BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CLUB

The cursor is blinking on an empty page and I am wondering how I should capture the history of Masaryk Historians. We all know that one of the worst enemies of any historian are contemporary witnesses which means I will probably become my own enemy right now. Although I attended most of the events mentioned, there could happen to be some inaccuracies in this text. Please, be so kind as to forgive me them.

It all started on 17th November 2009 when a group of our colleagues participated in a memorial ceremony. Obviously, afterwards, nothing else could follow than a chatting about the core problems of humankind at the pub. And one of these problems was the absence of some club that would stir the seemingly still student life at our department. And one thing led to another. And another thing led to another one and it all ended up with the decision to found a club. The founding members of Masaryk Historians’ Club were Terka Ničová (now Bártková), Mirka Truhlářová, Viktor Grossmann, Petr „Radar“ Holobrádek, Honza Jireš and Ondra Vodička. According to their limited time available, they got down to work and the club soon organized its first event - excursion to Mauthausen. And the Historical Party in period costumes became their second event in spring 2010. Almost a hundred of people gathered in Sýpka in Mendlánky. They all enjoyed their time and some of them even remembered it the next day.

At that time, Vojta Borek followed up by his classmate Ctibor Ostrý joined the Club as organizers. Meanwhile, one of the main tasks awaited the Club - to restore the tradition of Historical Accolades of Freshmen. The first one took place in autumn 2010 and Masaryk Historians put all their effort into it. It was necessary to come up with the whole event concept, invite the teachers, find a bag full of age-old frocks, dress those performing the act in them, schedule the evening and get food and drinks. Eventually it was a success and students knew Masaryk Historians are serious about the Club.

During the following two years, the Club became established. Some members left, because they finished their studies and could not resist the temptation of adult life. But these losses were more than adequately replaced by Kuba „Krakonoš“ Janovec, Ivča Mazálková (now Borková) and later Hubert Ondra, Míša Kubíková (now Máliková) and Mirek Skalník. At this time, MH organized about seven events per semester and the approach - “who comes up with the idea on an interesting event, will also organize it” - was a quite success. The social events as a pub meeting at the semester’s beginning or a camp-fire meeting were enriched with more serious events like meeting with contemporary witnesses. The borderline case is the quiz game The Fight for the Treasure of TGM which first took place in March 2012 and it is held every semester since.

Gradually, a huge group of students across the years was formed from those attending Club’s events. They got to know each other there and more of less remained in contact even after their graduation. From this group also new members emerged, these were Honza Čermin, Jana Křehlíková (now Čerminová), Eliška Doubková, Juraj Švec, Markéta Peřestá, Kuba Úradník, Kristina Koryčanská and Adam Richter. Another two years had passed in the cycle of Accolades, Historical Parties, commented movie screenings, historical quizes and lectures of students who were sharing their research. I should mention for example the Accolade from 2012 which was in Harry Potter style and costume party in the iro-scottish style next spring, when not just one kilt was flying through the air, or the Club’s third birthday party when we were honoured by the presence of Jiří Malíř, the Head of the Department.

The members of the Club got on well together, but it was not always a walk in the park. In 2014 a dispute about the future of the MH broke out. Some of the organizers wanted to write the rule book and further develop on official basis, others claimed the current form was perfectly sufficient. The dispute ended peacefully - most of the elder members chose to retreat from the Club and leave the issue to be solved by the younger ones.

 Judita Vaňková, Lucka Klusáčková, Míša Ondrůšková (now Lužová), Lukáš Lexa, Denisa Hlobilová, Pája Smýkalová, Standa Hasil are those who engaged and engage in the new era. Some events gradually ceased to exist, but new and well-done ones emerged. Restored excursions and commented screenings were met with success. New organizers had no small goals, they contacted clubs from other universities and even held a student scientific conference in November 2016. But no one can stop time, nor historians themselves, thus many of these brave ones made way for others. The youngest generation is represented by Iveta Šimková, Kristýna Čížková, Martin-Petr Tlustoš, Ondra Nováček, Ondra Neubauer, Ondra Varaďa and Vašek Kozák. From my point of view - the one who joined Masaryk Historians almost after its foundation and had organized its events for many years and still is in touch with the Club - they represent the Club very well. The Masaryk Historians’ Club runs like a clockwork and hundreds of students happily attend their happenings. It is hard to tell how many of them realizes that they gain lot of friends and contacts which will be useful in the subsequent personal and professional life. And I think this is what it should be all about. I am proud that I was and still am a Masaryk Historian.

On behalf of the Club written by Vojta Borek, 23rd October 2018