Karel Kryl

Karel Kryl (12 April 1944 – 3 March 1994) was a Czechoslovak poet, singer-songwriter and author of many hit protest songs in which he explicitly criticized the Communist (and later also the post-communist) regimes in his home country for their hypocrisy and inhumanity.

The lyrics of Kryl's songs are highly poetic and sophisticated, with perfect rhyming and a frequent use of metaphors and historical allusions. The sparse sounds of his guitar served to underscore the natural flow of the lyrics themselves. Kryl has been compared with the young Bob Dylan, because of the complexity of his lyrics, his accompaniment by a single acoustic guitar, and his great popularity.

Having lived for twenty years in forced exile, he was initially keen on the collapse of communism in his country, but very quickly he became bitterly and uncompromisingly critical of the new regime and its protagonists as well, including Václav Havel, and especially of those who were responsible for the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1992.

Biography Kryl was born on 12 April 1944 in Kroměříž, in the Nazi occupied Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, however his family had roots in Nový Jičín, where they later moved to. The Kryl family owned a printing business, which was confiscated from them after the communist takeover in 1948.

In the enthusiastic November days of 1989, during the Velvet Revolution, Kryl returned to Czechoslovakia to attend his mother's funeral. At first, he was thrilled with the end of totalitarianism, but he soon became openly disappointed with the course of transformation of the politics and society. He continued to write protest songs (e.g. Demokracie, "Democracy") criticising politicians and others responsible for the failure of the country's transition to an authentic democracy, especially those who left the Communist party in or after 1989 and suddenly became 'democrats'. Kryl also attacked those who sought to manipulate the Czech and Slovak citizens by nationalist catchphrases and lies about economic transformation. Due to the conditions in the country that he considered unbearable, he decided to leave for Germany again. On 3 March 1994, just a month before his fiftieth birthday, Karel Kryl died of a heart attack in a Munich hospital.

Awards 1989 – the Jan Zahradníček award for Czech Poetry, from the Czechoslovak Literature Club in Los Angeles in memoriam: 1994 – a silver memorial medal from the Charles University for contributions to the spiritual development and the moral support of the nation 1995 – František Kriegl award 1995 – the Czech Grammy 1995 – Medal of Merit II. class from president Václav Havel