Ing. Karel Stein

“The interesting this is a lot of people built on Míla Nevrlý’s work, whereas I researched local history at the same time as he did, and to begin with I knew nothing about him. I remember feeling like a total loon because no one else was interested in anything even slightly similar in the Seventies and early Eighties. I felt I was all alone in it. Except when I visited the archive in Děčín, where there were a few people, for example Doctor Helena Smíšková, who took an interest in history and local history. But I felt very lonely in Varnsdorf. Almost like a freak... And now there’s a society established under the museum, clubs, all sorts of activities going on now, I had no idea it could happen. Then when I discovered Míla Nevrlý’s Kniha Jizerských hor [Book of the Jizera Mountains], I reckoned: ‘I’m not completely alone on this world, there is someone else who’s interested in the same thing.’ I was deeply touched by the book, completely enthused; we became good friends with Míla. That was nice.”

“[Q: When you made some local history discovery, did you make it public somehow, or did you just store it in your own archives? For instance, Míla Nevrlý wrote books, other people wrote articles in magazines...] No one was interested in that kind of subject back in the days, and you couldn’t write about them - every periodical has some designation, and these matters didn’t fit into their scope. I wrote it down on my type writer, and I used carbon paper and gave the copies out to my friends, for example, to Míla Nevrlý or Engineer Bienert, that is, to people whom I thought might be interested. But to be honest I found out that most people aren’t all that bothered about it, that I’m the one who’s interested the most. Then I published a book called Pomníčky Lužických hor a Českého Švýcarska [Memorials of the Lusatian Mountains and Bohemian Switzerland], where I used the most interesting parts of my notes.”