Jiří Wolker

Jiří Wolker (; 29 March 1900 – 3 January 1924) was a Czech poet. He was also marginally journalist and playwright. Although he lived a short life, he became one of the most important Czech poets.

Life

Jiří Wolker was born on 29 March 1900 in Prostějov. He grew up in a harmonious family. His father was a banker and later a bank director, and his mother was involved in various cultural associations and wrote for magazines and newspapers. He had an older brother. He studied at the Prostějov gymnasium and already at this time he was attracted to literature and began to publish in newspapers.

After he graduated, he moved to Prague. He studied law there, but simultaneously attended lectures of Zdeněk Nejedlý and František Xaver Šalda at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University. As a journalist, he contributed to magazines Kmen, Červen and Var. He joined the association of Czech avant-garde artists Devětsil, but soon left it. Among his friends were Jaroslav Seifert, Karel Toman, Vítězslav Nezval and Konstantin Biebl, all members of Devětsil. During his studies, his parents could only send him a limited amount of money, which he spent on books, so he had to earn extra money by tutoring Czech. In 1921, he left the Roman Catholic Church and joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.

Wolker was known for often having many girls hanging around him and for having multiple girlfriends at the same time. His adventures ended when he was diagnosed with tuberculosis in April 1923. He went to the Tatranská Polianka (a sanatorium and hamlet, part of Vysoké Tatry) for treatment, but the disease progressed and later memory loss also occurred. Shortly before his death, he returned to Prostějov, where he died on 3 January 1924, at age 23. He is buried in Prostějov.

Wolker, together with Karel Teige, was the founder of the Czech art movement called Proletářské umění (Proletarian art). That is why he was perceived as a proletarian poet, although he never belonged to the proletarians. This movement primarily depicted the working class, its oppression and exploitation. It was characterized by hatred of war and a desire for a fair world. The collection Těžká hodina contains typical poems of this artistic direction, e.g. Balada o očích topičových ('The Eyes of the Stoker').

Wolker's well-known work is his own epitaph, which he wrote before his death:

Every year, a poetry festival called Wolker's Prostějov is held in Prostějov.

Wolker's birthplace on T. G. Masaryka Square in Prostějov is a house with a Renaissance and Gothic core, protected as a cultural monument. It is equipped with a commemorative plaque and a bust of Wolker. A bronze statue of Jiří Wolker was unveiled in 2018 on a bench opposite his birthplace.

In Svatý Kopeček (today part of Olomouc) is a house where Wolker visited his grandmother and spent a lot of time there. Today it is called Wolker's Villa and there is a memorial plaque with his bust on it.

Dozens of cities and towns in the Czech Republic have a street named after Jiří Wolker, including Prague (Bubeneč), Plzeň, Liberec, Olomouc, Hradec Králové and Pardubice.