Once a Scout, always a Scout
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Ervín Reegen was born in Dančovice in the Jindřichův Hradec region on 16 January 1935 to German parents. His father, Johann Reegen, worked on the family farm, enlisted in the Austrian army in 1915 and suffered a wound to his hand during fighting on the Eastern Front. After his return he worked as a gendarme. Mother Terezie was a housewife. After the occupation of the Sudetenland by the German army, the then three-year-old Ervín had to leave the house in Dančovice with his parents and move to Jemnice because his father was considered a traitor by the Germans. In 1940, Ervín’s father was arrested for collaborating with the resistance and eventually had to join the Wehrmacht. He returned after the war and worked as a carpenter. Following 1945, all of Ervín’s relatives were deported to Germany and the Reegen family farm was confiscated. In 1946, Ervin joined the Boy Scouts and stayed with them for the rest of his life. He was threatened with expulsion from high school for publishing an illegal scout magazine in the 1950s. After graduating from high school, Ervin Reegen embarked on a career as a teacher and taught in many elementary schools across the country. In the wake of 1968 and again in 1989, he took part in reviving the scout centre in Jemnice, and served as the headmaster of the Jemnice primary school from 1989 to 1996. He died in September 2022.
