Luboš Dobrovský (born Luboš Hamerschlag, 3 February 1932 – 30 January 2020) was a Czech journalist and politician, who served as Czechoslovak Minister of Defence.

Biography

Dobrovsky's father Ludvík Hamerschlag was Jewish. Deported to

Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) d ...

in September 1943, he did not survive the war. Dobrovský and his mother spent the war on a farm in Ohrada, whilst she remarried the officer Josef Dobrovský afterwards. Dobrovský was member of

Communist Party of Czechoslovakia The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia ( Czech and Slovak: ''Komunistická strana Československa'', KSČ) was a communist and Marxist–Leninist political party in Czechoslovakia that existed between 1921 and 1992. It was a member of the Com ...

and journalist of the Czechoslovak Radio between 1959 and 1968. He signed Charta 77 in the 1970s and served as a spokesman of the

Civic Forum The Civic Forum (, OF) was a political movement in the Czech part of Czechoslovakia, established during the Velvet Revolution in 1989. The corresponding movement in Slovakia was called Public Against Violence ( – VPN). The Civic Forum's purpo ...

in 1989. Between October 1990 and June 1992, Dobrovský was the Czechoslovak minister of defence, after which he served as director of the Office of the Czech President

Václav Havel Václav Havel (; 5 October 193618 December 2011) was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright, and dissident. Havel served as the last List of presidents of Czechoslovakia, president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until 1992, prior to the dissol ...

. Between 1996 and 2000, Dobrovský was the Czech Ambassador in Moscow. Dobrovský died on 30 January 2020 at the age of 87. His cause of death was unknown.

References

1932 births 2020 deaths Writers from Kolín Czech communists Czechoslovak democracy activists Czech journalists Czech diplomats Charter 77 signatories Ambassadors of the Czech Republic to Russia Government ministers of Czechoslovakia Recipients of the Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk People of the Velvet Revolution 20th-century Czech translators Civic Movement Government ministers Czech people of Jewish descent Politicians from Kolín {{CzechRepublic-politician-stub