Miroslav Zikmund

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Miroslav Zikmund (2009)

Miroslav Zikmund (born February 14, 1919 in Pilsen ) is a Czech world traveler, writer and photographer .

Life

After graduating from high school in 1938, Miroslav Zikmund began studying engineering at the Business School (Vysoká obchodní škole) in Prague. Since the universities were closed by the German occupation during the Second World War (see special campaign in Prague ), he could not finish his studies until 1946. At the university he met his future fellow traveler and co-author Jiří Hanzelka .

From 1947 to 1950 Miroslav Zikmund and Jiří Hanzelka made a trip through Africa , South America and Central America in a Tatra 87 . Over seven hundred radio reports were broadcast about this trip. There were also thousands of photos and a large amount of footage.

Hanzelka and Zikmund, "H + Z", as they were now commonly called, made their second long journey, which lasted from 1959 to 1964, again with the support of the Tatra works , this time with two army transporters of the Tatra 805 series that had been converted for the expedition . They crossed Asia and Oceania .

In 1968 Zikmund sided with the reform communists. After the crackdown on the Prague Spring , he was banned from publishing any further books in 1970. Zikmund and Hanzelka had to make ends meet as stokers and gardeners.

Zikmund has lived in Zlín since 1953 . A permanent exhibition is dedicated to the travels of Zikmund and Hanzelka in the Southeast Moravian Museum in his adopted home Zlín. Her photographs are often shown in country-specific exhibitions. Zikmund is a member of the Czech writers' association Obec spisovatelů .

Books written together with Jiří Hanzelka

In Czech language

Miroslav Zikmund wrote almost all of his books together with Jiří Hanzelka. The only exceptions are Modrý mauritius… a přece Austrálie! (1999) and Sloni žijí do sta let (2002), which Zikmund published alone or with others.

  • Africa - Dream and Reality (Afrika snů a skutečnosti), 1952
  • Over there behind the river is Argentina (Tam za řekou je Argentina), 1956
  • Across the Cordillera (Přes Kordillery), 1957
  • Among the headhunters (Za lovci lebek), 1958
  • Between two oceans (Mezi dvěma oceány), 1959
  • The Inverted Crescent (Obrácený půlměsíc), 1961
  • A Thousand and Two Nights (Tisíc a dvě noci), 1967
  • The continent under the Himalayas (Světadíl pod Himalájem), 1969
  • Special message no. 4 (Zvláštní zpráva č. 4), 1964. This report on the trip through the Soviet Union on the way back from the five-year trip to Asia was only given to selected members of the government. Due to the unvarnished description of the economic and social situation in the USSR , the report was classified as "secret"; it could not be published until 1990.
  • Ceylon, a country without angels (Cejlon, ráj bez andělů), banned in 1975, was self-published in 1991
  • Sumatra, Hope Without Contour (Sumatra, naděje bez obrysů), banned in 1975, was self-published in 1991
  • Dream life and reality (Život snů a skutečnosti), 1997
  • Across Africa in the Tatra Mountains (Afrika kolem Tatry), 2000
  • The great waters of the Iguazú (Velké vody Iguazú), 2000
  • Crossing the Desert (Přemožení pouště), 2002
  • A trap at the equator - mysterious Indonesia (Past na rovníku - tajemná Indonesie), the last of the books based on the notes of the shared journeys, published in 2008, five years after Hanzelka's death.

The publications on the Latin America trip in German translation

Zikmund and Hanzelka described their trip to Latin America from June 1948 to September 1950 in four extensive volumes:

The four volumes were published, one volume per year, between 1956 and 1959 by the Volk und Welt publishing house in Berlin. Of all the travel books by Zikmund and Hanzelka, the Latin America cycle has been translated into most languages ​​and published the most.

Further travel descriptions in German translation

  • Africa, dream and reality. 3 volumes. Volk und Welt publishing house, Berlin 1954.
  • Africa, dream and reality. Selection in one band. Volk und Welt publishing house, Berlin 1961.
  • Balkans and Asia Minor - The Inverted Crescent. Volk und Welt publishing house, Berlin 1962.

Movies

  • Africa I.
  • Africa II.
  • Z Argentiny do Mexika
  • Je-li kde ne světě ráj

In addition to these full-length films, Zikmund and Hanzelka made 147 documentaries, shorts and television films.

See also

Web links

Commons : Miroslav Zikmund  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Robert Tamchyna: Dobré Jethro - 27.8. In: Český rozhlas . August 27, 2006, archived from the original on February 10, 2013 ; accessed on February 14, 2019 (Czech).
  2. ↑ Werner Pöschko: In the Tatra T87 around the world. In: Austria 1 . July 3, 2009, accessed February 14, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Werner Pöschko: Tatra Mountains . Feature. Südwestrundfunk / Österreichischer Rundfunk / Deutschlandradio Kultur, 2009
  4. ↑ Hanzelka, Jiří 1920–2003. In: WorldCat Identities . Retrieved February 14, 2019 .


personal data
SURNAME Zikmund, Miroslav
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Czech world traveler and writer
DATE OF BIRTH February 14, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Pilsen