Zdenka Janáčková

Zdenka Janáčková (née Schulzová; 30 July 1865 – 25 February 1938) was a Czech writer and the wife of the composer Leoš Janáček.[1][2]

Life

Zdenka Schulzová was born in Olomouc, Moravia, on 30 July 1865[3] to the Czech-German family of the director of the Brno Teachers' Institute, Emilián Schulz, and his wife, Anna Kalušková.

Her parents wanted her to develop her talents, and encouraged her to play the piano. Leoš Janáček became her teacher, and proposed to her at the age of fourteen.

From his travels, Janáček wrote his fiancée 4 to 8 letters a day. After returning from Vienna, he became engaged to Zdenka and married her in 1881 in Old Brno when she was 15.[4]

The marriage produced two children, but the younger, the son Vladimír (1888–1890), died at the age of two after he became infected with scarlet fever passed on from his sister,[5][6] and the latter, Olga (1882–1903) died prematurely at the age of twenty-one when she contracted typhus during her stay in Saint Petersburg.[7] The marriage was put to a difficult test when Janáček began a platonic relationship with Kamila Stösslová. However, Zdenka remained married to her husband until his death in 1928.[8]

She died on 25 February 1938 in Brno.[9] She is buried in the Schulz family tomb at the Brno Central Cemetery.[10]

Legacy

The 1986 film The Lion with the White Mane was made about the Janáček marriage, starring Luděk Munzar and his wife Jana Hlaváčová.[11][12]

Her memoirs were published in 1998.[13][14]

References

  1. ^ "AUT - Janáčková, Zdeňka, 1865-1938" [AUT - Janáčková, Zdeňka, 1865-1938]. aleph.nkp.cz. Retrieved 26 December 2025.
  2. ^ "Matriky - ACTA PUBLICA - 17165 Brno-Staré Brno u Nanebevzetí Panny Marie" [Registers - ACTA PUBLICA - 17165 Brno-Staré Brno at Ascension of the Virgin Mary]. mza.cz. Retrieved 26 December 2025.
  3. ^ "Matrika 5638, sign. O V 7, sn. 56" [Register 5638, sign. O V 7, file 56]. digi.archives.cz. Retrieved 26 December 2025.
  4. ^ "Matriky - ACTA PUBLICA 17165 Brno-Staré Brno u Nanebevzetí Panny Marie" [Registers - ACTA PUBLICA 17165 Brno-Staré Brno at Ascension of the Virgin Mary]. www.mza.cz. p. 158. Retrieved 26 December 2025.
  5. ^ "Olga Janáčková". mskhistorieaja.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 26 December 2025.
  6. ^ "Vladimír Janáček". mskhistorieaja.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 26 December 2025.
  7. ^ Janáček, Leoš (2006). Elegie na smrt dcery Olgy. Helfert, Vladimír (foreword); Rayment, Malcolm (English translation). Prague: Editio Bärenreiter (H 2572). ISMN M-2601-0142-5 p. VI
  8. ^ "Janáčkova múza. Osudové ženy: Kamila Stösslová" [Janáček's muse. Femmes fatales: Kamila Stösslová]. Dvojka (in Czech). 2 November 2024. Retrieved 26 December 2025.
  9. ^ "Matrika 17057, sn. 65". mza.cz. Retrieved 26 December 2025.
  10. ^ "Zdeňka Janáčková, roz. Schulzová" [Zdenka Janáčková, née Schulzová]. mskhistorieaja.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 26 December 2025.
  11. ^ "The Lion With the White Mane (1986)". mubi.com. Retrieved 26 December 2025.
  12. ^ "Lev s bílou hřívou" [The Lion with the White Mane] (in Czech). Czech Television. Retrieved 26 December 2025.
  13. ^ ""Paměti: Zdenka Janáčková - můj život"" ["Memoirs: Zdenka Janáčková - my life"]. Databáze knih (in Czech). Retrieved 26 December 2025.
  14. ^ "Two Faces of Janáček". Prague Post. 22 September 1999. Retrieved 26 December 2025.
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