On 15 November 2019 at 5 pm, employees and students of the Faculty of Pharmacy, Charles University, gathered to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the faculty and 30 years since the Velvet Revolution.
The event was co-organized by the Association of Czech Pharmacy Students, which will celebrate 30 years of existence next year. It was established in 1990 on the foundations of a formed strike committee. It all started with protests and a turbulent uprising against the brutal intervention during a student gathering on Národní třída in Prague to commemorate the anniversary of 17 November 1939. News of the Prague incident quickly spread to other cities. A group of students from the Faculty of Pharmacy organized the protests, and together with students from the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Education in Hradec Králové, they helped disseminate up-to-date information throughout East Bohemia. On 19 November 1989, they declared the formation of a student Strike Committee of the Faculty of Pharmacy at Charles University in Hradec Králové. Friday afternoon at the faculty was dedicated to talking about emotions, plans, hopes and fears.
After an opening statement by Dean Prof. Tomáš Šimůnek, a former member of the Civic Forum, Associate Professor Petr Klemer, shared several memories from the first days after 17 November 1989. After that, he gave the floor to the most important guests, members of the Strike Committee from November 1989. Events from thirty years ago were remembered by the Chair of the then Strike Committee, Mgr. Libor Schwarz, and its members: Mgr. Leona Štěpková-Kyslingerová, Mgr. Pavel Kešner, Mgr. Petr Fifka, Mgr. Vítek Novotný, Mgr. Alice Suchá-Kaňkovská and Mgr. René Racek Matlášek. Memories were completed with period photographs and copies of texts from the civic periodical NAUZEA, whose first issue was published on 10 December 1989 (the first editors were Pavel Kešner and Petr Fifka). This was followed by an open discussion, refreshments and a very nice concert by René Racek Matlášek in the faculty hallway. The event was hosted by Prof. PharmDr. Martin Doležal, Ph.D.
We would like to thank all organizers for a pleasant Friday afternoon and evening.
Text: prof. PharmDr. Martin Doležal, Ph.D.
Photographs: Marcela Jeřábková