Jaromír Tomeček

Jaromír Tomeček (1906–1997) is one of the most talented Czechoslovak popularisers in the fields of natural sciences and nature conservation. He fully deserves to be ranked alongside scientists and inventors. He fully deserves to be ranked alongside scientists and inventors. In a way, his work continues the tradition of Romantic nature-philosophy, the perception of nature from the point of view of science combined with religion, astrological symbolism, mythology and the concept of time as sacred.

Jaromír Tomeček was born into a large family in Kroměříž, his father was a tailor but had broader cultural interests. Jaromír studied at the classical grammar school in his hometown and also at the Faculty of Law at Masaryk University in Brno. He did not finish his studies and moved to Carpathian Ruthenia, where he worked as a notary. At first, he was based in the region of steppes, later directly in the Carpathian Mountains. He thus became a member of a large group of Czech writers and artists (Karel Čapek, Ivan Olbracht, Vladislav Vančura among others) enchanted by the wilderness and culture of the remote and ancient “Hungarian Ruthenia”. At the end of the 1930s he was personally involved in the National Defence Guard in the fight against attacks from Hungary and Poland. After the collapse of the Second Czechoslovak Republic, he returned to Moravia, where he spent the rest of his life. He completed his legal education and devoted himself to journalistic work, translation, popularization of natural sciences, nature conservation and, until almost his last days, writing books and public lectures. During his lifetime he was a well-known and admired personality in certain circles, receiving wide publicity, appearing on radio and television programmes and receiving many awards.

It might seem that a writer who admires the beauty of nature is not very much connected with the history of Czech science. However, Jaromír Tomeček did truly continue the tradition of Czech nature-philosophy. He was a very skilled field biologist who did research together with the leading zoologists and botanists of his time (Karel Hudec, Zdeněk Kux, Jan Šmarda). His literary works are no “animal tales”, but they are fully based on natural science and from them the reader often learns much more about the life of organisms than from scientific literature.

One of the first sources of inspiration for Tomeček`s work was undoubtedly his long stay in Carpathian Ruthenia. He approaches the local nature and people not from the position of a superior official from a more advanced country, but as an attentive visitor mapping the landscape and history of the country. In his work, he does not shy away from the “animistic” view of the world of the local inhabitants, which is why we learn about various curiosities (e.g. the incantations of dogs, forest powers, etc.). He reports on other countries he has visited in a similar manner.

Tomeček`s great contribution lies in making the knowledge of natural sciences available to the wider public in the form of lectures, columns in journals and books. He himself was inspired by reading biologists and philosophers, Emanuel Rádl and Jacob von Uexküll, and by collaborating closely with many natural scientists. He was a pioneer of the modern concept of conservation, originally a hunter who crossed to the other side and began to defend passionately the rights of animals and nature as a whole. Despite the socialist building enthusiasm of the time, he was advocating the preservation of habitats over the development of civilization, long before today`s organized nature conservation and more modern legislation. His books also sparked a passion for nature in many young researchers of both sexes who went on to devote their lives to research and conservation. 

Sylva BARTŮŠKOVÁ: Jaromír Tomeček. Praha: Československý spisovatel, 1981.

Jan LACINA, Jiří POLÁČEK (eds.): Odkaz Jaromíta Tomečka. Brno: Veronica, 2008.

Jaromír TOMEČEK: S nebem nad hlavou. Praha: Mladá fronta, 1985.

Jaromír Tomeček (Author: Archive of Czech Radio)