The Communists took away their farm and their father. They did not give up their organ workshop.
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Bohumil Žloutek was born on the 10th of January in 1942 in Semily. His father Bohumil was a master organist, he worked in the Josef Meltzer’s workshop in Kutná Hora. In 1932, he participated in the construction of the organ in the St. Vitus cathedral at the Prague Castle. The workshop was closed down during the WWII. Bohumil the Elder moved to Bzí near Železný Brod, got married and did not return to organ making as he had to care for the family smallholding. The family did not want to join the United Agricultural Cooperative and submit to the collectivisation. For this resistance, he was accused and in a show trial, sentenced to three years of prison. When Bohumil’s sister expressed her pleasure at the death of President Antonín Zápotocký, she was expelled from school. Bohumil followed in the steps of his father and trained as an organ maker as well. At first, he ran his workshop under the administration of the agricultural co-op and later, in Liberec, as a part of the musical instruments repair shop which was a part of the Petrof piano factory. After the 1968 occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Warsaw Pact armies, several family members emigrated. Bohumil’s sister did not return from her holiday abroad and his brother stayed in Switzerland where he was on a scholarship. Bohumil Žloutek was the first organ builder in Czechoslovakia to build a fully mechanical organ. In 1975, his son Bohumil was born; he later continued the organ building family tradition. In 2022, the workshop had already made their 27th opus – a large organ. Memories of Bohumil Žloutek could be recorded thanks to the support of the town of Zásada.
