The State Security interrogations were not the cause of my illness, but the trigger
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Jan Hammer was born on July 10, 1957, in Prostějov. He and his family often changed residence because his father worked as a flying instructor in the Czechoslovak People’s Army. Therefore, the witness grew up in Slovakia, spent his adolescence in Čáslav and finally lived in Havlíčkův Brod. In 1976, he graduated from the secondary electrical engineering school in Kutná Hora and immediately joined the two-year military service, during which he experienced harassment and bullying. From 1980, he worked at the District Enterprise of Housing Management in Havlíčkův Brod and joined the Communist Party because of his position as head of the establishment. At the same time, he started organizing music concerts, discussions and talks in the local Youth Union club called Julian bar. In 1986, he joined the organization of the music festival Folková Lipnice (official name Songs for Peace) and a year later became the head of the Osma Youth Club in Havlíčkův Brod. In September 1988, after Václav Havel’s public appearance at Folková Lipnice, interrogations at the State Security began, which led to a mental breakdown of the witness. After one of his attacks, he was transferred to a local psychiatric hospital, where he was later repeatedly hospitalized. Subsequently, he worked several jobs, but after prolonged health problems associated with a mental disorder, the authorities granted him a disability pension. In 2001, he received an invitation from Václav Havel to Prague Castle. To this day, he receives outpatient treatment and lives in Havlíčkův Brod (August 2022).
