I wanted to be present at everything, but I always watched my back
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Jiří Pichrt was born on 15 September 1951 in Prague. He grew up in a family marked by the dramas of the Second World War. In March 1942, his mother Eliška witnessed first-hand the death of Captain Václav Morávek, the last of the anti-Nazi resistance group the Three Kings, who was shot by the Gestapo at the Powder Bridge. After the war, she joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ), but after the political trials in 1951, she handed in her membership card. His father, Jiří Pichrt Sr., took part in the Prague Uprising and only by chance escaped execution at Masaryk Station. He grew up in Vršovice, trained as an electromechanic and later completed his education at secondary technical school. From a young age he was fascinated by events in public space - he had to be present at everything. In August 1968, he documented the occupation at Czechoslovak Radio, where he photographed burning tanks, barricades and gunfire. He actively participated in the demonstrations of the late 1960s, including Palach’s funeral, the protests after the hockey victory over the USSR, and the anniversary of the occupation in 1969, when he repeatedly faced police and People’s Militia interventions. In the mid-1970s, he joined the Engineering and Industrial Construction (IPS) company and then served his military service at the Interior Ministry’s security regiment, where he experienced absurd conditions and officers’ parties. After the war, he worked for ten years as a low-current technician in the Czechoslovak Stone Industry Workshops. In the 1980s he also participated in a number of important protests, including Palach Week and 17 November 1989 on Národní Street. After the revolution, he used his knowledge of German and with his wife founded the Via Bohemica travel agency, which took tourists to Italy and Croatia after the Velvet Revolution. After its closure in 2005, he worked for Euromont until his retirement. In 2026 he was still living in Prague and playing in a country band.
