The reason for banning this book is unlike ANY other book banning I have ever seen. It is not due to sex, language, racism or politics; No.. the book was banned because it is a HOW TO manual for goofing off in the military. It even created a new word based on the main characters name which, in Czech means "malingering".
How funny is that !!! See below:
The novel was so influential that variations of the word “švejk” were adapted in the Czech lexicon to indicate idiocy and military absurdity. Nationalists and right-wingers throughout Europe despised the work, and by 1925 it was already banned in the Czech military, while the Nazis later publicly burned the German translation.
In both civilian and military life, Josef Švejk lives by his wits. His chief ploy is to appear witless to those in authority. In fact, he is fond of pointing out that he has been certified to be an imbecile by an official military medical commission, a fact also included in the first sentence of the novel. Consequently, he reasons, he cannot be held responsible for his questionable actions because he's a certified nitwit! His method of subverting the Austrian Empire is to carry out his orders to an absurd conclusion.
The method, commonly known as "švejking" has been analyzed and commented upon by countless number of people. The morals of the character, just as those of the author, are still questioned or even deplored by some to this day. One example from a literary site on the Internet: "Schweik is a totally undisciplined liar, drunkard, apparently stupid man, who, however, actually outwits his superiors and the army."
One fact is undeniable: the method has been so popular and successful that political, military, and intellectual leaders at times feel the need to openly decry it and those who are suspected of employing it. The novel was banned from the Czechoslovak army in 1925, the Polish translation was confiscated in 1928, the Bulgarian translation was suppressed in 1935, and the German translation burned on Nazi bonfires in 1933. Gustáv Husák, the General Secretary of the Czechoslovak Communist Party who replaced the Prague Spring reformer Alexander Dub?ek in that post after the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion and occupation of Czechoslovakia, and assumed the Presidency as well, exhorted the population in a speech during the 1970's period of the so-called "normalization" to STOP ŠVEJKING!!!
Apparently, Švejk, the novel, its title character, who's managed to acquire a life independent of the literary work, and švejking are phenomena worth noting, and understanding.