History of the Czech Geological Survey

The State Geological Survey of the Czechoslovac Republic, which was the original name of today’s Czech Geological Survey, was established in 1919. In the Czech Republic it became the successor of the Imperial and Royal Geological Institute in Vienna, founded as early as 1849. Its main tasks consisted in basic geological research and the geological mapping of the territory of Czechoslovakia. The Survey was an independent, objective state body engaged in extensive assessment activity primarily concerning the exploitation of mineral and water sources as well as the problems with the preparation and building of railways, dams and other smaller and bigger constructions.

The most prominent Czech and Slovak geologists worked at the Survey either externally or as full-time employees during the First Republic (1918–1939). At the time of Nazi occupation (1939–1945) the Survey became subject to the German authorities and its activity was restricted in content and territory to the so-called Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. After the liberation of the country in 1945 the Survey was incorporated into the then Ministry of Industry and retained its status of an independent and objective body until 1958, as stated hereinafter. The extensive development of the field of geology resulted in a multiple increase of the number of the Survey’s employees; its basic research, mapping and survey work expanded; various special programmes were introduced involving investigation of deposits and hydrogeology. The modern laboratory facilities made the Survey the best equipped geological workplace in the country. However, the frequent precipitate reorganization, too great a focus of interest in searching raw materials for heavy industry and the exaggerated ideas about the country’s mineral wealth had a negative impact on the activities of the institute.

In 1950 the State Geological Survey of Prague merged with the Bratislava State Geological Survey, which had been founded in 1941. This merger resulted in the establishment of one Central Geological Survey. Of course, the 1950s were marked by the adoption of the Soviet model in the structure of geology, henceforth in 1958 the Survey was organized on the lines of uniform geology that was subject in its administration to the newly established Central Geological Office. This meant that the Survey lost its independent status and became increasingly dependent on stronger departmental partners. As from 1965 the scope of authority of the Central Geological Survey was restricted to Bohemia and Moravia, while research work in Slovakia was entrusted to the Dionýz Štúr Geological Survey in Bratislava.

The activity of the geological department including the Central Geological Survey was further administered by the Central Geological Office transformed after the federalization of the country into the Czech Geological Office in the Czech Republic and into the newly established Slovak Geological Office in Slovakia.

Today prerequisites have arisen under new political and economic conditions to the restoration of the Survey’s original function as that of a state geological service existing in all other developed countries. The change of the name Czech Geological Institute to the recent Czech Geological Survey in 2002 reflected this trend.