ვაცლავ ჰაველის დაჯილდოება}} In November 2014, he became only the fourth non-American honored with a bust in the U.S. Capitol.{{cite news |url= https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/are-czechs-giving-up-on-a-sense-of-moral-responsibility/2014/11/16/dfa0d0fc-6c41-11e4-b053-65cea7903f2e_story.html |title= Are Czechs giving up on moral responsibility? |first= Carl |last= Gershman |newspaper= The Washington Post |date= 16 November 2014 |access-date= 17 November 2014}}

• {{flag|India}}: Indira Gandhi Peace Prize (1993), New Delhi{{Cite web|title=Address by V. Havel|url=http://old.hrad.cz/president/Havel/speeches/1994/0802_uk.html|access-date=2023-03-17|website=old.hrad.cz}}
• {{flag|Netherlands}}: Geuzenpenning (1995), Vlaardingen
• {{flag|European Union}}: Europe Theatre Prize - Special Prize (1998), Taormina
• {{flag|India}}: Gandhi Peace Prize (08/2003), Delhi

File:Praha, Náměstí Václava Havla, srdce Kurta Gebauera (4710).jpg

In April 2012, Havel's widow, Dagmar Havlová, authorized the creation of the Václav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent. The prize was created by the New York-based Human Rights Foundation and is awarded at the annual Oslo Freedom Forum. The prize "will celebrate those who engage in creative dissent, exhibiting courage and creativity to challenge injustice and live in truth".{{cite web |url=http://humanrightsfoundation.org/news/the-vaclav-havel-prize-for-creative-dissent-0069 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140517182232/http://humanrightsfoundation.org/news/the-vaclav-havel-prize-for-creative-dissent-0069 |url-status=dead |archive-date=17 May 2014 |title=The Václav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent |date=11 April 2012 |publisher=Human Rights Foundation |access-date=1 August 2014 }}

The Václav Havel Library, located in Prague, is a charitable organization founded by Dagmar Havlová, Karel Schwarzenberg and Miloslav Petrusek on 26 July 2004. It maintains a collection of pictorial, audio and written materials and other artefacts linked to Václav Havel.{{cite book|author=Miloslav Rechcígl|title=On Behalf of Their Homeland: Fifty Years of SVU : an Eyewitness Account of the History of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fx4TAQAAIAAJ|year=2008|publisher=East European Monographs|isbn=978-0-88033-630-7}}{{Cite web|date=2015-04-11

| first1= Azadeh | last1= Mohammadi

| first2= David | last2= Vaughan

|title=Havel's Letter to Husák: still an inspiration 40 years on|url=https://english.radio.cz/havels-letter-husak-still-inspiration-40-years-8263435|access-date=2023-03-17|website=Radio Prague International|language=en}} The institution gathers these materials for the purpose of digitisation, documentation and research and to promote his ideas. It organises lectures,[http://praguemonitor.com/2015/03/24/taiwanese-disappointed-zemans-view-taiwan "Taiwanese disappointed at Zeman's view of Taiwan"]. Prague Daily Monitor 24 March 2015 holds conferences and social and cultural events that introduce the public to the work of Václav Havel and club discussion meetings on current social issues. It runs educational activities for secondary-level students. It is also involved in the issuing of publications.{{citation needed|date=July 2017}} The library makes accessible Václav Havel's literary, philosophical and political writings, and provides a digital reading room for researchers and students in the Czech Republic and elsewhere.{{citation needed|date=July 2017}}

In May 2012, the library opened a branch in New York City named the Václav Havel Library Foundation. In 2014, the Václav Havel Library moved to larger premises at Ostrovni 13, in the centre of Prague.{{Cite web

| first = Ian | last=Willoughby

|date=2014-10-01|title=New venue doubles capacity for Václav Havel Library events|url=https://english.radio.cz/new-venue-doubles-capacity-vaclav-havel-library-events-8282297|access-date=2023-03-17|website=Radio Prague International|language=en}}

In July 2017, the European Parliament opened a new building on its official Strasbourg site. The building was named after Havel and decorated with a bust of the former Czech president.{{cite web|title=Václav Havel: Parliament dedicates building to former Czech president|date=7 June 2017|url=http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/headlines/eu-affairs/20170630STO78716/vaclav-havel-parliament-dedicates-building-to-former-czech-president|publisher=News / European Parliament|access-date=19 July 2017}}{{cite web|title=Official opening of the Havel Building|url=http://www.europarl.europa.eu/the-president/en/newsroom/official-opening-of-the-havel-building|publisher=European Parliament / The President|access-date=19 July 2017|archive-date=19 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019195955/http://www.europarl.europa.eu/the-president/en/newsroom/official-opening-of-the-havel-building|url-status=dead}}

On 4 October 2016, the day before what would have been the 80th birthday of Václav Havel, his photograph was presented on a fountain in Croatian capital Zagreb. Croatian-Czech Society proposed the Václav Havel Street in Zagreb.{{cite web|url=http://www.politikaplus.com/novost/143846/lik-vaclava-havela-na-fontanama-u-povodu-80.-godisnjice-rodenja|title=Lik Vaclava Havela na fontanama u povodu 80. godišnjice rođenja|access-date=15 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170116180717/http://www.politikaplus.com/novost/143846/lik-vaclava-havela-na-fontanama-u-povodu-80.-godisnjice-rodenja|archive-date=16 January 2017|url-status=dead}}

File:Havel fontane.jpg, Croatia]]

In November 2016, Václav Havel Boulevard was opened in Kyiv, Ukraine. The new name has replaced the one given during Soviet era when boulevard was named in honor of the Communist politician Jānis Lepse. In December, First Deputy Chairman Iryna Herashchenko along with Minister of Culture of Czech Republic Daniel Herman and Minister of Culture of Ukraine Yevhen Nyshchuk opened memorial plaque in honor of Václav Havel.

The Václav Havel Bench (Havel's Place) is an artistic and urban utility project, created by Czech architect and designer Bořek Šípek.{{Cite web|url=http://www.rozhlas.cz/zpravy/politika/_zprava/v-praze-bude-lavicka-vaclava-havla-ma-upozornovat-na-nutnost-dialogu--1345611|title=The Václav Havel Bench}} It is composed of two wooden garden chairs connected by a round table, which has a hole inside. A linden, the Czech national tree, is growing through this hole. These benches can be found in many Czech towns as well as in some foreign locations such as Washington, D.C., Dublin, Lisbon, and Barcelona.

On 19 November 2014, a bust of Havel, created by Czech-American artist Lubomír Janečka, was unveiled at the U.S. Congress, commemorating the 25-year anniversary of the Velvet Revolution. Havel is the fourth European ever to be honored by having a bust of himself in the U.S. Congress, after Winston Churchill, Raoul Wallenberg and Lajos Kossuth.{{Cite web|url=http://www.lidovky.cz/v-americkem-kongresu-byla-odhalena-busta-vaclava-havla-ppt-/zpravy-svet.aspx?c=A141119_193239_ln_zahranici_ele|title=Pocta Havlovi. Jako čtvrtý Evropan má v americkém Kongresu bustu {{!}} Svět|date=2014-11-19|website=Lidovky.cz|access-date=2017-02-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161002152111/http://www.lidovky.cz/v-americkem-kongresu-byla-odhalena-busta-vaclava-havla-ppt-/zpravy-svet.aspx?c=A141119_193239_ln_zahranici_ele|archive-date=2 October 2016|url-status=dead}} Another sculpture of Havel is placed in a boardroom of Leinster House in Dublin, the historical seat of the Oireachtas, the Irish National Parliament.{{Cite news|url=http://www.rozhlas.cz/zpravy/svet/_zprava/havel-ma-jako-prvni-cizinec-bustu-v-irskem-parlamentu-byl-vyjimecnou-osobnosti-rika-politik--1677264|title=Havel má jako první cizinec bustu v irském parlamentu. Byl výjimečnou osobností, říká politik|access-date=2017-02-18|language=cs}}

On 22 June 2017 a statue of Václav Havel created by Georgian sculptor Jumber Jikia was unveiled in Tbilisi, Georgia.{{cite web|url=http://georgiatoday.ge/news/6874/Statue-of-Vaclav-Havel-Erected-in-Tbilisi|title=Statue of Vaclav Havel Erected in Tbilisi|website=Georgia Today on the Web|access-date=23 June 2017|archive-date=23 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170623041709/http://georgiatoday.ge/news/6874/Statue-of-Vaclav-Havel-Erected-in-Tbilisi|url-status=dead}}

The Václav Havel Library Foundation donated a bust of Havel to Columbia University in New York City. This bust was unveiled on 27 September 2018 while Havel was being honored by former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.{{cite web| url = https://sipa.columbia.edu/news/madeleine-albright-remembers-vaclav-havel| title = Madeleine Albright Remembers Vaclav Havel {{!}} Columbia SIPA}}

{{more citations needed|section|date=July 2017}}

{{wikisource author}}

• Čtyři rané básně (Four Early Poems)
• Záchvěvy I & II, 1954 (Quivers I & II)
• První úpisy, 1955 (First promissory notes)
• Prostory a časy, 1956 (Spaces and times)
• Na okraji jara (cyklus básní), 1956 (At the edge of spring (poetry cycle))
• Antikódy, 1964 (Anticodes)

• Life Ahead/You Have Your Whole Life Ahead of You, 1959, (Život před sebou) with Karel Brynda
• Motomorphosis/Motormorphosis, 1960/1961, (Motomorfóza), a sketch from Autostop
• Ela, Hela, and the Hitch, 1960/1961, (Ela, Hela a stop), a sketch for Autostop; discarded from the play, lost; found in 2009; published in 2011
• An Evening with the Family, 1960, (Rodinný večer)
• The Best Years of Missis Hermanová, 1962, (Nejlepší rocky paní Hermanové) with Miloš Macourek
• The Garden Party (Zahradní slavnost), 1963
• The Memorandum (or The Memo), 1965, (Vyrozumění)
• The Increased Difficulty of Concentration, 1968, (Ztížená možnost soustředění)
• Butterfly on the Antenna, 1968, (Motýl na anténě)
• Guardian Angel, 1968, (Anděl strážný)
• Conspirators, 1971, (Spiklenci)
• The Beggar's Opera, 1975, (Žebrácká opera)
• Audience, 1975, (Audience) – a Vanӗk play
• Unveiling, 1975, (Vernisáž) – a Vanӗk play
• Mountain Hotel 1976, (Horský hotel)
• Protest, 1978, (Protest) – a Vanӗk play
• Mistake, 1983, (Chyba) 
• Largo desolato 1984, (Largo desolato)
• Temptation, 1985, (Pokoušení)
• Redevelopment, 1987, (Asanace)
• The Pig, or Václav Havel's Hunt for a Pig (Prase, aneb Václav Havel's Hunt for a Pig), 1987; published in 2010; premiered in 2010, co-authored by Vladimír Morávek
• Tomorrow, 1988, (Zítra to spustíme)
• Leaving (Odcházení), 2007
• Dozens of Cousins (Pět Tet), 2010, a Vanӗk play, a short sketch/sequel to Unveiling

• The Power of the Powerless (1985) [Includes 1978 titular essay. [https://web.archive.org/web/20120107141633/http://www.vaclavhavel.cz/showtrans.php?cat=clanky&val=72_aj_clanky.html&typ=HTML Online]]
• Living in Truth (1986)
• Letters to Olga (Dopisy Olze) (1988)
• Disturbing the Peace (1991)
• Open Letters (1991)
• Summer Meditations (Letní přemítání) (1992/93)
• Toward a Civil Society (1994)
• The Art of the Impossible (1998)
• To the Castle and Back (2007)

• Pizh'duks

• Odcházení, 2011

• Havel was a major supporter of The Plastic People of the Universe, and close friend of its leader, Milan Hlavsa, its manager, Ivan Martin Jirous, and its guitarist/vocalist, Paul Wilson (who later became Havel's English translator and biographer) and a great fan of the rock band The Velvet Underground, sharing mutual respect with the principal singer-songwriter Lou Reed. Reed interviewed Havel in his book "Between Thought And Expression." Havel was also a lifelong Frank Zappa fan.{{Cite web

| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070501083837/http://havel.columbia.edu/biblio_humanrights.html

| archive-date= 1 May 2007

| title= Bibliography: Human Rights Archive

|website=Havel at Columbia

| editor= Csaba Szilagyi

|url=https://havel.columbia.edu/biblio_humanrights.html|access-date=2023-03-17

| year= 2006

|publisher= Columbia University }}Sam Beckwith, [http://prague.tv/articles/art-and-culture/vaclav-havel-and-lou-reed "Václav Havel & Lou Reed"], Prague.tv 24 January 2005, updated 27 January 2005. Retrieved 26 April 2007.

• Havel was also a great supporter and fan of jazz and frequented such Prague clubs as Radost FX and the Reduta Jazz Club, where U.S. President Bill Clinton played the saxophone when Havel brought him there.
• Havel befriended Joan Baez after he evaded arrest by pretending to be her roadie.{{cite web |title=Joan Baez: Dylan, Steve Jobs, Dr King & Me |url=https://www.mojo4music.com/articles/stories/joan-baez-dylan-steve-jobs-dr-king-and-me/ |website=Mojo4Music |date=201 |access-date=10 January 2023}}

Václav Havel has been portrayed, as himself or a character based on him, in a number of feature and television films:

• Czech Century is a 2013 historical television series chronicling Czech history from 1989. Havel is portrayed by Marek Daniel.
• Marek Daniel also portrayed Havel in a satirical web series, Kancelář Blaník.
• Havel is a 2020 historical film about Havel's (Viktor Dvořák) life before 1989.
• The Prog-related Art-rock band, Toy Matinee, recorded a song about Havel, entitled "Remember My Name" from their 1990 eponymous album released by Reprise Records.{{Fact|date=April 2024}}
• Havel is mentioned in the song "La Vie Bohème" from the 1996 musical Rent. {{cite web |url=https://genius.com/Original-broadway-cast-of-rent-la-vie-boheme-a-lyrics |title=Original Broadway Cast: La Vie Bohème A|date= |website=Genius.com }}
• Havel is an incredibly strong, heavily armored, dragon-tooth-wielding NPC character in the Dark Souls series.{{Fact|date=April 2024}}

• Civil resistance
• Hrad (politics)
• List of peace activists
• Nonviolent resistance
• Mlýny, Czech comedy play
• Václav Havel Human Rights Prize

{{Reflist}}

Works by Václav Havel

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20080603175048/http://www.project-syndicate.org/contributor/31 Commentaries and Op-eds by Václav Havel] and in conjunction between [http://www.project-syndicate.org/contributor/864 Václav Havel and other renowned world leaders] for Project Syndicate.
• [http://history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/165havel.html "Excerpts from The Power of the Powerless (1978)"], by Václav Havel. "Excerpts from the Original Electronic Text provided by Bob Moeller, of the University of California, Irvine."
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20120111234709/http://www.wfs.org/node/2385 "The Need for Transcendence in the Postmodern World"] (Speech republished in THE FUTURIST magazine). Retrieved 19 December 2011
• {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080622212542/http://www.czech.cz/en/zpravy/news_detail.aspx?id=19993-Vaclav-Havel:-%u201eJsme-na-pocatku-vaznych-zmen |date=22 June 2008 |title=Václav Havel: 'We are at the beginning of momentous changes' }}. Czech.cz (Official website of the Czech Republic), 10 September 2007. Retrieved 21 December 2007. On personal responsibility, freedom and ecological problems.
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20111006231656/http://www.salon.eu.sk/article.php?article=732&searchPhrase=havel Two Messages] Václav Havel on the Kundera affair, English, salon.eu.sk, October 2008

Media interviews with Václav Havel

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20111006232812/http://www.salon.eu.sk/article.php?article=801&searchPhrase=havel After the Velvet, an Existential Revolution?] dialogue between Václav Havel and Adam Michnik, English, salon.eu.sk, November 2008
• Warner, Margaret. [https://web.archive.org/web/20040225082221/https://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/europe/jan-june97/havel_5-16a.html "Online Focus: Newsmaker: Václav Havel"]. The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. PBS, broadcast 16 May 1997. Retrieved 21 December 2007. (NewsHour transcript.)

• Keane, John. Václav Havel: A Political Tragedy in Six Acts. New York: Basic Books, 2000. {{ISBN|0-465-03719-4}}. (A sample chapter [in HTML and PDF formats] is linked on the author's website, [http://www.johnkeane.net/books/havel/havel.htm "Books"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060718173153/http://www.johnkeane.net/books/havel/havel.htm |date=18 July 2006 }}.)
• Kriseová, Eda. Václav Havel. Trans. Caleb Crain. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1993. {{ISBN|0-312-10317-4}}.
• Pontuso, James F. Václav Havel: Civic Responsibility in the Postmodern Age. New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004. {{ISBN|0-7425-2256-3}}.
• Rocamora, Carol. Acts of Courage. New York: Smith & Kraus, 2004. {{ISBN|1-57525-344-5}}.
• Symynkywicz, Jeffrey. Václav Havel and the Velvet Revolution. Parsippany, New Jersey: Dillon Press, 1995. {{ISBN|0-87518-607-6}}.
• Williams, Kieran. [https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/V/bo25042035.html Václav Havel.] London: Reaktion Books, 2016. ISBN 978-1-78023-665-0.
• {{cite book |author-link=Michael Žantovský |last=Zantovsky |first=Michael |title=Havel: A Life |year=2014 |publisher=Grove Press |isbn=978-0802123152 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/havellife0000anto }}
• Barton, David Gilbreath (2021) Havel: Unfinished Revolution. University of Pittsburgh Press. {{ISBN|9780822966777}}

{{Wikiquote}}

{{Commons category|Václav Havel}}

• [https://www.vaclavhavel.cz/en/ Václav Havel Library, Prague]
• [https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/knihovna-vaclava-havla-vaclav-havel-library Knihovna Vaclava Havla (Vaclav Havel Library) at Google Cultural Institute]
• [http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/257275/Vaclav-Havel Encyclopædia Britannica's biography of Václav Havel]
• [http://dafilms.com/film/7188-obcan-havel/ Watch Citizen Havel, a film about Václav Havel, at www.dafilms.com]
• {{C-SPAN|12333}}
• {{IMDb name|0369730}}
• {{Guardian topic}}
• {{NYTtopic|people/h/vaclav_havel}}
• [http://www.nybooks.com/authors/207 Václav Havel archive] from The New York Review of Books
• [http://havel.columbia.edu/biblio_humanrights.html Havel at Columbia: Bibliography: Human Rights Archive]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20120729120011/http://old.radio.cz/en/article/36022 Radio Prague's detailed account of Havel's life]
• [http://www.theater61press.com/authors/vaclav-havel-bio.html Bio of Václav Havel]
• [https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/19/world/europe/vaclav-havel-dissident-playwright-who-led-czechoslovakia-dead-at-75.html New York Times obit]
• [http://www.untitledtheater.com/havel/havel-festival.html The Havel Festival] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150108060642/http://www.untitledtheater.com/havel/havel-festival.html |date=8 January 2015 }}
• [http://www.vize.cz/en/ The Dagmar and Václav Havel Foundation]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20120609055349/http://www.europeanstrategist.eu/2011/12/last-interview-with-vaclav-havel-to-bomb-belgrade-was-a-tough-decision/ Last interview, given to The European Strategist]
• [http://www.freedomcollection.org/interviews/vaclav_havel/ Václav Havel] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181202024205/http://www.freedomcollection.org/interviews/vaclav_havel/ |date=2 December 2018 }} Freedom Collection interview

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