The clips are part of a set of interviews prepared by the Czech team following the main project topic “breaching the wall” and also the fact that “we need education.” We emphasized keeping the oral history standards during the whole process or collecting the interviews and their further processing to have the final form that can be published. In line with methodology standards, the first part of the interviews concentrated on an “open narrative” of a life story; then we asked the questions directly aimed at the topic, specifically: the issue of Berlin Wall – memories of that day, of that historical moment, its “real” and symbolical meaning. Then we concentrated on related topics of freedom, the place of the Czech Republic in European structures. An important part of the interviews was that of comparison “before” and “after” – comparison of the narrator’s ideas, expectations, and wishes in the times of gaining freedom in 1989 with further developments, with the current situation in the country, in neighboring countries, in Europe, etc. After addressing a wide range of potential narrators, we focused on getting the most representative selection of opinions. Thus, women and men, older and youngest generations, as well as people from different strata are relatively evenly represented in the group. We included people both from Prague, the capital, and from smaller towns, as well as people from border regions. The sample includes entrepreneurs, municipal politician, teacher, technician, people, as well as corporate employees or a pensioner. The sample thus brings a wide range of various experiences and reflections both on freedom and the concept of walls (in the meaning of both real and symbolic obstacles).
Miroslav Vaněk
Miroslav Vaněk was born in 1961 in Teplice (North Bohemia). After high school, he entered the Faculty of Education of the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen. He began working as a primary school teacher (1986–1992) in the region. After […]
Marek Skála
Marek Skála was born in 1990, and he has two brothers. He grew up with his mother and stepfather in Český Broth (Central Bohemia), where he also attended primary school and secondary school of economics. During his studies, he also […]
Gabriela Hovorková
Gabriela Hovorková was born in 1974 and grew up in a small village in Central Bohemia – Milín. She is the youngest of four children; her father (originally a Sudeten German) worked as a miner, her mother (originally from Hungary) […]
Libor Schröpfer
Libor Schröpfer was born in June 1963; he has lived in Holýšov (a small town in Western Bohemia) since birth. He studied at the Grammar School in Domažlice, and after graduating he entered the Faculty of Education of the University […]
Monika Lerchová
Monika Lerchová was born in May 1966 in Sušice (Western Bohemia), where she lived throughout her youth; later on, she moved to Holýšov, a small town in the same region. Her mother was a shop assistant, her father a truck […]
Jan Lerch
Jan Lerch was born in 1965 in Sušice (Western Bohemia), where he attended primary school and grammar school; and he lived there until he was 18 years old. Completing a grammar school, he went to study at the military university […]
Hana Havlová
Hana Havlová was born in June 1949 and grew up as the only child in Kutná Hora (Central Bohemia). Her father was a judge assessor and lawyer, her mother worked most of her life in the travel agency Čedok. Her […]
Markéta Burman
Markéta Burman was born in 1968 in Litoměřice (Northern Bohemia) but she has lived in Prague all her life. Her father worked at the Ministry of the Interior. He had a strong social feeling, so he joined the Communist Party […]
Josef Hais
Josef Hais, classe 1982, è nato e cresciuto nel distretto di Domažlice, nella Boemia occidentale: passa i suoi primissimi anni di vita nel villaggio di Doubrava, e dall’età di tre anni si trasferisce nella piccola città di Staňkov, dove frequenta […]