I still see that “tough” StB officer in Vary to this day

Download image
Jindřich Tolar was born in Karlovy Vary on 15 May 1965 into the family of two local athletes, Jindřich Tolar and Drahomíra Mrtvá, née Gertraud Weintrop. His father left the country in 1969 and he was left alone with his mother. In 1971, he entered the Libušina primary school in Karlovy Vary and then went on to the high school of electrical engineering in Ostrov where he first encountered the underground scene. In 1981-1983, he visited his father in Germany and spent parts of his holidays with him. In 1983 he met Milan Kozelka, a Karlovy Vary artist, performer and art connoisseur. One year later, he graduated high school and left for Prague, from where he returned to Karlovy Vary in 1985 and joined the local theatre as a set and prop builder. He had to find a new job after the end of the theatre season so he joined Rozvodné závody as a process engineer. Throughout the 1980s, he took an active part in the happenings of the Karlovy Vary underground scene and played in the bands Žába s peněženkou na zádech and Gigantická pauza. From 1987 on, he serviced spa houses. The StB listed Jindřich Tolar on file as a ‘under investigation’ but his complete documents have not survived. He played his first show with his current band, Fish Flesh Field and Henry Dollar in 1993. The CD Zběhlý satyr (Runaway Satyr) with poems by Milan Kozelka was released. The witness received a certificate as a participant in the resistance against communism in November 2024. He lived in Karlovy Vary at the time of filming (2025).