Jiří Dohnal

* 1969

  • "We knew that something had happened in Prague on November 17. We didn't know exactly what, but that time on Sunday, the guys came on bikes and were massacred because they were on Národní třída, they got beaten up. One, when he took off his shirt, it was pretty cruel, his back said it all. And another part of them were actually in the cafe upstairs and they were watching it from the windows and they were very bad off. I, on the other hand, by some coincidence - there was supposed to be a relay race, and I injured my ankle, so I did not register there, so I was not in Prague at all. So I kind of escaped that again in quotes and I'm glad because I think it was a very traumatic event that I'm glad I have never experienced in my life."

  • “Our function was so universal that we tried to distribute something ourselves, then organize the trips - where to go and to which area. A spokesman went to a certain area because it was known that there would already be a meeting in the square or in a certain factory or organization. At the same time, we had poster men who had to have posters, had to have leaflets to put up and hand out to people. At the same time, we had to know what the current arguments were and what the situation was, so we tried to communicate a lot with Prague. And to communicate meant that the car was driving between Prague and Olomouc. During the nights, because we were active climbers, we spent the nights adjusting and taking down various banners and stars and street labels.”

  • "I experienced an armed attack while filming. At a time when we could no longer perform anywhere, we decided that we would at least record the music. We shot it twice. And one of the studios that we improvised was a driving school building in Havířov. There it happened that the guys were playing in one room and I was waiting for my sax solo. And since we didn't have these various "gimmicks" and these electronic matters, we simulated the reverberation, the effect that something lingers for a long time, by me standing in a long narrow corridor, one microphone in front of me, the other microphone he had at the back at the end of the corridor. And now I was waiting for a solo, and suddenly a dog, a wolf without a basket, ran up the stairs where I was standing. And so I was looking at the dog, five members of the National Security Service came running after the dog. And I was so perplexed by that, and as I was waiting for that solo with headphones on, at a stand with a microphone and with a saxophone - they probably didn't expect it either - so I signalled them to be quiet. And they were really quiet. I played a solo, and when I finished, they rushed in."

  • Full recordings
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    Kolín, 09.05.2022

    (audio)
    duration: 46:43
    media recorded in project The Stories of Our Neigbours
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Music meant a lot to me

Jiří Dohnal during the removal of the red star in Olomouc, November 1989
Jiří Dohnal during the removal of the red star in Olomouc, November 1989
photo: Archiv pamětníka

Jiří Dohnal was born on March 26, 1969 in Valašské Meziříčí, where he spent his entire childhood and adolescence. Although he remembers his childhood in totality as a gray period, this period also had its bright sides. Jiří regularly attended the pioneer section in Valašské Meziříčí, which was the only independent section in the entire republic and since 1968, the year of its foundation, he successfully resisted efforts for abolishment. For Jiří, this section was, as he says, a salvation. His other escape from reality was rock climbing and music. He attended the Folk Art School for eight years and learned to play the saxophone, violin, mandolin and banjo. Thanks to his talent, at the age of fifteen he got a job in the underground band Slepé střevo, which was the predecessor of the famous band Mňága a Žďorp. Although he did not personally participate in the demonstration on Národní třída in 1989, he was greatly affected by this event. As a student of the Pedagogical Faculty of the Palacký University in Olomouc, he actively participated in the student strike. After the Velvet Revolution, he was one of the first employees of the non-governmental organization Hnutí Duha, thanks to which he met Václav Havel. In 2022, he was engaged in coaching and also worked as a psychotherapist.