Where does your connection to Komotau come from?

I'm from here, or rather I was born in Kaaden, but I've spent my whole life in Komotau. My ancestors lived here before the Second World War, and I'm probably one of the few people in the area whose family didn't move here after the war. I have a strong connection to this place. But I'm speaking here as a representative of the Kuprospěchu association - I don't want to pretend that I'm the only part of it. Without the association, things would probably be very different. But the others in it are also from Komotau.

When and why did you start getting involved in your hometown?

It all started in 2003, when I met my classmate Mirek Koranda after a long time. One evening, when we were on our way home from the pub, we were walking through Komotov and thought it would be nice to do something here. Something that would make it better. After the initial idea, we recruited about three more people and founded the Kuprospěchu association in December 2003. At that time, we were all studying at universities outside of Komotov because there was no university here. But we wanted to come back and do something for this place. For me personally, the club and its functioning was an important factor in deciding whether I should leave Komotau for good and the "tip of the scales" as to why I shouldn't leave. I enjoyed it and felt that it had a purpose. Some of us were more into cultural activities, others were active in social work or environmental issues. All of these themes resonate quite well here. It also crystallized that we wanted to reform the Ore Mountains in terms of restoring relations with the border areas. We saw this as a major problem. Around the year 2000 and afterwards, there was still a strong dislike of our German neighbors in society. We also wanted to improve this. When we organized the first events with our German partner, I heard offensive comments towards them. I think we have managed to change that a little and the situation has improved a lot in this respect. I no longer hear the various derogatory comments and the like, and I'm glad about that. Many people have understood in personal conversations that they are the same people as us and that the people in Saxony are experiencing a similar story to us here - unemployment, migration to larger cities... Incidentally, that was another goal of our efforts: We wanted to prevent the exodus of people from our region. The exodus of intellect, talent and gifted people is a problem in almost all peripheral regions. Reforming the Ore Mountains in terms of restoring relations with the border regions

What did you see on this night walk in Komotau, or rather, what did you miss?

We both felt drawn to alternative culture at the time and were happy to be part of it. We thought it was a shame that the cultural scene here was dead or fragmented. We had the impression that there was no major cultural center where you could also hear the better-known artists. Komotov was not on the map of touring venues for artists we considered important. I don't mean that we now organize large-scale commercial events with mainstream artists. We had the feeling that there were major deficits and we wanted to start remedying them. I don't know if we managed to get anyone to stay because of us, but at least we didn't leave and we're still trying to make a difference here.

Were you also inspired abroad during your studies, as is often the case?

Yes, definitely! We were inspired in the West, especially in Germany. We observed a lot of pop-up actions and different companies, the use of industrial zones and so on, which was not the case here at the time, and that attracted us - to open up new paths and spaces.

So what did you do specifically?

Our very first season started with a concert in a pub where a Czech and a German band played. So our very first event was German-Czech. Then we planned a festival called Cumbajšpíl, which focused on regional German-Czech musicians. In 2004, the first one took place with our partner from Annaberg. One day we went there because we knew that there was an association called Alte Brauerei e. V., which runs a cultural center in a former brewery. It's a very beautiful and impressive place for various activities. We wrote to them in advance to let them know that we were interested in working with them. They replied and that was the beginning of our friendship. Or we had an event at the end of the summer called Benefit Saturday. In retrospect, it's kind of funny to think back on it. These were educational days for children that differed from the usual ones in that they took place in marginalized places, in Roma ghettos. They were attended by children who could not take part in a normal children's day... The most surprising thing for us was that some children spent the whole day there with us. Nobody followed them around, nobody asked them if they had eaten lunch or what they had been doing all day. We did this for several years in a row in the housing estates in Komotau.

How did you go from pub concerts and children's days to an association that organizes a wide range of cultural events for the public?

We wanted to open a cultural center with a cultural, social and ecological focus. This is an important chapter in the work of our association. We soon decided on the building of the former Evropa cinema in Březenecká Street. It was already closed at the time, but in good condition, so all we had to do was "dust it off" and get started. But the negotiations with the city dragged on. Today I can understand that, because we didn't have much experience back then and it was a big deal. In the meantime, the house had fallen into disrepair and metal detectorists and drug addicts had moved in. All you have to do is break through the psychological barrier, smash the first window, and all it takes is two weeks to turn a decent building into a collapsing ruin. That's exactly what happened here. We finally signed a lease with the city in 2006, and we had a lot of drive and energy. But we underestimated it a bit, the house was in a really bad state. But we were young and naive. So we told ourselves that we would try and succeed, which in hindsight turned out to be a mistake. We started the negotiations with the idea of renting a functioning house that we would refurbish a little, but in the end we took over a ruin where the electricity and water didn't work, the windows were broken... The building consisted of three parts, including the former restaurant and disco area. We took five large containers with the worst of the waste away from there. We ended up working on it for three years. There were rehearsal rooms for musicians, an indoor skate ramp, a screen printing workshop, three concert halls and an exhibition space. It was simply punk! It wasn't visually pretty, the walls were falling down, it was leaky, nothing very attractive, but it worked. Apart from the occasional event, it wasn't a child-friendly place. We fixed it up in our spare time. Then we got to the point where we realized we couldn't do it alone. We invested hundreds of thousands and countless hours of our free time, it was almost a communist ideal. The beauty of it was that there were about fifty people involved and everyone worked on it, everyone contributed something. Then we got realistic and realized that the house needed a major intervention to save it, which we wouldn't be able to do with our savings. So we tried to join forces with our German partners, we also had project documentation, which is now in the basement. But then the city terminated our lease. The negotiations weren't extremely unpleasant, but they didn't help us either. Politics got in the way. We swore to ourselves that we as an association would never get involved in politics, and we still stick to that today. But it has become political. At the time, the city demanded that we find a larger organization as a partner for the project. So we managed to establish a promising collaboration with People in Need. But that was the time of the worst political leadership in the city, many of which we see today in the ROP Northwest case [Czech political scandal from 2011-2017 involving the misappropriation of European subsidies in the Northwest Bohemia region; Komotov representatives were also involved]. They wanted to score points in the cheapest way possible: "We will drive the homeless out of the city" and similar slogans attacking minorities and the socially vulnerable, which is such an evergreen of some politicians. And People in Need was suddenly no longer a partner for them, but an enemy, and Kuprospěchu with them. We have realized that it is impossible to remain apolitical. Our activity is apolitical, but individuals have to do something for a living, and this often leads to tensions with the local garrison. We were unwanted. This is the end of one of our great, beautiful but sad chapters...

What kept you going after this negative experience? A lot of people would probably give up trying to stay involved...

I didn't expect medals or diplomas or to be praised here, but it shocked me that we were criticized and vilified for it. It was very sobering for me as a young person. On the other hand, it spurred us on to pick up on some things and continue our work. I can very well imagine what drove the Czech underground in the 70s and 80s, the constant persecution... When things are going well, you can feel good, but attacks and persecution make you more inclined to show that it's not like that and to distance yourself from it. But of course it's impossible to compare our situation with that of the 70s and 80s!

How did this experience change your work?

The problem was that we moved around the city for a long time, and that makes you tired. Starting all over again on new ground, building everything up and hoping that it becomes a tradition and that people will come is complicated and took a lot of energy. So we continued with some traditional events, we had a few longer projects, but we were never able to make a living from it. We have also started to find other places where we can hold our events - for example, the former municipal swimming pool, the Goldmann villa, the disused miners' club, the so-called Švermák, the premises at Komotov railroad station and others. Currently, it is the Café Rouge near the market square where we organize concerts and exhibitions. Although there is a different political leadership in the city today and we can't complain about financial support for events, we have run out of places. We haven't been able to find any new venues recently. In the meantime, two opinions have emerged within the association. Some of us didn't want to make a living from our activities. Like me - if I start doing something as a job, I don't enjoy it any more. That's why I wanted to keep it independent, so that we don't have to do anything. If we want to, we do it - if we don't, we don't. The other school of thought was that if we don't work for a living, we'll eventually "drop out". That is also true. Since then, we've had these sine curves in our activity related to, for example, having children, how busy you are at work, but it's a bit of a miracle to me that it still works after 18 years and we still feel like doing something.

What are you currently working on?

We have recently been focusing more on local history, with our bike tours and various exhibition projects on this topic. We have been running the Mozaiky project for years, a mapping of post-war art in the Ústí region. We have also published a brochure on this and we would be delighted if one day it were to become a comprehensive publication. We are constantly traveling around the region and mapping. 125 It would probably be good to find at least a small base where we could meet up after all these years. This works in principle at Café Rouge, but not to the extent that would be desirable for the association's activities. This nomadism also makes our negotiations and planning with other partners more difficult. We lack a permanent location. But it looks like in a few years we could create a kind of community center where people can come together and plan. At the moment, though, it's still in its infancy, so we'll see. I would be happy if we could continue our activities and age gracefully...

You mentioned that you were criticized for German-Czech cooperation a few years ago. What do you think is the reason for this?

I certainly don't want to trivialize the events of the Second World War or what preceded it. But I would say that this is a certain legacy of the communist narrative, the "victory over fascism and Germany", where both were the epitome of evil, and that lingered in people's minds for a long time. And then probably also simply envy, because most people in Germany were doing well, including the East Germans after reunification, that was clear. It probably played a role that it used to be German here and many people live in houses and on properties that their ancestors basically moved into illegally. So approaching the descendants of displaced persons can be very problematic in many ways. I have to say that this level of cooperation has not received as much attention in our association recently as we would like. However, we have worked very intensively on this with the Annaberg team in the past and held several events a year. We have also worked together with the Chemnitz center AJZ [Alternative Youth Centre Chemnitz], with whom we have organized various youth encounters, international summer camps and finally skateboard camps. We gradually passed these on to the younger ones, who then organized them themselves. At the moment, we are also in the process of starting a cooperation with Marienberg, where we are to bring Mozaiky. Chemnitz will be the European Capital of Culture in 2025 and we would like to establish a collaboration there too.

Did you also dedicate yourself to contemporary witnesses?

Around 2007, we in the association intensively filmed contemporary witnesses of the post-war period. Most of them were Germans who lived here after the war or somehow escaped resettlement. These stories are terribly interesting and moving. Unfortunately, no movie was made from them, but the footage exists. It's a shame that we didn't do something better with it back then. Maybe we'll make up for it in the future. But thank God it was done, because most of the people are long gone. It was the last chance to reach most of them. Time passes...

So is the German-Czech issue already "closed"?

That seems quite natural to me, in my circle it's like that. At first it was us who brought bands and guests from Germany, then others started inviting them independently of us. I see a lot of activity around me in that direction. I'm not saying that there's nothing left to do in this respect, certainly not, but I have the impression that things have changed for the better.

What else do you think is needed for the majority to see it that way?

It's about getting to know the place again and again and deepening your own roots. Although the Ústí region is currently on the upswing and has great potential, we are still a region on the fringes. It is similar to the border region in Saxony. The legacy of the past is so terrible and it took so long that rehabilitation could take decades. There is also the question of the extent to which these feelings are currently being put into practice in the refugee issue, for example. I have the impression that it is still visible when it is brought a little more "to life". For example, when German gravestones were erected on the street in front of the Our Germans Museum in Aussig on the Elbe, this triggered strong reactions. That was very courageous. But I no longer feel any resentment. But that's just my personal feeling, which perhaps says nothing at all. I think we are on the right track.

How should things develop here over the next few decades so that Komotau is a place worth living in, where people like to live?

It's a somewhat misguided idea, but I like this region with its turbulent past and its ruggedness. But I certainly don't want people to live badly just because I have a romantic idea of it. I was in Schüttenhofen a few days ago, where you can feel a completely different atmosphere to the towns here in the northwest. The town center in the broader sense was historically preserved there, not "stripped" of history like here, and no house or store was empty. There were no amusement arcades that are open around the clock, but rather, for example, tailors and other craft businesses. You could see that it had been thriving for years and that there was continuous development, not like here. In my opinion, it's important that people don't feel the need or urge to leave. The be-all and end-all will always be employment, but I would add in the same breath: not in assembly plants! We need more variable 127 opportunities in terms of employment, leisure, support for local initiatives - so that people feel that it is worth staying here and doing something. It's about working with people. We can tidy up the estate, we can put in new sidewalks and insulation, that's good, that will make life more pleasant, but it won't change the place - there will still be the problems that are there... So it's definitely long-term work with people, with communities. Even young people would then have no need to leave, the 'drop-outs' from the big cities would return home more often, and we could develop a very different 'romance' to the current, harsh one...

Kuprospěchu, zs
Bělohorská 10, 430 01 Chomutov

info@kuprospechu.org
www.kuprospechu.org
www.projektmozaiky.cz
Facebook: kuprospechu

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Source: Mitten am Rande, Anticomplex, Prague, 2022, ISBN 978-80-906198-5-2

(This is an automatic translation by Google Translator.)