The war swept away the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Prague became a capital city of the new Czechoslovak Republic and gone was the desire to have a Czech king. The main goal was to create Big Prague which meant the joining of surrounding villages that had grown in the duration of the 19th century. In the end of 1918 the Royal Vinohrady town council agreed to the merger of those villages with Prague. This is a surprising fact considering that it was Vinohrady citizens who were originally fiercely boycotting it. Also the mayors of Karlín, Žižkov and Smíchov were in favour of the merger and even Malá Chuchle was eventually joined with Prague. On 1st January 1922 Big Prague was created through the merger with 37 adjacent villages.
Even though self-confident Praguers welcomed the merger, they soon started complain that in order to attend to official business they have to travel across half of Prague. It took two years for them to get used to it and to smooth matters out. Prague was also given a new coat of arms which was designed by painter František Kysela and archivist Václav Vojtíšek. The double eagle was replaced with a lion and was surrounded with 45 symbols, representing formerly independent villages, now belonging to Prague.
Generations are changing, new people are born
The city kept growing, immediately after the war people from the rest of the Republic started moving in. The firs population census in 1921 showed that Prague had more than 675 thousand citizens. Also birth-rate grew thanks to the improvements in medical care. There were more Praguers being born than dying and the net children growth figure amounted to approximately three thousand.
Prague has always been a city of many nations – Czechs, Germans, Jews and so on. The number of Germans after the war was estimated to be 30 thousand, apart from that there were about 20 thousand other foreigners such as Russian and Ukrainian refugees, who fled from the Bolshevik regime. In the thirties, after Hitler came to power, the first German refugees started appearing.
The city needed money for infrastructure development. It was mainly public transport, water pipes, sewerage and gas distributions which required improvement. Post-war conditions weren’t rosy; the taxes didn’t cover expenses because economic growth was slow starting off. The City at first came up with an emission loan in an amount of 150 million crowns and afterwards a current loan amounting to 420 million crowns. Half of the latter loan was given to the electric system the rest was equally divided between the gasworks and the waterworks. The inner city infrastructure was in a good condition, however, the merger with adjacent villages required much higher investments. Today we can see that it was well invested money. It gave rise to a wide area transport network, mainly the tram one; although in some city parts buses had already started operating.
The city also invested in hospitals (Bulovka), Masarykovy houses were build in Krč together with tens of schools, hundreds of houses and thousands of flats, which were rented to citizens.
Freight trams and public transport development
Public transport development went on until the thirties and eventually there were 20 tram lines built, one of them a circular one. The tram ways measured altogether over hundred kilometres. Praguers were never content and kept complaining about the tram’s slowness. It has to be said that to certain extent their complaints were justifiable. The average speed was originally about 12 kilometres per hour and with the rising number of cars the trams were getting even slower. There was a popular tune “Little Adam don’t get on the tram” which was warning cabaret visitors not to travel on trams as they could waste all their lives. Technical advancements eventually enabled an increase in tram speed up to 15 kilometres per hour! In the beginning of the First Republic trams were also used for provisions, coal, building materials and wood transportation. It was, however, restricted and it was just the transport for the Ministry of Defence and bread delivery which was in use by 1925.
Trams were later supplemented with busses which since 1932 operated throughout the night. Another means of transport was a trolley-bus which started working in 1936 and its line connected Hanspaulka with Ořechovka. There was also a significant development in taxi services and in the thirties about 1200 taxis were driving through the streets of Prague. It was at that time that Jiráskův Bridge was build. It had a grand-scale design and its main purpose was to connect the centre with Pilsner road, however, this didn’t happen until the eighties. The temporary wooden Libeňský Bridge was replaced with the grand-scale concrete structure and Trojský Bridge, today known as Barikádníků, was founded.
One of the city planers’ dreams was to build a tube and to arch Nuselské valley with a bridge. Its height was originally planed to be 80 meters which is twice as much as the Nuselsky bridge measures nowadays. There were two lifts in the city which is quite rare and a moving pavement leading to Letna, which was highly appreciated by Sparta and Slavia fans but, unfortunately, it was destroyed by lightning.
The army airport at Kbely soon wasn’t able to cope with the air transport requirements and the city started building a new airport (nowadays Terminal South or Old airport), which was opened in April 1937. Prague became connected by air with most European cities. In contrast to the shipping of people that was in decline. Prague Steam Navigation Company operated on three lines (Prague - Mělník, Prague – Štěchovice, and Kostelec nad Labem – Litoměřice). Transport to Chuchle was provided by three little steamers, leaving Jiráskuv Bridge every 20 minutes.
Immortal mayor
An interesting fact is that the Prague town hall was for nearly the whole period of the First Republic headed by the mayor JUDr. Karel Baxa. He was a co-founder of the National Social Party whose member was Dr. Edvard Beneš (until he was elected as a Czech president). Baxa strongly criticised the president T.G.Masaryk in the times of the Hilsner Trial. Hilsner was a feeble-minded Jew who was (together with another person) accused of the ritual murder of Anežka Hrůzova. Baxa worked for a short period as Constitutional court chairmen but had to resign as he wasn’t politically acceptable. The National Social party was strongly supported by Praguers and that enabled for Baxa to remain in his position till he was 75 years old. The National Social Party founder V. J. Klofáč even reminded in one of his speeches of the fact that National Socialism originated in Czech even before it did in Germany.
During the First Republic Prague again became a centre of culture. Prague architecture produced many jewels even proving that cubism was possible even in this field. Official, state supported architecture is represented by Josip Plečnik and Pavel Janák who made adjustments to Prague Castle, St. Vitus Cathedral was also completed. In 1928 the City Library was completed. Architecturally interesting are the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Philosophy as well as the Veletržního Palace, Pension Institute (nowadays House of Unions) and National Memorial on the Vitkov Hill. Also the Barandov terraces and the newly build film studios were very impressive.
Prague development was interrupted by the economic crisis between 1929 and 1933. By the end of thirties the political situation was becoming worse and eventually on 15th March the first Fascist troops entered the capital city. Prague was protesting in its own way. The burying of the poet Karel Hynek Mácha remains at Vyšehradský graveyard changed into a big national demonstration as did Jan Hus and also Cyril and Methodius anniversary celebrations – all of them were attended by thousands of Praguers. Prague changed into an occupied city serving Germans in their war efforts. On 5th May 1945 resistance culminated in an uprising and Prague became once again a free city.