Gotthard Janda

* 1939

  • "I was sitting in the second pew and I was drawing Gottwald. Stalin and Gottwald were hanging in the front, so I was drawing them. The teacher caught me looking at it and said I would get an A in drawing. So from then on I got an A in drawing. Although the year before that, he had scolded me for wasting paints made from coal. That I didn't appreciate the work of my stepfather, who's a miner. So that was the experience of drawing."

  • "Suddenly someone came running and called that we should go and see. They were chasing Germans. So we went in front of the gate and on the road there was a double or triple file. In groups. There might have been twenty people in each. They had some backpacks on their backs. And behind each group, two or three people with a scourge and a whip. They were being driven from Ostrava to Opava. Neighbours of ours, Heins, had their father captured and they got an 'N'. A black letter N on a white background. Like when the Jews wore a star, the Germans got this tag and had to wear an 'N'." [N for Němec, which is German in Czech]

  • "People were fooled. On the Prajzská [the Hlučín region]. Thanks to the fact that a lot of bricklayers, of which there were many, worked in Germany. There they were infected by nationalism. What Hitler promoted. All the promises he made. And also Henlein. The farmers´ wives went to Opava to demonstrate for German schools. The atmosphere was like this. Not in every family, of course. Of course, a lot of people sobered up afterwards when the men had to enlist. When they were wounded and families lost their sons and brothers. So of course people sobered up."

  • Full recordings
  • 1

    Ostrava, 12.06.2025

    (audio)
    duration: 02:18:46
  • 2

    Ostrava, 14.06.2025

    (audio)
    duration: 02:34:00
  • 3

    Dolní Benešov, 27.09.2025

    (audio)
    duration: 01:29:09
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He grew up during the war and drew Gottwald. He created freely and resurrected Štefánik

Gotthard Janda, circa 1980s
Gotthard Janda, circa 1980s
photo: archive of Gotthard Janda

Gotthard Janda was born on 5 November 1939 in Dolní Benešov. His ancestors include the sculptor Johannes Janda, who lived and worked mainly in Berlin in the 19th century. His father Richard died in 1940 and his mother remarried to a miner Josef Kuchejda. In the spring of 1945 he experienced the crossing of the front line, witnessed the expulsion of the Germans and the Revolutionary Guards in the village. He trained as a turner. He worked in the workshops of the OKR mining company. Later he studied at the Secondary School of Arts and Crafts in Uherské Hradiště, where he graduated in 1962. In 1971 he graduated from the Faculty of Architecture in Brno. He joined Stavoprojekt in Opava, from where he left and freelanced in industrial design. In Dolní Benešov he worked to save monuments. After 1989 he created busts of Karel Engliš and Jan Zajíc. He significantly contributed to the restoration of the monumental statue of M. R. Štefánik in Bratislava destroyed by the communists. In the year of recording (2025) he lived in Dolní Benešov and worked on the bust of J. Gregor Mendel.