Demand little but always stand your ground
Miloš Rejchrt was born on 19 October 1946 in Ostrava. He attended a grammar school in Prague‘s Štěpánská street. Following the example of his father, he then went to study theology at the Protestant Theological Faculty with the intention to become a pastor. Among his colleagues at the university were Svatopluk Karásek and Vratislav Brabenec. In 1968 he was active in the students‘ movement. Following the Warsaw Pact armies invasion he still managed to leave for planned year-long studies in Switzerland. He returned in August 1969 and since 1970 served as a pastor in Česká Lípa. However, since he turned down an offer to cooperate with the secret police, only two years later he lost the state permit to serve as a pastor. For a number of years he instead worked as a boiler operator. He was among the people who formed the Charter 77 initiative and from 1980 till 1981 he served as its spokesman. He was arrested and frequently interrogated but avoided long-term imprisonment. Just before the 1989 Velvet Revolution he was allowed to leave for yet another study trip to Switzerland. He thus followed the breakthrough events from distance. After 1990 he returned to his original profession. For several years he also worked as the head of the Czech Radio religious editing board.