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Rotary Club
Bratislava – a pioneer of the movement in Slovakia
In 1927, Cyril Tille, the first president of the Bratislava
Rotary Club, received the charter of the Rotary International
movement. The Bratislava club was one of the first established
Rotary clubs in Czecho-Slovakia. It is necessary to mention that
the path of the Bratislava club was not easy, but thorny
– filled with obstacles and interventions. It is not by chance
that for totalitarian regimes this apolitic and humanitarian
movement was and is a thorn in their side. Therefore, Rotarian
activities were banned twice in Slovakia: in 1939, after the
installation of the fascist Slovak State and in 1948, after the
communist coup. In 1990, after the events of November 1989, the
Bratislava Rotary Club was born, or to be more exact, revived
for the third, and let us hope for the last time.
But let us return to the past, at least in summary, to remind
you of the Rotarian movement’s background. The past honorary
member of our Club and holder of the Paul Harris Fellow, Aristid
Jamnický, (son of Otakar Jamnicky, President of RC Bratislava
1933/34), member of RC from 1946, reminds us also of the period
of the First Republic (1918-1938):... RC Bratislava maintained
very good friendly relations with other clubs, as the members,
despite their positions, were not so busy as today, and at
mutual club visits they participated in large numbers. A special
friendship was maintained with RC Brno. Members came frequently
to see us as friends, together with the president, the
well-known doctor, Karl Neuwirth. Very close relations were also
maintained with RC Roudnice nad Labem and RC Plzen.
Extraordinary friendly were the relations with the Austrian RC
Baden, near Vienna. Our visits were frequent. I hope I may add
that, this was influenced by the fact that our members liked
their wine and vice versa.
October 1938 did not have an agreeable impact on our Rotary
Club, the then autonomour government considered the Rotarian
movement something like an activity anti-religious, and after a
short period of time we were obliged to stop our activities.
The Holocaust saw two victims from among our members perish.
Hugo Brief, director general of Handlova mines until 1938, died
in Osviencim.
Another Rotarian, whose name I can’t recall, was director of
Magnesite Works and he killed himself during the deportation.“
Interesting is also the memory of Dr. Jamnicky of the
establishment of our Club in Bratislava after the WWII: „Club
activities after the war were renewed in 1946 and the Club was
very active, in order to compensate the long years of enforced
closure. Meetings were held each Friday evening in the Carlton
hotel. At the end of 1947, it was clear that our RC would again
have problems. After February 1948, when the arrests of
uncomfortable persons started, one of our members was received
by the then almighty Dr. Gustav Husák. He officially asked for
the list of members, but did not receive it. A meeting was held
later with the decision that under such circumstances the Club
activities, because of justified expectations, should be
interrupted...“
The first and founding president of the Rotary Club Bratislava
after November 1989 was Ján Korecký. From his broad and
interesting memories of the third establishment of the Club we
quote:
"Establishment of
the Rotary Club Bratislava, or its repeated, already third
establishment, was initiated in 1990 – by the then President
Elect of RC Wien-Schwechat – Franz Xaver Ludwig, who is my
family member, upon the incentive of the then Governor of
the West-Austrian District 192 (later 1920), Viktor
Straberger.
I have learnt about
the existence of Rotary and activities of our family member
within this movement even during the totalitarian regime at
our meetings at fairs (Brno and Leipzig), which I have
visited as a journalist and Franz Ludwig as a representative
of Instrumentation Laboratory. We have discussed the option
to establish the RC Bratislava for the first time during my
visit in Austria at the beginning of December 1989, my first
after the revolution. Shortly after this meeting after a
discussion with Viktor Straberger (when Straberger asked,
did he know a person suitable for establishment on the basis
of business relations), Franzi asked myself, what about to
establish RC Bratislava, and I agreed with enthusiasm,
because from our discussion the Rotarian ideas were close to
me and I accepted this challenge.
The invitation to
the meeting of RC Wien –
Schwechat followed
and it was my task to prepare a list of potential
personalities. I have prepared certain selection, a
proposal, later corrected, as I was more informed about
principles for selection and acceptance of members. Friends
from RC Wien-Schwechat agreed to act as our Godfather Club
and later they gained as a partner RC Salzburg with the then
President, Ing. Fleischer (Fleischmann).
I started to
participate in the meetings of Schwechat Rotarians and they
explained to me the Rotarian principles. Coincidence helped
me in the selection of founding members. My wife mentioned
my mission to her teacher of the Slovak language at
secondary school and she told her that she knows the former
Rotarian, Prof. Jozef Tamchyna. My wife communicated this to
me, and I hurried to visit the aged professor. And this was
the begining of the first Rotarian relation. Prof. Tamchyna,
with a small exaggeration it can be stated – built the
chemical industry in Slovakia, informed me about another
living former member, attorney at law, legal expert, JUDr.
Aristid Jamnicky, as his father was also a Rotarian. Dr.
Jamnický recommended the attorney at law, Dusan Kubovcak, at
that time the president of Chamber of Attorneys at Law. I
have contacted also Ing. Ivan Micik, the former chief
designer of the Bratislava Automotive Works, at that time
the government of the Slovak Republic representative for the
automotive industry and his father during the first Republic
was also a Rotarian. There were six persons participating in
the first meeting.
The first meeting of
founding members was held in the cafe of the Carlton hotel
in Bratislava, as this was the venue of the Club before the
war. The following friends participated in this meeting:
Tamchyna, Jamnický, Micik, (Markovic), Kubovcak, Chovan
and Korecký, please forgive me, if I forgot somebody.
The necessary number
of members of the Bratislava Club was reached in autumn
1990, and in December
(17.12.1990) we had
the founding meeting."
***
May 1, 1991 we have
received from the world president, Paolo Costa, the charter
on acceptance of the Bratislava Club in Rotary
International.
Paul Harris Fellows
RC Bratislava: Aristid Jamnický (+), Ján Korecký, Milan
Karvas, Ján Kriska, Oskar Markovic, Peter Michalica, Tomás
Osuský and Dusan Paulík.
***
Past Presidents
Cyrill Tille +(1927/28) – Jan Elmer +(1928/29) – Adolf Mach
+ (1929/30) – Frantisek Demek + and Igor Dula + (1930/31) –
Vilhelm Lang +(1931/32) – Stanislav Kostlivý +(1932/33) –
Otakar Jamnický +(1933/34)- Hugo Brief +(1934/35) – Anton
Zámecník +(1935/36) – Karol Stuchlý +(1936/37) – Oto Kapp
+(1937/38) – Jaroslav Dvorak +(1938/39) – Ján Slavík
+/1946/47) – Ján Korecký (1991/92) – Ivan Micik +(1992/93) –
Dusan Kubovcak (1993/94) – Milan Karvas (1994/95) – Milan
Profant (1995/96) – Oskar Markovic (1996/97) – Juraj
Veres(1997/98) – Ján Pisut (1998/99) – Ján Kriska
(1999/2000) – Imrich Beres(2000/01) – Igor Dula (2001/02) –
Iwar Klimes (2002/03) – Michal Ruzicka (2003/04) – Peter
Benuska (2004/05) – Peter Michalica (2005/06).
(Prepared by:
Juraj Veres, RC Bratislava)
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Provided by Vojtech Žilinčan, President 05/06 RC
of Zvolen, Slovakia