Karel Fišer

* 1947

  • "So I came to Zlín and I went to Bratislava on my motorbike to see my friend and there I experienced the twenty-first one, how they were blowing it up there. In Bratislava, they killed a few people there in '68, too, and at the places where it happened, people were putting flowers there and there were policemen patrolling and after a blow with a baton they had to pick up the flower and take it away."

  • "There I have a picture of a Russian tank driving past our house, and I had a camera I borrowed from my aunt, a Ljubitel, a two-eye SLR, which cost two hundred and seventy crowns at the time. And now I'm pointing at the tank and I see in the viewfinder the soldier standing on the tank turning the machine gun on me. I thought I was done for, but even so, I pressed the button, and in the background, you can still see the newsstand, which is now a McDonald's, so that's an authentic Zlín."

  • "I had a good childhood, I'm not complaining, but I remember well when I was in the eighth or ninth grade and you had to report to the street committee where the local communists sat, where I wanted to go after school. And I remember that when I came, it was at the Zlín City Hall, right in the door, as you walk in, on the left, there is a hall and there was a street committee sitting there and now they were asking such tricky questions: 'Where do you want to go?' I originally wanted to go to the art and design school in Hradiště, but they immediately responded, “Rejected. What’s next?” And I literally said to them, “To hell” turned around, and walked away."

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    Zlín, 07.10.2024

    (audio)
    délka: 02:44:46
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of the region - Central Moravia
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As long as the last communist walks the earth, there will be no peace

Karel Fišer in 2024
Karel Fišer in 2024
zdroj: the photo was taken during filming in 2024

Karel Fišer was born on 31 July 1947 in Zlín. When he wanted to apply to the art school after primary school, the regime did not allow him to do so. Instead, he only did an apprenticeship and later supplemented his education - during the time he worked in gottwaldovský Svit, he graduated from the mechanical engineering school. Already at primary school he met the future dissident Bohumil ‚Bob‘ Obdržálek, with whom he later collaborated in samizdat. Karel Fišer photographed Soviet soldiers and their equipment during the occupation in August 1968. He could have lost his life in the process. When he met another dissident, Jaromír Němec, in the first half of the 1970s, he and Obdržálek started a samizdat collaboration. The printing and distribution of illegal publications had deep roots in Gottwaldov. Stanislav Devátý, Pavel Dudr, Bedřich Koutný and Petr Konvalinka were involved in it. In 1969, Karel Fišer took part in protests against the occupation in Bratislava. Soon afterwards, his passport was revoked. He fought for its return for fifteen years. Karel Fišer tried unsuccessfully to emigrate several times and at the same time experienced several difficult interrogations in Czechoslovakia directed by State Security. At the time of the interview he was living in Zlín.