2023-07-23 05:00:00
His three-story iconic store full of books, which is one of the symbols of the Moravian metropolis, still stands in the same place today!
According to historians, a native of Wielkopolska and an uneducated listener of German realism in Novy Jičín burst into the city like a great flood. “Opening a Czech bookstore was more than brave,” they match.
The audacity of this earthy patriot and falcon was truly unprecedented. Some Germans – according to contemporary newspapers – attacked Barvič on the street. Only gendarmes had to protect him on the order of the municipality.
A new era
“Joža Barvič did not give up. With his purely Czech bookshop, he started an era of gradual honoring of the until then almost purely German Brno.” historians mean.
Barvič’s bookshop is still a legend beyond the importance of Brno. There is probably no Brno resident who has not bought a book from him at some point.
Since 1997, Josef Barvič has had an honorable grave at the Central Cemetery in Brno, and a street in the residential Masaryk district is named after him.
Brno was controlled by the Germans
140 years ago, German was spoken far more in Brno. The Germans controlled the town hall and the developing factories, and their share in the city increased. At the time when Barvič opened the shop, according to the census, 48,951 Germans and 32,142 Czechs and Moravians lived in Brno.
Barvič announced the opening of the bookstore in an advertisement in Moravská orlica in mid-July 1883. He informed the public that he was opening a “bookstore, shop with music, art goods, paper and school supplies”. He emphasized that it was a purely Czech enterprise and intended for “all Moravians, especially the Brno Czechs”. The shop carried a corporate shield in three Slavic colors in the Czech language.
Firkušný, Kubelík and Janáček
In 1897, Barvič got into financial difficulties. On the advice of friends, he accepted Josef Novotný, who had trained with him, as a companion. Capable and hardworking, Novotný raised the enterprise. Barvič & Novotný also ran a publishing house, a picture gallery and a music salon.
Rudolf Firkušný and Rafael Kubelík performed in it, Leoš Janáček, Jaroslav Vrchlický, Svatopluk Čech, Alois Jirásek, Rudolf Těsnohlídek and the Mrštík brothers visited it.
A patriot’s dream come true
Representatives of Czech national life in Brno, journalists, writers, musicians and artists gathered around the new cultural center. Barvič’s dream came true, but he himself no longer had enough strength to embark on new activities and resigned from the partnership in the company in 1919. However, Josef Novotný, as the sole owner, continued to run the business under the name Barvič & Novotný.
The communists took the shop
The bookstore operated without problems until the communist coup. In 1948, forced administration was imposed on the company, and Novotný’s business was finally taken away. The bookstore did not return to the family until 1991.
In 2013, Josef Novotný’s grandsons sold it to the Kanzelsberger bookstore chain. He preserved the historic form of the iconic store.
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Bookseller and publisher Josef Barvič.
Author: Blesk: Marie Tiché archive
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