Bust of R.M. Rilke unveiled in Prague

A bust of the Prague-born German poet Rainer Maria Rilke who died 85 years ago has been unveiled in the centre of Prague. The ceremony on Wednesday morning was attended by diplomats, literary scholars and artists. Rilke’s work, largely inspired by his life in Prague, had a strong influence on Czech literature, especially the poetry of František Halas, Vladimír Holan, Jan Zahradníček and Jiří Orten. Rilke, born in 1875 into a family of a Prague German civil servant, became one of the most significant German-language poets of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.