Prof. PhDr. Václav Dědina

(*6. 12. 1870 – Vinařice u Mladé Boleslavi   † 30. 11. 1956 - Praha)

Václav Dědina was born into a miller's family who wanted him to pursue a religious career. After graduating from high school, young Václav entered the seminary in Gorizia in 1891. A year later (1892), however, he transferred to the University of Prague to study natural science and mathematics. After his studies he began to work as a Gymnasium professor (first in Zábřeh, then in Kolín and from 1901 he taught for 17 years in Valašské Meziříčí). It was in Valašské Meziříčí that he also worked in the field of regional politics. In 1907, for example, he organised the election of T. G. Masaryk as a member of the Reich Council for Wallachia. In Wallachia he also managed the collections of the local museum and studied various geographical problems. The year 1918 was a turning point, when Václav Dědina left for Prague and in 1919 he was habilitated for the field of geomorphology at the Faculty of Philosophy on the basis of his thesis on the Cretaceous tabula. Dědina was mainly interested in geomorphology, physical geography, geographic regionalisation, regionalism and local history. After the tragic death of J. V. Daneš in 1928, he became an extraordinary professor at Charles University. He became a full professor in 1933. He also served as head of the 1st department of the Geographical Institute. After the Czech universities were closed by the Nazis, Václav Dědina was retired. (He did not return to the university after the war due to his advanced age.) However, he continued his scientific work. In 1952 Dědina was appointed a so-called corresponding member of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. Among his most important works are Contributions to the Knowledge of the Morphological Development of the Czech Cretaceous Tabula (1914-1917), The Face of Our Homeland and Its Development (1925), Geomorphological Development of Watercourses in Bohemia (1942-1943). Václav Dědina was also the chief editor and one of the initiators of the work Czechoslovak Homeland History (1928-1936).

Sources:

HÄUFLER, Vlastislav. Geschichte der Geographie an der Karls-Universität. 1st edition: Charles University, 1967, 421 p.

MARTÍNEK, Jiří. Geographers in the Czech Lands 1800-1945: (biographical dictionary). Prague: Historical Institute, 2008, 245 p. ISBN 978-80-7286-133-0.

MARTÍNEK, Jiří and MARTÍNEK, Miloslav. Who was who. 1st ed. Prague: Libri, 1998, 509 p. ISBN 80-85983-50-8.