I am no resistance fighter
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Jiří Otter was born July 31, 1919 in Pilsen in a family of an evangelical pastor who came from Vienna. He studied a humanities-oriented grammar school which he completed in 1938. His subsequent study at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University became interrupted when Czech universities were forced to close down. He passed a deacon’s examination and he became a teacher of religion. Since he had friends among members of the Sokol organization, he and his father were arrested and Jiří was sentenced to two years of imprisonment. He was interned in various prisons in Germany. After the war he graduated from English at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University and from theology at the Comenius Evangelical Faculty of Theology. He spent two semesters at Assembly’s College in Belfast. In 1948 Jiří became a pastor of the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren in the congregation in Mariánské Lázně. He received his doctoral degree in 1953. From 1965 he served as a secretary in the head office of the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren. He taught English and German at the theological faculty. Jiří retired in 1999, but he still continues in his biblical work. In 2014 he was the eldest candidate in Czech Republic’s local administration elections.
