Bohumil Flemming

* 1921

Scientist
29. 9. 1938 - The Munich Diktat, 15. 3. 1939 - The Nazi occupation of ČSR, 1. 9. 1939 - The outbreak of the WW2, 5. – 9. 5. 1945 - Prague Uprising, 25. 2. 1948 - Communist coup d‘état in ČSR, 5. 1. - 21. 8. 1968 - The Prague Spring, 21. 8. 1968 - Invasion of the Warsaw Pact troops, 17. 11. - 29. 12. 1989 - The Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia, 1948 - 1955 - Politic lawsuit in the Stalin age, 17. 11. 1939 – Closure of Czech universities, 20. 11. – 3. 12. 1952 – Rudolf Slánský’s trial, 8. 5. 1945 - End of WWII
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    The happy father

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    “I had two classmates from secondary school, Felix Kohn and Věra Frishmanová. Felix was even a member of Sokol, but the whole family died, unfortunately. I remember seeing Věra when she began wearing the star, and I would normally stand on the platform with Věra and chat. She told me: ‘I’m surprised you’re not afraid to talk to me now that I’ve got the star.’ I told her that nothing has changed between us and that we were still friends and that I hoped she would survive it all. She was working at some workshop in Smíchov, but they locked the whole family up soon after. Věra was a single child for a long time and her father wanted another child. He longed to have another one, and before they locked them up, his wish was fulfilled. People called him the happy father. Except that they locked them up afterwards. When the war ended, the only one to return was old Mr Frishman. He came home, rang on the doorbell, and some stranger came to open the door. He collapsed. So the happy father was the only one to survive of the whole family. But I think he didn’t live for long.”

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    August 1968

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    “We left to the congress in Moscow, and the next day my friends came rushing up, they had a radio receiver, and they said: ‘Look, Christ Jesus, COMECON [Council for Mutual Economic Assistance] soldiers, that is Soviet Union soldiers are entering the country, but both the bureau of the central committee and the government declared that no one had invited them. That it’s an occupation.’ I felt responsible for our delegation because I was a government envoy, I had brought those people there. So I went to Minister Korčák and told him we should do something. What if we set up a party committee? He refused that. So we have to create some group which will be able to take council on the matter and which will head things here in some way. So I suggested a task force comprising myself, him, and representatives of the main areas in the delegation, which would be someone from energetics, someone from industry, engineering, someone from agriculture, and some university professor. The minister agreed to this, and so we created a task force.”

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    Henlein

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    “I also remember that we had some interesting experiences. For instance, Henlein lecturing on a football pitch. It’s well known that long before the war, Henlein and Hitler discussed what to do with Czechoslovakia. That is, they prepared Munich [the Munich Agreement in which Germany was given international permission to annex Czechoslovak border regions, the Sudetes - transl.]. He already spoke in that essence there. He was surrounded by our policemen, who were there to ensure that he didn’t spread sedition. Otherwise they’d stop the meeting.”

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    Praha Malešice, 21.03.2014

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Democracy, homeland, family, and social solidarity

Bohumil Flemming
Bohumil Flemming
photo: Pavel Beránek
photo: Pavel Beránek
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Bohumil Flemming was born in 1921 in Prague. He spent his childhood and youth in Žižkov (a Prague quarter) in the extensive company of his friends and classmates. He graduated from grammar school and was awarded the TGM Prize for excellent study results; he wanted to continue his studies at the Czech Technical University. When the Germans invaded, however, all universities were closed down and Bohumil Flemming was forced to hide for a short time. When the danger passed, he returned home and was employed as a worker at the ČKD factory in Prague. At the same time he attended night school, where he was lectured by professors released from the universities. Towards the end of the war he applied to a Communist resistance group, but his request was turned down. After the war he obtained a degree in high voltage engineering and began to take an active interest in politics. After the February-1948 coup, he joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and took up the post of head engineer at the Karolina power plant. In the 1950s he was appointed head engineer of energetics at the Ministry of Fuel and Energetics, and several years later he founded and directed the Organisation for the Rationalisation of Generating Stations. In the 1960s he headed the Institute for the Development of Fuel and Energy Resources. In August 1968 he was participating in a congress of the World Energy Council and could thus witness the reactions of representatives of Western nations to the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Warsaw Pact armies. After returning home, and especially during the normalisation, he was removed from his functions, and until the Velvet Revolution he held the position of deputy chief of the energetics department. After 1989 he went into business for a few years, he now lives in a care home for the elderly in Prague-Malešice.

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