Adieu karel gott – thousands say goodbye in prague
With the laying out of the coffin in prague began the two-day funeral service for karel gott. The sanger of hits like "fang das licht" and "biene maja" was on 1. October died at the age of 80 after a long illness.
In the coarse hall of the sophienpalais on a moldau island soldiers held honor guard next to the closed coffin on friday. Until the afternoon, more than 23 teams had paraded.000 people pass by to pay their last respects to their idol. The organizers expected the number to increase to about 50 by late evening.000 was allowed to rise.
In front of the palace there were queues several kilometers long, stretching all the way to the opposite bank of the moldau. Hundreds of fans had already arrived during the night or early in the morning – fearing that they would not get to see the game. The czech minister of transport, vladimir kremlik, who drove up in his official car instead of waiting in the queue, caused a stir. Head of government andrej babis called his behavior "unacceptable".
Also visitors from germany showed participation. Viktoria and lorena, two vacationers from hesse, had already been to the villa of karel gotts in the prague district of smichov in the morning. "The whole street is full of candles and flowers", they reported. By far their favorite song of the singer: "the "bee maja", because we grew up with it."
"We spent the whole of our lives with him," said an elderly man from bohemian pribram about karel gott as he left the hall. There, a crude portrait in black and white commemorated sanger, born in 1939 in pilsen (plzen). Occasionally, the police had to warn the fans not to take selfies.
Police and rescue forces were on duty with a large contingent. Helpers of the red cross handed out coffee to the waiting people. There were no major incidents. The city faced a multiple challenge, as the "signal" light festival was to start in the city center in the evening. In addition, many football fans were expected to attend the european championship qualifying match between the czech national team and england.
On saturday there will be a national day of mourning for karel gott and a service in st. Veit’s cathedral. Invited guests from family and close circle of friends as well as top representatives from politics and society are expected to attend the event.
