Karl v. Siegel: Josef Dobrovský (1753–1829), portrait engraving based on the oil painting in the Bohemian National Museum

The Czech national evolution was shaped by the cultural pioneer achievements of the so-called “arousers” (Czech: buditelé). In the early nineteenth century a number of academics and scholars prepared the foundations of the modern Czech national consciousness from which the “rebirth” (národní obrození) of the Czech linguistic nation sprang.