„It was a never ending course in philosophy and politics. People always discussed theology, politics, natural sciences. Many interesting people used to come. One arrived and there was Dominik Duka or someone like that and chatted. I don't know whether they would talk to each other so cordially today but at that time, we were on the same boat. I think that it was Josef Zvěřina who spread the news about Julek's circle. He would somehow pass the information because it was not safe to visit just some random place. So he guaranteed to some people that it was a safe place at Julius' and that they can go there. Julek would learn all sorts of things, mathematics, living and dead languages… understandably, we did not have time enough to absorb it this thoroughly but we came to his place and he said that there was a mathematician earlier that day and that he told him some thing or another and we started discussing some problem. He lent books because when people knew what sort of person he is, someone would bring him books [from abroad] from time to time.”
„I brought the fresh issue of Lidové noviny. Gals from the library and other volunteers got a task of typing five or ten pages onto the stencil matrices for the mimeograph. The main organisers were Jirka Suchan and Petr Gardáš who did the actual copying. It took long hours and and damn much space was needed. Once we were doing the copying at Hanka's parents' who were on holiday. Her father, who was a Communist party member then, arrived a day earlier, opened the door and there was a bunch of hippie types and the whole flat was covered by the still wet copies of Lidové noviny. He almost had a stroke.“
„Understandably, I tried to dress according this style but it was not possible at the high school then. We were not allowed any sportswear at school, which included any sort of sport shoes, no t-shirt without a collar, no blue trousers that would even vaguely resemble of blue jeans. There were checks every day at the school entrance. The assigned teacher stood at the door and whoever would come wearing jeans or sneakers, they got turned away, had to go home and change the clothes and got written up for unwarranted absence. I don't even mention hair length. I always had problems with all this.”
Jan Havlíček was born on the 14th of July 1965 in Šumperk. After graduating from the high school, he went to study hydraulic engineering and construction at the Czech Technical University in Prague. In Prague, he found many friends with whom he shared [counter-regime] views, he visited concerts of banned artists, regularly participated in the John Lennon memorial happenings at Kampa and various demonstrations against the ruling regime, attended clandestine home lectures and connected with the people from Prague dissent community such as the Kaplan family, Václav Malý or Josef Zvěřina. He was a member of both the underground and the Catholic dissent. He retyped, printed, smuggled from Poland and distributed all sorts of samizdat (illegally published) works, in Šumperk, he and his friends ran a distribution centre of the illegal Lidové noviny (~People‘s News). For this reason, the State Security started to follow him. He was one of the leading personalities of the Velvet Revolution in Šumperk and he was one of th founding members of the Civic Forum. After the Revolution, Jan Havlicek worked in the editorial board of the Civic Forum in Šumperk, then as a programme director in the cultural center, then, for several years, as the spokesman for the district council, later on, he worked in water management. Meantime, he attended law courses and got a law degree. In 2020, he worked as a managing director of the Šumperk Water Company. With his wife Hana, they raised three children and they still live in Šumperk.
Soňa Singerová 16.11.2009 DISKUZE Listopad 89, KSČ, Šumperk, divadlo, komunismus, demonstrace, autobus, Morava, Občanské fórum, Veřejná bezpečnost SOUVISEJÍCÍ ČLÁNKY Jiří Veber 27.10.2009 Překvapilo mě, že Václav Havel nezapomněl... Šumperk /R
