Miroslav Adámek

* 1939

  • "In the 68th, some Germans from NSU from Neckarsulm came here and asked whose company this was. So, I said it was a family business, and now it's a Communal. They said that they would be interested and that they would like to service the NSU cars here. There were about eighteen employees, so we were going to Germany for training and so on. There was Mr. Mráz who took care of that for us, Mr. engineer. So, we went there also to play football, Modřany went there to Neckarsulm. Then I saw how Mr. Mráz started competing with the NSU cars here, so I said: 'Mr. Mráz, what if I went to Germany like this for at least three months?' So, he negotiated it there. I went there, they closed the borders in September and October, so I was there until the end of Christmas."

  • "I was six years old and my brother was driving here... there were about ten German cars and two ambulances left, so my brother was driving here and transporting the wounded people here for about three days. Fighting took place here, from Lahovice they were shooting at Komořany. Well, he saved about three people. It was also interesting that when he came home in the evening, he was covered in blood and said: 'We were rescuing people, we were driving a German ambulance with a Czech flag.' "

  • "The Communists came in 1950 and took our company. And it was already called ... first it was a Communal, then it was the District Service Company Prague 4 - Modřany. They took everything from us. The Germans didn't take anything from us and asked if we would work for them. But the communists came and took it."

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    Praha, 12.06.2019

    (audio)
    délka: 57:35
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu The Stories of Our Neigbours
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The communists came and they took away our company

Miroslav Adámek
Miroslav Adámek
zdroj: archive of the witness

Miroslav Adamek was born on August 18, 1939 in Prague. His father had been running a car repair shop in Modřany since 1934. After 1939, Miroslav‘s father decided to repair German cars. With this concession, he earned a living for his family and his employees even during the Second World War. At the end of the war, the witness witnessed the last battles during the Prague Uprising. On this occasion, his older brother helped the wounded and saved several lives. In 1950, the communist authorities nationalized the car workshop of the Adamek family, where both the father and the brother remained as employees. At the end of the 1960s, Miroslav spent several months training in the Federal Republic of Germany. After returning to Czechoslovakia, he began to devote himself fully to his career as a car racer. He achieved many sporting successes and won several awards. In the 1990s, he bought his father‘s former company and started a business again. After failures and financial problems, he sold a part of the company. He still works in his car workshop in Modřany.