The street Na Bojišti and U Kalicha in 2008	A very dangerous political discussion between Švejk and the undercover policeman Bretschneider. The pub owner Palivec is trying not to get involved, without success	"Had he been fatter, he would surely have been hit with a stroke before this. Maybe, when he was chasing after those old broads collecting mushrooms and twigs at his estate at Konopiště. He didn't have to die such a shameful death."
"At one time, a picture of our Lord Emperor used to hang here. Right over there where that mirror is now." "Yeah, you're right," said Palivec, "it used to hang there. And the flies kept shitting on it, so, I put it in the attic."	Yet another  Švejk visit to the pub. With Mrs. Palivcová.- "They -- gave -- him -- ten -- years -- a -- week -- ago."	Another visit right after being released from police headquarters. Mrs. Palivcová with Švejk  and a  very drunk Bretschneider.

In the novel Švejk visited the pub At the Chalice (U Kalicha) three times. His first call led to Švejks arrest. The next visit was right after he was released from Police Headquarters.

"His musing about whether he should stop first at The Chalice pub ended when he found himself opening its front door. This was the very same door from which he had exited some time ago in the custody of undercover patrolman Bretschneider.".

And the last time Švejk dropped in was when serving field chaplain Katz as a military servant.

When Mrs. Palivcová saw him, she declared that she wouldn't serve him because he had probably 

run away from the army.

Here I would like to use the opportunity to praise the  incredible research work undertaken by Mr. Hodík and Mr  Landа that produced two volumes of  Encyklopedii pro milovníky Švejka [3].A good example of the outcome  of this research is a notice regarding  a small incident that happened during Švejks second visit to the pub. It is the moment when Švejk, paying no attention to Bretschneider who sat down next to him, read a newspaper advert aloud:

 "There you have it! This Čimpera fellow in Straškov village, 

number 5, serviced by the Račiněves post office, will sell a farm with 13 acres 

of fields. And, there is a school and railway nearby."

The two tireless researchers mentioned above have, in the old files of the Straškov village head, found the paper that proves that Václav Čimpera actually was a resident of Straškov in 1910. In the protocol they found  his request to build a barn in the backyard of his dwelling, house number 5. But there is, unfortunately, nothing to reveal when and why this man left the place. 

 

As for secret agent Bretschneider according to [101]: he was a police directorate agent that employed a lot of different names as a cover. Right after the establishing of Czechoslovak Republic in 1919 he left Prague and moved to Berlin. For some time he was employed in . Carl Friebe - Gustav Schlichting vine cellar on Bülowstraße 9 - 10 . In some archive and police files he is mentioned as Španda-Bretschneider. Unfortunately that’s almost all we know about his post-war life.   I’d appeciate any tip or advice from German collegues.  The same book [101] asserts that the real-life owner of the beerhouse „U Kalicha“ was Václav Šmíd, nicknamed „rude“. Josef Palivec was in a real-life  just a junior waiter in this beerhouse (no documnets are offered as a proof to this claim) .

In any case we must remember that the long road from reality to the novel runs through Hašek’s creative imagination!

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It seems, that in our time when the pub  “U Kalicha” is gradually gaining an important place among the main tourist attractions for beer hunters, it is at the same time loosing a lot of its original spirit. 

But the process has been going on a long time as shown in this appraisal of the nationalized pub dating  from 1957[4]:

It is impossible to bring back the past without changing it. It is more than true for old famous beerhouses that under the same roofs get a new look and spirit...

Most probably Jaroslav Hašek himself would not have felt at home in  this beerhouse with a new, shining  parquet floor, completely new furniture and bowls in each and every stained-glass windows. It is the same street, it is the same name for the place and even the name of the first manager was the same as was name of the historic one; Palivec, who was arrested because the flies that shown disrespect for His Majesty portrait. (But that new Palivec hasn’t stayed too long in the new beerhouse. Ancient Romans would say  nomen omen, if such dark coincidence resulted in the beer tap drying, that was impending with the Palivec of 1955. But new manager was appointed with a less illustrious name but with much better book keeping skills)

 

We called in at six o’clock sharp. The place was already almost full, a long menu was in place and we could choose from a lot more than sausage and onion. Nice copies of Lada’s  Švejk illustrations were on the wall and in the small museum we read documents related to Hašek. Everything looked new and informative and promises to become a nice tourist attraction, but it is in any case a far cry from the spitt-covered, shabby beerhouse that Švejk had in mind when he arrangeded the post-war meeting with sapper Vodička: "You'll find me every evening from at six o'clock  „At The Chalice“, in the Na Bojišti street. "You'll find me every evening starting at six o'clock  „At The Chalice“, in the Na Bojišti street

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As a side note it seems worth to mention that not far from here, a five minutes walk from here, near the St.Apollinarius chapel  was the oldest of Pragues inns, buildt in the 13 century. Its name "Poison Hut"  (Jedová chýše) speaks for itself. It was a very popular as a meeting place for Pragues criminal world ("Galérka"). It outlived WWI and was demolished before WWII, so one can safely assume that if not Švejk himself visited, then definitely his creator Hašek visted the place from time to time.