We kindly invite you to the photography exhibition of the legendary Czech travellers Jiří Hanzelka and Miroslav Zikmund. The exhibition will present selected photographs from the 1st and 2nd expedition and also a few pictures from their visit to Israel.
Jiří Hanzelka, born on 24.12.1920 in Štramberk and Miroslav Zikmund, born on 14.2.1919 in Pilsen met in 1938 at Prague University of Economics and Business. After the closure of Universities in 1939, Jiří Hanzelka worked in agriculture and Miroslav Zikmund in Czech-Moravian Union for Milk and Fats.
After re-opening of Universities in May 1945 they continued their studies and started preparations for ‘Plan 5’ – a journey across five continents. With a detailed description of countries on route round the world and suggested studies of post war markets and promotion of Czechoslovak industry, they approached the management of the car producer Tatra. As new graduates of the University of Economics and Business they gained a chance to promote and test a car, model Tatra 87 on their journey around the world. The journey started 22.4.1947 and took them to Africa and South America. As they were not granted visa to enter the USA, they interrupted the journey in 1950 in Mexico and returned to Czechoslovakia. The first journey of Hanzelka and Zikmund was focused above all on getting oriented in the post war situation and trends and exploring the possibilities of exporting Czechoslovak products to the African and South American markets.
Hanzelka and Zikmund secured a contract for coverage of their journey in the form of radio, newspaper and film reports, the fees and royalties for which were to pay for the loan granted to them by the National Bank to finance their journey. The interest in the reports was such, that they became the most listened to radio programme between the 1949 and 1951. A book based on the original newspaper reports on Africa started to be written while still travelling; the book was later published in three parts under the title Africa in Dreams and in Reality.
Four travel books were a result of their travels in South America. Film material was presented as three full length films and 10 short films. The journey around the world was not concluded until 1959 to 1964, during which time the globetrotters travelled, this time in two cars, model Tatra 805, and together with a mechanic and a doctor, visited Near East, India, Indonesia, Japan and territories of the former Soviet Union. The result of the second journey were three travel books published by 1969, the rest then was not published until 1991 and 2008.
In 1968 both travellers opposed the entering of the Warsaw Pact armies into Czechoslovakia and were consequently banned from travelling, publishing and appearing in public for the next 20 years. After November 1989 they both returned to public life. Jiří Hanzelka became a member of advisory body for the government and Miroslav Zikmund commenced travelling again. In 1992 and 1994 he travelled to Japan and Australia, this time alone, without ailing Jiří Hanzelka. In 1995 they jointly donated their extensive travel archives, which were named after them, to the Museum of South East Moravia in Zlín.
Both globetrotters were granted tens of awards for their work, of which two were state decorations – Order of the Republic (1953) and a Medal of Merit of II. Degree (1999). Planetoid No. 10173 was named HANZELKAZIKMUND.
Together they visited more than 100 countries located on four continents, wrote 18 travel books, which in 143 editions totalled 6, 524,796 copies translated into 11 languages and were published also in shorthand or Braille. They wrote more than 1,500 newspaper and radio reports, made 4 full length films and 147 short films.
Archive HZ
H+Z archives, in which personal collections of Messrs Hanzelka and Zikmund are held, was established thanks to their long personal relationship with PhDr Karel Pavlištík, an ethnographer of the Museum of South East Moravia in Zlín. They decided to donate their archives to the Museum in Zlín in 1995.
The founding of the H+Z archives made possible to create a long term exhibition in the Zlín Chateau. The idea and the script were devised by Karel Pavlištík in cooperation with Miroslav Zikmund, while Ladislav Včelař was responsible for the artistic presentation. After its opening in 1996, the exhibition offered new social and, especially, educational opportunities in the frame of extensive cooperation of the museum with the schools in the town and the whole region.
The archives contain more than 100 metres of written material (correspondence, diaries, maps, scrap books, drafts of books, handwritten travelogues and travel and accounting documents); there are 120,000 negatives and slides and approximately 50,000 positive and contact photographs, 150 short films shot by Hanzelka and Zikmund and more than 1,000 items of memorabilia, souvenirs and trophies, as well as a collection of coins, postcards and a herbarium.
The collections held in H+Z archives can be used for research, exhibitions, publication and new books and films.
Social and educational events utilising the characteristic activities of H+Z archives are organised in close cooperation with the H+Z Club, a citizens’ association for utilisation of Jiří Hanzelka and Miroslav Zikmund legacy. H+Z club has operated in Zlín since 1998 and strives to acquaint especially the young generation with the intellectual heritage of Messrs Hanzelka and Zikmund and show them how to take inspiration from it for their own efforts to achieve quality education and their endeavour to get to know the world.
Muzeum Jihovýchodní Moravy ve Zlíně
