Ivan Ruller

* 1926  †︎ 2018

  • “At the end of war we were totally deployed in Brno industry. First we were in the factory, where there were working with the lathe, and then until the end of war I was in a small factory filling up oxygen bombs, that was quite a hard work as we worked day and night there. I had a colleague from the same college and we experienced air-raids, when we ran to Cacovice, and when there was bombing, we hid under the bathtub. And it was interesting as in Brno there were no trams so I had to get up really early in the morning.”

  • “They disappeared and we did not know where or why. For example here lived Weigel, who built the house and he had a son and a daughter and they were suddenly gone. The sons of the director Minc, who built the villa under the governmental one, they managed to emigrate and returned after 1945, but then they got trapped here again and gradually returned to England again. It all simply disappeared. And all the experience with the German element was rough, as they behaved quite rude. When you met Hitlerjugend in the street and someone did not put a hat down, then there was beating. But the comrades were not different at all. During the process of Hilada Horáková and Slánský, they were broadcasting Urválek, who had a speech via megaphone in Brno so there was no escape at all. It was just dreadful.”

  • “And the three years past the war we took a deep breath and it ended in 1948; there was the feeling of the upcoming putsch in the society and it was obvious, that the communist elite was preparing to take over the power. They had students in schools, who believed in the ideology, and that was their beneficial psychological moment. The nation was in an anti-Nazi mood, as they started the war and the Russians beat them and the comrades could use that well. But of course there were many confidents helping the comrades, that´s how it was.”

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    Brno, 31.10.2017

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    duration: 03:08:08
    media recorded in project Stories of 20th Century
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I could never say goodbye to my native town of Brno

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Ivan Ruller
photo: vlastní

Ivan Ruller was born in Brno on 17 November, 1926 in the family of a builder named Čeněk Ruller. The environment he grew up in formed him since his childhood and brought him to architecture and fine arts. He studied with world-famous architects; for ex. at Bohuslav Fuchs or Bedřich Rozehnal. Ruller strictly disagreed with the communist regime and political processes, which ran in 1950s and obviously he got persecuted later in 1952. He was kicked out of the architecture faculty and for many years he became an undesired person for the former regime. Despite all that he is an author of many appraised and worthy buildings. From Brno realisations it is mainly the building of Ingstav and the sports hall Rondo. From later realisations he participated in the construction of the pavilion E in the exhibition areas and he is also an author of an architectonic solution of a gravestone of the poet, Jan Skácel. Ivan Ruller gained his first experience in the Brno company Potravinoprojektu. He changed then many projecting institutes such as Stavoprojekt, Chemoprojekt or Elektroprojekt Brno. In 1968 - 1979 he worked in the Institute of the main architect, later he worked as a freelancing architect. He participated in a number of projects and in domestic and international competitions. He also assisted at drafting refineries in Sri Lanka or Pakistan. Building a museum of history in the Libyan Tripoli he cooperated with UNESCO. Abroad he was and is a well-acknowledged professional. He was not favoured at home for his attitudes and disagreement with the totalitarian practice during the former regime. In 1970 - 1989 he was forbidden membership in the Architects´ Club and he was banned publishing and teaching for more than twenty years. Yet he managed to keep his distance and was not afraid to work with the “forbidden” artists, such as Vladimír Preclík or Olbram Zoubek. After revolution he could return to the High Technical College in Brno, where he was a dean of the Faculty of Architecture for four years. He is a holder of the merit medal in the field of arts. He received a golden medal VUT, award of Vladimír Karfík for the pavilion E in the Brno exhibition grounds and „For major contributions to urbanism and architecture”. He received Grand Prix of the Architects´community for lifetime work. Ivan Ruller passed away in March, 2018.