The VŠE Library received a gift from the estate of Mrs. Jean Eisler

The University of Econonomics, Prague has received a financial gift from the estate of Jean Eisler for its library. It is the second gift from the family of the former teacher of the University of Economics, Prague (VŠE) Pavel Eisler to our school.
Pavel Eisler had an extraordinary fate that well characterized the period in which he spent his eventful life. Pavel Eisler left Czechoslovakia in 1938 and graduated from the London School of Economics in Great Britain. In 1941, he joined the Czechoslovak military unit where he served until the severe injury suffered at Dunkirk in 1945. After World War II he worked for the United Nations in New York and Geneva. In 1948 he returned with his family to Czechoslovakia. In the President’s office he worked as the head of the foreign economic issues department. He participated in the United Nations Conference on International Trade and as the Czechoslovak Vice Governor of the International Monetary Fund he also participated in the meeting of the Board of Governors in New York.

The change of the regime in 1948 meant a fatal turn for Pavel Eisler. After the conviction of his superior L. Frejka in the trial with Rudolf Slansky, he resigned from his post in the civil service and went to work in a faktory ČKD. In 1953, he was dismissed from ČKD, and his role as the breadwinner had to be taken over by Mrs. Jean, who began translating Czech books into English. In 1956, Pavel Eisler began to work at the University of Economics, Prague but he could begin lecturing not befor 1962 at the Department of Economic History. In the 1960s he was one of the representatives of the reform movement and was an internationally recognized personality. In 1965, for example, he lectured at American universities thanks to Henry Kissinger’s invitation. In 1966 he was appointed Associate Professor, but his habilitation thesis The Tertiary Sphere and Economic Growth in the USA came out after his unexpected tragic decease. During the mountain expedition in the Swiss Alps he was fatally hit by lightning.

The widow of Pavel Eisler, Mrs. Jean Eisler, donated her husband’s library and scientific heritage to VŠE and remembered our school in her last will. Mrs. Jean Eisler died in her 101.

Read Jean Eisler obituary in The Guardian.