Carolinum exhibition remembers Dean Aloys Klar’s care for the blind












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            * Carolinum exhibition remembers Dean Aloys Klar’s care for the blind
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            The golden pen and hammer used by Emperor Franz Josef I in 1907 at the ceremonial start of

            on the new building of the Klar institute are amongst the exhibits on show at an exhibitio
            mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of the founder of care for the blind in Bohemia, A
            exhibition will be open until 31 May and entry is free.

            The initial impulse to commemorate Aloys Klar came five years ago from the Society for the
            Heritage Sites in the Úštěk Region. The current exhibition in the Carolinum documents, on 
            panels, the rise of the ethnic German native of the town of Ústěk who, through his single-

            hard work, was able to raise himself up from the bottom to the top of society.
            “Aloys Klar is a fascinating personality in academia and the arts. His life’s goal was to 

            of the blind in society, an endeavour in which he was, without exaggeration, ahead of his 
            curator docent Michal Stehlík, Dean of the Faculty of Arts of CU, at the opening of the ex
            Klar had been the Dean of the Faculty of Arts of the university in Prague since 1820 and n

            of effort into promoting the integration of the blind, but also, as the publisher of the L
            which brought together Czech, German and Jewish literature from Bohemia.
            “If it wasn’t for Aloys Klar, we might not know about Karel Hynek Mácha,” noted the mayor 

            Ladislav Chlupáč, at the opening of the exhibition, remembering Klar’s role as a pedagogue
            The authors of the exhibition used Tys mě vedl (‘You have led me’), part of Mácha’s poem C
            věnované Klarovi (‘Feelings of Gratitude towards Klar’), as the title of the exhibition.

            Amongst the items on display are silver commemorative medallions, worth 200 crowns, design
            artist Miroslav Hric, ArtD, and issued by the Czech National Bank on the occasion of the a
            birth of Aloys Klar.

            “Nowadays, when we see only bad news at every turn, let us take our example from the story
            and let his industriousness and benefaction be an example to us,” was the call to attendee
            Hlaváček from the Society for the Renovation of Heritage Sites in the Úštěk Region.

            The panels and captions of the items displayed have been translated into Braille. The exhi
            prepared by the Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague in cooperation with Societ
            Renovation of Heritage Sites in the Úštěk Region, the Aloys Klar Secondary School and Nurs

            the Technical Museum in Brno. The exhibition takes place under the auspices of the Ministr
            the Czech Republic, the Mayor of the City of Prague and the Mayor of the Town of Litoměřic




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            * Aloys Klar
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            (25. 4. 1763 – 25. 3. 1833) worked as a professor at the secondary school in the town of L

            in 1806 was appointed Professor of Greek Philology and Classical Literature and the Royal 
            Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague. In 1820 he was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Ar
            Ferdinand University in Prague. In 1807, together with the Freiherr von Platzer, he helped

            institute for the education and treatment of blind children in Hradčany, Prague (Prager Bl
            Anstalt). In 1832 he founded the Institute for the Care and Employment of the Adult Blind 
            (Verein und eine Anstalt zur Versorgung und Beschäftigung erwachsener Blinder in Böhmen), 

            of the institute in Vienna. He was able to acquire land from Emperor Franz Josef on which 
            new building for the institute.