Early institutionalised promotion of translation and the socio-biography of Emil Walter, translator, press attaché and diplomat

Following the professional trajectory of translator, cultural mediator and diplomat Emil Walter, this chapter outlines the history of national and supranational support of translation and circulation of books in Europe in the interwar era. It identifies three distinct layers of promotion of translation in the field of cultural diplomacy – unilateral, bilateral and multilateral. Concentrating on the mutual interaction between the bureaucratic setting Walter worked in and his translator habitus, it explores the dynamics of the structure and the limits of individual agency. With the main focus on the relations between Czechoslovakia and the Scandinavian countries, the chapter explores translation support schemes and project of multiple European countries and interwar political entities, such as the League of Nations, the Little Entente and Nazi Germany.