History ****************************************************************************************** * A brief history of the Protestant Theological Faculty of Charles University ****************************************************************************************** The Protestant Theological Faculty (originally known as the Hus Czechoslovak Protestant Th Faculty) was founded in Prague on 28 April 1919. Before the First World War, there had been many restrictions on Protestants in the Czech l were part of Catholic Austria at the time) and candidates for the ministry had to go to Vi With the establishment of the new Czechoslovak state after the World War I. came full reli Reformed and Lutheran Protestants united to form the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren, first actions was to establish a Faculty of Protestant Theology to train its theology stud from other churches. In the first year of its existence the Faculty had 14 students, but this soon grew to 78 i 1929. Women started studying at the Faculty in 1922; their number increased considerably a the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren decided to ordain women to the ministry in 1953. During the German occupation the Faculty was closed down, along with most other institutes education, but it resumed its activities when the Second World War was over. In 1949-50 th students. In 1950 the Communist state decided that the Faculty should be divided into two Hus Theological Faculty for students from the Czechoslovak Hussite Church, and the Comeniu Theological Faculty for students from the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren and the sma Under the Communists the Comenius Faculty experienced many difficulties and the number of to below 100. For most of the 1950s and 1960s the Dean was the leading Czech Protestant th Lukl Hromádka. After the fall of the Communist regime in 1989, new opportunities opened up for the Comeni was a tremendous increase in the number of students. In 1990 the Comenius Faculty was inco Charles University and renamed the Protestant Theological Faculty. In 1995 it moved to larger premises on its present site. In 1999 a new study programme in Social Work was opened in cooperation with the Catholic school Jabok. More than half the s Faculty are now enrolled on this programme, and in 2013 a new Department of Pastoral and S established to assume full responsibility for it. In 2018-2019 the Faculty had around 500 students and some 35 teaching staff.