The Vokouns of Chicagoland

The Holy Roman Empire was neither Holy nor Roman nor an Empire. - Voltaire Golden Seal of Emperor Charles IV So I have covered ancient history and the early middle ages, the next period is regarded as the golden age of Bohemia. It was the age during which this small region became the seat of Europe's largest empire. Prague and Bohemia flourished like never before or since. This was the result of the accomplishments of a man who was half Bohemian through his mother yet favored her heritage over his fathers. Charles IV was arguably the most powerful Czech who ever lived. This is not a European history blog so I am not going to recount the  long, tedious fascinating history of the Holy Roman Empire but I think some background is helpful in order to set the stage for this next chapter in Bohemian history. The HRE was founded about 800 AD when Charlemagne was crowned and lasted one thousand years until Napoleon defeated its armies in 1806. In theory, it was holy because of the blessing...

 We are Bohemians. Pilsner is Our Beer. This is a prologue to the Louis Vokoun's story. In English, it's beer. It Czech it's pivo . Pivo is a national heritage which is probably why the Czech Republic has the highest beer consumption per capita in the world. Do you question this? It turns out that the Kirin Beer Company runs the Kirin Beer University. The fact that such an institute of higher learning exists is, well, amazing. It publishes lists of beer production and consumption (no doubt put out by doctoral students studying for their PhD in Beer ;-) Anyhow, here is the 2017 list per the Kirin Beer University. Not only is the Czech Republic number one but it had held the title for 25 consecutive years! When it comes to beer consumption, Czech's are basically both the New York Yankees and the Alabama Crimson Tide. Based on those numbers, I'm betting we keep the title for a long, long time. Perhaps we Czechs’ greatest claim to fame is that we invented the world’s o...

This is a story of legends, visions, saints, kingdoms and hazel nuts. Premyslid Coat of Arms, the Flaming Black Eagle The history of Bohemia continues. I promise that there will a point to the history as it relates to Bohemian and our family's immigration to America. After fall of Rome, the Celts intermixed with Slavish tribes of Eastern Europe and Europe fell into the Dark Ages. Czech national identity and Czech statehood arose during the emergence from the Dark Ages. Just like the King Arthur and the rise of British identity began with Dark Age legend, so too it does with the Czechs. The beginning of the Czech people begins with the legend of Přemysl and Princess Libuše.  The Chronica Boëmorum , written in Latin by Cosmas, a priest from Prague, in the 12th century, gives us the story. It describes the first inhabitants of Bohemia as a people who lived very simply and did not know alcohol, marriages, private property or weapons. However, as time passed, they came to embrace injust...

Erin go bragh! Celtic Cross in Brittany, France I don't anything about history, at least in Central Europe. I can sum up my knowledge by saying that people lived in Central Europe and somehow, poof, I appeared here. This does not help one knows roots. Hence, I needed to fix that! I started my search at modernity's answer to the Great Library of Alexandria, repository of all human knowledge of the age - namely Wikipedia. To my shock and dismay, there wasn't as much there as I wanted but with persistance, toil, and Google, I was able to fill in the gaps. Bohemia's name come from a Celtic tribe known as the Boii. Celts probably arrived in modern day Czech Republic in the 5th or 6th century BC. In the third and fourth century BC, Rome clashed repeatedly with Celtic tribes in Central Europe in what was known as Gaul. Gaul encompassed present day France, Luxembourg, Belgium, most of Switzerland, parts of Northern Italy, the Netherlands, and Germany, particularly the west bank...