Karel Růžek

* 1930

  • "It was awful. Imagine a person working hard to buy a field, and suddenly by a signature, he gives it to someone for free, they don't give him anything for it. How did they have to feel, those people? In Kamenná Lhota they were still fighting against the collectivization, as the terrain was a field-hill-border… And to connect it… If not right, then comes the flooding. And it was still believed that it was not possible to consolidate the fields and cultivate them with tractors and machines. And so it lasted until… The Lhota’s people defended themselves… There was already a cooperative in Koží, I think in Kouty at Bojiště also, meanwhile the ours were still private. That was the politics at the time. The politics did this in order to force the old people who couldn’t work on their fields themselves, to give the up, in order to say to themselves ‘whatever’. My father, when he saw, poor him, that everyone signed, he also did. I can imagine how he felt. God loved him. During the holidays, he just fell down … He even paid extra to have a higher pension as a private farmer. And all this served for nothing.”

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    Ledeč nad Sázavou, 23.06.2013

    (audio)
    délka: 01:31:20
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Soutěž Příběhy 20. století
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

There is no life without music. It‘s a drug for whoever falls for it. It’s also my case.

Karel Růžek in 2013
Karel Růžek in 2013
zdroj: Archiv pamětníka

Karel Růžek was born on August 20, 1930 in Kamenná Lhota into an agricultural family. His grandfather used to be a grand piano player in an imperial band, but his desire for a musical profession was thwarted by the need to work on the fields. But perhaps Karel inherited his musical talent from him. Karel’s family was affected by forced collectivization, which the inhabitants of Kamenná Lhota had long resisted, but in the end his father also succumbed and signed the entrance to the agricultural cooperative. Karel longed to study at the conservatory, which he also studied on a merit scholarship, while at the same time taking private trombone lessons with Professor Ušák. He became a professional musician upon joining compulsory military service. After returning from the military service, he began teaching music in Voršilská and founded a wind ensemble, with which he celebrated international success, and many of its members became part of the Philharmonic Orchestra. His interview was recorded as part of the Stories of the 20th Century competition, and at that time Karel, despite his advanced age, was still teaching at the art school in Ledeč nad Sázavou.