ABSTRACT
Zlín is a typical example of a town closely related to one multi-industrial company and not just one industry. Until World War I, it was a small Moravian town in a rural area, but after the local shoe company Bata rapidly expanded and became a multinational corporation with many branches in the 1920s and 1930s, the town developed dramatically, its population increased by a factor of almost ten (from approximately 4,000 to 40,000), 1 and it was totally rebuilt into a highly modern urban complex, which was to serve as a functional extension of the factory. The founder of the company, Tomáš Bat’a,, was the mayor during the important period 1923–1932, and was succeeded in this function by his key collaborator. The symbiotic relationship between the company and the town deeply affected the economic, social, and cultural life of its inhabitants. Bata built standardized family houses for the workers, a new transport system, key public buildings, and last but not least, the new complex network of media.
