Brutal murders and prostitution: The dark side of early 20th century Prague
Prague may be known for its many gothic structures, medieval alleyways, quaint parks, and bustling pubs. But “the city of a hundred spires” has a darker side too. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, brutal murders and prostitution shocked the capital’s residents. Tour guide for Prague City Tourism Marek Kovář took Radio Prague for a tour of some of these sites, including the so-called “love rooms,” which many, including figures like Franz Ferdinand, would frequent.
Marek Kovář is a tour guide who uncovers the dark side of Prague for Prague City Tourism. He takes visitors through a number of tours with various themes, but he admits that the most popular and impressive are the criminal cases from the end of the monarchy and the beginning of the First Republic. Kovář believes that there is no shortage of material for such tours and that this is why they are so popular with the public.
“I have about six or seven tours, each lasting nearly two hours, and I feel like I'm only briefly touching on the highlights, covering almost every other building in the Old Town and along the left bank. We also explore areas like Malá Strana and Hradčany, each with its own interesting stories. Not all of them involve murder; there are other criminal cases as well, such as embezzlement or theft. There were also many instances of what we might call licensing violations today. For example, one criminal pretended to be Vojtěch Hinajs and collected money in a tavern, claiming he was the author of a famous performance at the National Theatre. So, it's not always just about murders.”
The guide explained that in structuring each tour, he tries to include crimes of different natures, offering some counterpoints to the violence and horror that is present in many of them. This is also the case with Hugo Hrubý and his family, which Kovář mentions as one of the most brutal on his walk through Prague's Old Town.
“One of these locations is a café, or rather, a former inn, now the site of the Damu Café on Karlova Street. In the 1930s, a brutal multiple homicide took place there, where the innkeeper was murdered alongside his wife. Their child, who survived, was also injured in the incident.”
Kovář claims that – like many crimes of the time – this one was partly motivated by money.
“It was all triggered by a relative of theirs who worked at the inn. Because he wasn't on good terms with the innkeeper, Hugo Hrubý, he decided one day—after possibly having planned the act for some time—that he would carry it out. One evening, he learned that there was a significant sum of money in the inn, around 10,000 Czechoslovak crowns, meant for the brewery and the employees. The money was being kept by the employee, and so it happened that at two o'clock in the morning, he grabbed the axe.”
The guide mentions that the use of the axe in similar cases was not at all unusual.
“An axe was used for a lot of murders in those days. In Austria-Hungary and the First Republic, an axe was a common household item because people used stoves and needed wood for heating. That’s why it was a common murder weapon. In this case, the perpetrator of the crime took the axe and killed Hugo Hrubý in bed. He also wounded the child who was sleeping next to him.”
Mrs. Hrubá woke up from the commotion and was stabbed from behind in the body four times, he explained. But the Hugo Hrubý case was solved relatively quickly, even though the killer tried to blame someone else. In this attempt, he harmed himself with the axe to make himself look like another victim, but medical reports revealed that the wound was self-inflicted and his lie was exposed.
Another aspect of Kovář's guided tour highlights the "love rooms," which refer to the prostitution that was common at that time. Kovář explains that these establishments were situated in many areas that locals in Prague frequently pass through.
One of these establishments was located in Celetná Street, where a Belgian chocolate shop stands now. At the time, it was known as the so-called “Gogo lounge,” where patrons were said to go "hunting antelopes." It was an upper-class brothel, and historical records show that its clients included figures like Charles I of Austria [also known as Charles IV of Hungary] and Franz Ferdinand of Austria, whose assassination triggered the First World War and ultimately led to the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Prostitution in Prague was closely linked to crime. In addition to the brothels themselves (which were closed for several years before being reopened and then banned), detectives often visited brothels to obtain information about other crimes or persons of interest. Kovář comments on what Prague would have looked like at the time:
“It is said that in 1918, there were 2,000 prostitutes in Prague, which was quite a significant number. And we're only talking about those who were officially counted, as many others were operating illegally, so we can't be certain of the full extent. Then, in 1922, prostitution and brothels were officially abolished by the Abolition Act. However, that doesn't mean prostitution ended at that time. Most of it just moved to other districts, particularly Žižkov, Vinohrady, and other areas of Prague.”
In addition to murder and prostitution, the guide also mentions more comical or absurd cases during his tour, such as that of a man who, in despair of his marriage, attempted to commit suicide in public four times, each time in a different way, but on each occasion, he was saved. He was saved from his last attempt, in which he jumped into the Vltava River, by the local authorities. Another lighter case is that of a man who posed as the architect of the National Theatre and went around pubs collecting money for being a famous artist.
