Dienstbier dies of cancer at 73

Jiří Dienstbier, a leading dissident during the communist era, the first foreign affairs minister for the post-communist Czechoslovakia and a major figure during the years of transition to democracy, died Jan. 8. He was 73 years old.

Dienstbier was serving in the Senate for the Social Democrats (ČSSD), though he was not a party member, when he died of cancer at a Prague hospital. Close friends and family reportedly knew he was ill for months, but Dienstbier kept the details of his illness largely private.

Dienstbier is best known for his role in developing and maintaining foreign relationships during the late 20th-century transition from communism to democracy and was a key figure in negotiations by the Civic Forum that led to the end of the regime in 1989, the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Czechoslovakia in 1990 and 1991 as well as the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact in 1991.

"A friend of mine for many years has died," former President Václav Havel said in a statement. "We went through so much together."

Dientstbier was born April 20, 1937, in Kladno and became a member of the Communist Party in 1958, after which he worked as a foreign correspondent for Czechoslovak Radio in the United States, Western Europe and Asia.

"He played an important role during the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Soviets, as Czech Radio continued to broadcast against the intervention. He and others at the radio played a vital role in this important week of history," said Oldřich Tůma, director of the Institute for Contemporary History in Prague.

After being expelled from the Communist Party and having his job taken in 1969, Dienstbier went on to be one of the first signers of Charter 77, the informal anti-communist civic initiative founded in 1977 by Václav Havel and other dissidents. He later worked as an editor of the banned magazine Čtverec (Square). In 1979, he was jailed for his work as a member of the Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Persecuted (VONS) and sentenced to three years in prison. Following his release, he was condemned to doing manual labor working as, among other things, a boiler-room attendant.

Dienstbier was made the first foreign affairs minister of the democratic Czechoslovakia in 1989, and while serving in that position participated in the iconic cutting of the barbed wire between Czechoslovakia and Germany along with then German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher.

"We, Germans, will never forget how Jiří Dienstbier, together with Hans-Dietrich Genscher, cut the iron curtain on the German-Czech border [in 1989], we will not forget his specific contribution to reconciliation between our two nations," German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle wrote in a letter addressed to his Czech counterpart, Karel Schwarzenberg.

Beyond his courage and activism, Dienstbier was also noted as having a lighter side.

"I was in prison with him and Václav Benda, and even in the most difficult times we always appreciated his good humor," Havel said.

His political opinions were strong, President Václav Klaus wrote in an article in daily Mladá fronta Dnes Jan. 10, and were never influenced by what was politically correct. While Dienstbier was a "political opponent," Klaus noted, he was "not a political enemy."

"He was a popular politician with a smile, and I must say that then - now, it seems really lovely - a part of our female population was divided between Havel, Dienstbier and Klaus," Klaus said.

Between 1990 and 1992, Dienstbier also served as a deputy prime minister of the Czechoslovak government, and then went on to serve as a special rapporteur for the UN Human Rights Commission in the former Yugoslavia until 2001, and also had worked as a visiting professor of foreign relations and politics at universities across the world including the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Brown University.

Married four times, he is survived by his wife Jiřina; son, Jiří Jr., a politician; and two daughters, Monika and Kristina. 

Dienstbier was elected as a senator in 2008; with his passing, the ČSSD has lost their slim majority in the Senate. Elections must be held in Kladno within 90 days to fill the seat.

Cat Contiguglia can be reached at
ccontiguglia@praguepost.com