(CZ) Československá poválečná komeniologie (Nástin vývojovách linií)
(EN) The Czechoslovak post-war comeniology (An Outline of its Development)

The post-war period of Comeniological researches can be divided into three stages: 1. from 1945 to 1956, from 1957 to 1970 (i. e. from the first international Comeniological conference held in Prague in 1957 to mark the 300th anniversary of the Amsterdam edition of Opera Didactica Omnia to the second Prague Conference on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of Comenius’ death), 3. from 1971 up to the present.
The first post-war years are characterized by the continuation and further development of the inter-war Comeniology. This continuity is also given by the fact that most of the authors of the studies and editors of Comenius’ works started their work in this field as early as the pre-World-War-Two period.
After some stagnation in the early 1950s, there was a revival of Comeniological studies later on. It culminated by Comeniological studies being made institutionally secure by the establishment of the Cabinet of Pedagogical Sciences in the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in 1954, which was transformed into the Comenius Pedagogical Institute three years later. The first stage of post-war Comeniology is concluded by the Party and Government resolutions of March, 1956, on the publication of complete works of Comenius in the original languages and his Selected Writings in Czech.
The years 1957—58 are a period of great celebrations of Comenius at home and abroad, which culminated in the Prague International Comeniological Conference held by the Cechoslovak Academy of Sciences with the support of UNESCO in September 1957. Significant publications included the first Comeniological edition of the Comenius Pedagogical Institute — a photolithographic edition of Opera Didactica Omnia (1957) and renewed publication of the Archives for Research on the Life and Work of Comenius in the same year.
The years immediately following the first Prague Conference represent — apart from the period around 1970 — the most fruitful period of post-war Comeniology. There appeared editions of Comenius’ writings, monographs, interpretative studies and bibliographic lists, of special significance being particularly the editio princeps of Consultation (1966). In the 1958—1978 period the Selected Writings of Comenius in eight volumes were published in Czech, the Selected Works in Slovak having been published from 1954. By detailed analyses, the Czechoslovak Comeniologists succeeded in demonstrating that Comenius’ pedagogical theory has a philosophical basis, which ranks him among the original philosophers of his times. This line was supported by the second International Comeniological Conference held at Olomouc in 1967.
In this period Comeniological research were permantly joined by Slovakia. Since the late 1960s the museums of Comenius have increased their participation in the development of Comeniology, mainly by organizing colloquies and editing publications.
The whole of this period culminates in the year 1970; there were many celebrations and scientific get-togethers, among which the International Comeniological Conference held in Prague in September of that year ranks first. This jubilee year is linked with the appearance of a numberof basic publications, books as well as journals.
The beginning of the third stage is still echoing the upsurge of interest aroused in the year of the 300th anniversary of Comenius’ death. As regards editions, the number of volumes of Comenius’ works hitherto published has risen to nine, another five are being prepared by published. The focus of interpretation, the standard of which is being kept up on the level achieved in the previous stage, consists mainly in studies. Much progress has recently been made in dealing with the methodological problems of Comeniological researches. This period has been seriously affected by the retirement or passing away of a considerable number of outstanding Comeniologists, but a new generation of young researchers is joining in the Comeniological research.