Prague residents can see the memorial of Ferdinand Peroutka in Portheimka park.

Prague - In the Portheimka park in Smíchov, Prague 5, people can today see a memorial to the publicist and writer Ferdinand Peroutka. The statue titled "Who We Are Today" was unveiled by representatives of the city district. Peroutka lived in Smíchov before his deportation to a Nazi concentration camp in a house on Matoušova Street near the park.

"Ferdinand Peroutka lived nearby. And since he has no memorial, we decided to build one. He is a significant figure of pre-war journalism and I think he deserves it,” said the mayor of the city district, Radka Šimková (Prague 5 for Us).

A single-stage art competition for the form of the memorial was announced in 2021, and the city hall paid about two million crowns for its creation. The competition was financed by the capital city.

The author of the statue and architect Radek Talaš said that the memorial is distinctive but does not disrupt the park's surroundings. Judges have previously highlighted that the designed memorial, in its shape, refers to the iconic pipe associated with Peroutka. It is made of polished metal and its front features a convex mirror surface with the inscription "Who We Are." This refers to Peroutka's work. "At the same time, it poses a suggestive question to the viewer approaching the statue,” said Talaš.

The representatives of Prague 5 had previously awarded Peroutka honorary citizenship. He is also commemorated by a memorial plaque on the house on Matoušova Street where he lived. A street in Malvazinky also bears his name.

Publicist, writer, and playwright Ferdinand Peroutka was born on February 6, 1895, and was one of the most prominent journalists of the First Republic. President T. G. Masaryk offered him one million crowns in March 1923 to publish an independent weekly, the first issue of which under the name Přítomnost was released in January 1924. He also authored the extensive work "Building the State", which describes the formation and early years of Czechoslovakia. He spent the war in Nazi concentration camps and after the communist coup in 1948, he went into exile, where he continued his journalistic activity. He died on April 20, 1978, in New York.