The Laichter house family: descendant of famous publisher renovates stunning Vinohrady building
One of the most impressive buildings in Prague’s district of Vinohrady is the Laichter House, located on the edge of Riegerovy sady. The modernist building was designed by famous Czech architect Jan Kotěra at the request of Jan Laichter, who needed a space for his newly established publishing house and a home for his family. The publishing house, which attracted Prague’s intellectual elite, operated until 1949, when it was closed down by the Communists. Today, the house is being cared for by Štěpán Laichter, the great-great-grandson of the publisher, who wants to renovate it and transform it into a museum and a cultural space. To raise funds for its renovation, he is offering one of the apartments for short-term rental. I met with Štěpán Laichter in what used to be his great-great-grandfather’s study to talk about the family legacy.
This house once belonged to your great-great-grandfather Jan Laichter. Who was he? Can you tell us more about him?
“He was born in the small town of Dobruška in northeast Bohemia to the family of a baker. Because his father didn't have much money to send him to study, he trained as a simple merchant. We have a letter from when he was 23, where he's writing to his older brother that for his life to have meaning he would like to at least become a bookseller.
“That materialized a year later when he managed to get a place in one of the major publishing houses in Prague. It was the publishing house of Jan Otto, where he started working as an assistant, but he worked his way up to being responsible for a major project - Otto's Encyclopaedia.
“He was also working on a journal called Athenaeum, to which the first president of Czechoslovakia Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, back then a professor of philosophy, was contributing as well. They got to know each other and at some point Masaryk started having troubles publishing at Otto's publishing house and so Jan Laichter came up with the idea of starting a new magazine. They called it Naše doba (Our Time) and around this magazine he later build up his own publishing house.
“Later in his life, in the 1940s, he received an honorary doctorate, as the only publisher to date, for his contribution to Czech literature and then in 1908 he commissioned this house from Jan Kotěra, who was known as the father of Czech modernism.
“This house, along with Kotěra’s own villa and the museum in Hradec Králové represented turning points in Kotěra's work, because he had just come back from the Netherlands and the United States, where he saw some of the first really modernist works, and he turned away from late Art Nouveau to early modernism.
“The assignment was to connect the publishing house operations with the family residence so that's what we have here today. And I'm trying to renew and open the space up to the public, both as a small house museum but also as sort of a cultural event space.”
What role did your great-great-grandfather's publishing house play in Prague's literary life and intellectual circles?
“This house, along with Kotěra’s own villa and the museum in Hradec Králové represented turning points in his work, because he turned away from late Art Nouveau to early modernism.”
“It was quite important, because not only was it one of the main publishers of Masaryk's works but also it was one of the first social scientific publishing houses and he got renowned for publishing a lot of international translated literature but also Czech literature for students and youth.
“So a lot of the quality literature at the beginning of the century was published in Czech for the first time by the Laichter publishing house. And then of course it was a publishing house that focused a lot on scientific publishing as well, so a lot of philosophy and sociology and economic works were published by him. It was all done with the goal of educating and providing quality literature to the newly established independent Czechoslovak nation.”
When did your family move into this house? When was it completed?
“It was completed in just two years, in 1910, and they lived here until the beginning of the 1960s. They lost the publishing house in 1949 and then they also had to move from the house due to the Communists taking over.”
In 1948 after the communist takeover, private businesses were nationalized, and that of course included this publishing house. How did that affect the family business and the family itself?
“A lot of the quality literature at the beginning of the century was published in Czech for the first time by the Laichter publishing house. It was all done with the goal of educating and providing quality literature to the newly established independent Czechoslovak nation.”
“The events of 1949 in publishing were a little more complicated. It wasn't just nationalization, there were different levels of what happened with different publishing houses. In 1949 the communists published a law that basically prohibited private publishing. They wanted to control what people read and think about, which of course included controlling the publishing industry.
“Over 300 publishing houses were shut down in 1949. Some were nationalized, brought under the umbrella of the National Publishing House run by the government, but in the case of this publishing house, especially because of its ties to Masaryk and its pro-democratic ideals, it was decided that it would be fully liquidated.
“So the books were not just seized, but they were actually labelled as old paper and taken away to be burned. It was over ten tons of books that were taken from the book storage, which amounts to around 27,000 books that were taken away to be burned.”
You said the family got to live here until the 1960s. How come?
“Well, there is this big staircase and they basically walled it off, so the family couldn't go into the space where the publishing house used to be and they just stayed in the apartment that Jan Kotěra originally designed for them. And then in the 1960s, one communist family picked this apartment for themselves and so they had to move out.”
When did the property return to your family's hands again?
“In the case of this publishing house, especially because of its ties to Masaryk and its pro-democratic ideals, the communists decided it was going to be fully liquidated.”
“They got it back in 1992. There was this turbulent period between 1989 and 1992 when most of the damage to the house's interior actually happened. Of course, there weren’t any major investments into the upkeep during the communist times. But especially at the beginning of the 1990s, before the ownership questions were clarified, a lot of the original furniture, surfaces, bathrooms were actually damaged by the tenants, who abused the fact that it wasn't clear who was going to be the factual owner of the building.”
How many of the original interior features designed by Jan Kotěra were preserved to this day?
“Well, I would say we have actually some of the most valuable interior features still preserved, which is very lucky. Partially it's because my great-grandfather, who took over the publishing house after Jan Leichter, his name was František Leichter, made sure the house has cultural heritage preservation status from the 1950s onwards. And so this very majestic representative staircase hall is still in its original shape.
“But then there's also all these adjacent rooms, be it from the publishing house, or the family apartment on the first floor, which have a lot of the original furniture. And in many of these rooms, we also know exactly what they used to look like, because of photographs that were taken before the family had to move out. The goal now is to renew it to its original state, step-by-step.
“That mainly concerns the original stencil wall paintings, hopefully that will happen in the upcoming year. And then there are also pieces of original furniture that I have found with different relatives. There is also some furniture that was given away to the National Industrial Design Museum. So hopefully we will be able to negotiate maybe with the museum to put it in the original space and sort of make it accessible to the public.”
You have recently taken on the task of renovating this space. How far is the renovation now and how much work is still ahead of you?
“I think this is very difficult to answer. I have been taking care of the house now for three years after my grandpa passed away. There was really no one in the family who could take it over. So after finishing my studies, I decided to take this on, and now it has been a year since I started doing this full time.
“I'm seeing it as a lifelong project because, because you can't catch up on 50 years of very basic maintenance within just a couple of years. So I am hoping that within the next couple of years, we will at least get to the state when most of the spaces will be usable again. And then we will start working towards making it really a sort of up to date space, which can be open to the public with all the safety and fire requirements and everything.
“But for now, we are able to at least start doing some tours for the public in the original staircase hallway and in the apartment, and then some events in the original publishing house space. So maybe in a year we will be like 10% there, but then there is the rest of the house that needs a lot of upkeep as well.”
Do you yourself also live in the Laichter house?
“Yes, I think it's a part of the ethos of the house, that it was built for the family, so I live here now and my grandmother lives here as well.”
What does it feel like being responsible for this incredible family heritage?
“I think it's a great adventure. On one hand, it is a big responsibility, taking care of a house that is so valuable both architecturally but also due to the literary heritage. But at the same time I know that if I didn’t do it now, no one would probably ever do it. A lot of the things and a lot of the memories and the original features would get gradually lost. So I'm glad that we're getting to do it now rather than never.
As you said the house is open to the public very rarely on very special occasions. When is the next time that people can come and take a peek inside the house?
“We are hoping to start doing regular tours starting November, so people can book a tour on our website. They can book this accommodation and as a part of it they can also book a private tour if they want. We will also be hosting a couple of readings and our now almost traditional Christmas Designer Fair in December, so people are most welcome to come and check that out!”
If you want to hear more about the Leichter House, listen to the whole interview, which also includes a short tour of the beautiful building.
