Jan Mesarč

* 1956

Svědci lokálních událostí z éry komunismu
17. 11. - 29. 12. 1989 - The Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia
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    National enterprise Karosa in economic transformation after 1991

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    duration: 01:47
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    "It was still going on in the 1990, it was still going on, yeah, because the whole system was based on the fact that Karosa didn't sell buses. The production plants didn't sell their goods, or rather Karosa, the rest I don't know exactly, but this type of product, like a bus, just came off the schedule from the Czech Automobile Works, which brought together automobile plants all over the country, and there was exactly the schedule: bus, when, to whom, what kind to deliver. But there was no money there, Karosa had no ... it was then getting it from the ČAZ, which was collecting and giving the money to Karosa. But of course he kept the profit, the companies didn't get the profit, they were underfunded. So they were manufacturing, they were delivering buses, so they just needed an expediter there, they didn't need anything else, just somebody to call them to come, and well ... nobody could do it. So all that had to change. To learn how to sell buses, to know how to meet the customer's wishes, because up to that time they were selling a series of 600 red city buses, 600 blue line buses, just all the same, there was no deviation, there was no customer wishes, Karosa was learning it all as they went along."

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    After November 17th in Vysoke Myto

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    duration: 01:51
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    "So we only knew about what was going on in Prague from the television and from the newspapers, from the news, from the radio. That was still quite distorted information in those early days. So I went to school normally, on Monday, to the VUT in Brno. I arrive there, there was no teaching, there were leaflets everywhere, posters, students were discussing, I was completely out of my mind, I had no idea that something like that was happening, well, of course the school wasn't. There was no teaching, I don't know if they were on strike or not, there was no teaching, so I collected all the materials that were there, and I went home. And I thought that maybe we should do something too, yeah, at that time it was quiet, nobody was... it was not quite sure how it was going to turn out, and so, as is the custom here in these parts that we live, these people start to be active only when it's decided and they know which side to take, so that they can benefit from it. Well, I arrived and immediately tried to get a few people together to start a business with. I had more in mind to do some outreach, at that time, to spread the information, what I brought from that Prague ... that is, from Brno, to multiply it, to spread it, to give information that was ... right."

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    Long hair

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    duration: 00:48
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    "To be honest, I didn't even... not that I particularly liked them, no, but I just didn't understand why I couldn't have them. And that's just why I figured, if they're like not allowed, if they're forbidding it, I'll have it on purpose. So I've been such a provocateur since I was a kid, well, even at that elementary school, then in fourth grade, when my teacher changed, the new teacher, she just said she was going to get that ironic look out of me. And she went after me in a horrible way. Anyway, it was more like a... a form of protest. Why can't I have long hair, what's wrong with that?"

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    Hradec Králové, 08.10.2019

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    duration: 02:02:18
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With a hat in your hand, you’ll travel all over the world

Jan Mesarč at the graduation table, 1975
Jan Mesarč at the graduation table, 1975
photo: Poskytnuto Janem Mesarčem
photo: Poskytnuto Janem Mesarčem
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Jan Mesarč was born on April 26, 1956 and grew up with his mother and grandparents in Vysoké Mýto. In his youth he struggled with problems due to wearing long hair and belonging to a similarly behaving group of people in a small-town environment. After high school he joined the Karosa n. p. in Vysoké Mýto as an untrained sheet metal cutter. In this socialist-controlled factory, he worked his way up through many positions and gradually supplemented his education, and by the end of the 1980s he held a fairly high position, yet after November 1989 he became one of the founders of the Civic Forum in his town. During the Velvet Revolution and in the few years afterwards, he served in the management of Karosa, where he experienced the transition of the company from the socialist system to the world of the market economy.

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Photos (5)
  • Jan Mesarč during the filming of the interview in 2019
    Jan Mesarč during the filming of the interview in 2019
    photo: Vyfoceno ve studiu PN
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  • Jan Mesarč during an interview in the Memory of the Nation studio, Oct. 8, 2019
    Jan Mesarč during an interview in the Memory of the Nation studio, Oct. 8, 2019
    photo: Vyfoceno při rozhovoru ve studiu PN
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  • Jan Mesarč at the graduation table, 1975
    Jan Mesarč at the graduation table, 1975
    photo: Poskytnuto Janem Mesarčem
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  • Jan Mesarč in 1972
    Jan Mesarč in 1972
    photo: Poskytnuto Janem Mesarčem.
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  • Jan Mesarč with Jiří Dienstbier at a meeting of the Friedrich Neumann Foundation in Prague, 1993
    Jan Mesarč with Jiří Dienstbier at a meeting of the Friedrich Neumann Foundation in Prague, 1993
    photo: Poskytnuto Janem Mesarčem.
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