prof. Ing. Dr. techn. et Dr. agr. h. c. Jaroslav Dědek

* 12.6.1890 Praha – † 9.2.1962 Belgie


odborník v cukrovarnictví, vysokoškolský profesor


zajímavé okolnosti

Po válce neprávem obviňován z kolaborace. V červenci 1948 emigroval do Tirlemontu. V roce 1952 získal francouzské státní občanství.


bydliště

Brno:
- Karla Wawry 81
- Za úvozem 17


vzdělání

reálka v Táboře, od roku 1903/1904 reálka v Praze na Královských Vinohradech (2. 7. 1908 maturita),
ČVŠT v Praze, obor chemické inženýrství (1908–1912),
též mimořádný posluchač UK v Praze


čestný doktorát

Technická univerzita v Berlíně-Charlottenburgu (1956)


dílo

Znám je především inovativními postupy v oblasti čištění řepných šťáv.
Publikoval desítky odborných článků a statí.


zaměstnání

od roku 1919 adjunkt Výzkumné stanice cukrovarnické v Praze,
od roku 1925 pracoval jako soukromý inženýr (i v zahraničí - Nizozemí, Dánsko),
1928 docent na ČVUT v Praze pro obor cukrovarnictví a výrobu uhlohydrátů,
od 1. 10. 1929 mimořádný profesor na ČVŠT v Brně,
od 1. 7. 1934 řádný profesor chemické technologie, 1934/1935 děkan chemického odboru; současně též přednosta Brněnské stanice Výzkumného ústavu československého průmyslu cukrovarnického


odborné a zájmové organizace

Society of Chemical Industry,
Chemical Society,
American Chemical Society,
Nederlandsche Chemische Vereeniging,
Assoc. Ital. Zucchero Alc.,
Royal Society of Arts,
Československá společnost chemická,
Kolloid-Gesellschaft,
Masarykova Akademie Práce,
Československá akademie zemědělská,
Moravská přírodovědecká společnost,
Moravský spolek cukrovarníků,
Klub ředitelů moravských cukrovarů,
Spolek Kounicovy studentské koleje českých vysokých škol v Brně


poznámky

Vlastní životopis Jaroslava Dědka psaný v angličtině z počátku 50. let 20. století nám poskytl jeho syn, děkujeme.

BIOGRAPHY:
Prof., Dr., Dr. h.c. Jaroslav Dedek
My name is Jaroslav (Jan, Josef) DEDEK. I was born of Czech parents on June 12th, 1890, in Prague, at that time in Austro-Hungary, now in Czechoslovakia.
From 1908 to 1912 I was studying at the Czech Technical University in Prague, in the department of chemistry, and I graduated in July 1912 as a chemical engineer. Besides the prescribed courses at the Czech Technical University, I followed the courses of organic chemical technology and of toxicology as “extraordinary” student at the German Technical University, and national economy at the Czech Charles University.
Already in the first and second year I was requested by the respective professors in inorganic and organic chemistry to try out prescriptions of syntheses (for example. of complex cobalt, salts, etc.) before they were given to other students.
I spent the summer vacations in 1910 and 1911 in textile factories as assistant to “colourists”, chemists of French origin, who worked and prepared the mixtures of dye-stuffs for the printing and colouring of cloth.
In this way, I was attracted, while already a student, to a research activity.
In the winter of 1912 I spent three months as voluntary chemist in the Farbstofflaboratorium of the famous AGFA factory in Berlin, a laboratory where new dye-stuffs were tried out on fibres.
Early in 1913, I returned to Prague to the Department of Organic Chemistry at the Czech
Charles University, to prepare my doctor-thesis in theoretical organic chemistry (The
negative character of the vinylen group), partly published in the Transactions of the Czech Academy of Science in 1916 or 1917.
I was mobilised in July 1914 at the outbreak of the First World War, but after an attack of pneumonia, I was classified in 1915 as unfit for active fighting. This enabled me to finish my thesis, pass the examinations and become Doctor of Technical Sciences in 1916.
As a soldier, I was seconded to the “Kriegsmedikamenten” Laboratory of Professor Wiechowski at the Pharmacological Institute of the General University in Prague. This laboratory studied the production of active medicinal organic molecules and of drugs which, owing to war conditions, could no longer be imported (from materials available in the homeland). I was lucky enough to gain the friendship of Professor Wiechowski and he used me as his private assistant, not only in the activities of the laboratoy, but also in his private research work. He was at that time scientific adviser to a number of the great pharmaceutical companies (Schering in Berlin and CIBA in Switzerland), and even in his educational activities.
I became responsible for practical courses in chemical and microscopical pharmacognosy, and learned the technique of experiments on living animals and surviving organs, which we used for the determination of the activities of our preparation of drugs.
Professor Wiechowski wished me to join CIBA, while remaining his assistant, even after the end of the war, when I was already demobilised. I remained with him until the spring of 1919.
The control of the production and quality of active organic molecules enabled me to get acquainted with absorbents, in theory and in practice, as well as with many physico chemical methods by which we measured their activity.
It was here that I had the first opportunity – on a small scale – to organise and fit out laboratories for this kind of chemical and physicio-chemical work.
At that time, the newly founded Czechoslovakia became heiress of practically the totality of the Beet Sugar Industry of Austro-Hungary and made full use of the very attractive sugar export prices. The famous but small Beet Sugar Resaearch Station in Prague, had to be reorganised and enlarged. I was offered the job to organise, build and direct the newly established physico-chemical department. I accepted, and from that time until 1925 I was head of this department.
Being the only one of the staff sufficiently acquainted with French, Dutch and English, I was sent on a trip round Germany, Holland, Belgium and England to study the organisations of scientific institutes, the construction of the necessary buildings, the equipment of laboratories, etc. I was practically alone responsible for the necessary physical and chemical instruments. I had to make the proper choices, pass the orders, etc. etc. I had to take part in the discussion of every detail, even constructions of laboratory furniture, disposition of electrical contacts, etc. etc. I dare say that the now well-known 4-storey building of the Research Institute of the Czechoslovak Sugar Industry in Prague is in a great part the product of my work.
I visited all of the famous German Institutes like the Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes, Institute für Gahrungsindustrie, Muhlanindustrie, Kohle, Zuckerindustrie, besides a lot of University laboratories. I visited all of the – then new – University laboratories in Holland, Belgium and England, as well as the National Physical laboratory in Teddington, etc.
At the same time I had to find and form my assistants and create the physical chemistry department of the Sugar Beet Industriy, which, at that time, was in its infancy, with only few of the known physico-chemical methods being used in the analytical chemistry laboratories in the Sugar Beet Industry.
The Director of the Institute, V. Stanek, was a very ingenious chemist, but a self-made man,without either secondary or high school education. This led in the course of years to a very unhappy spirit of rivairy and jealousy between the Sugar Institute and the Technical University. In the end, it was even prohibited to the staff of the Sugar Institute to have any activity connected with the University.
This made an abrupt end to one of my most cherished hopes – namely, to become, in addition to head of the physical chemistry department of the Institute, also lecturer at the Technical University.
I have learned at Professor Wiechowski's side how an educational activity necessitates and promotes a deeper understanding of our problems and how the contact with the students and graduates facilitates the choice of first class collaborators, for example in the form of post graduate work, doctor theses, etc.
I decided therefore in 1925 to leave the Institute and establish mysel as private consulting engineer, and at the same time to prepare and deposit my “habilitation thesis” in order to become “Privatdozent” (assistant lecturer) at the Technical University.
I had sufficient good connections in Czechoslavakia and abroad to find more than a decent living. Through my experiments in the active carbon field I had gained a certain authority in that field, which was very popular at that time, and the Dutch Norit Company asked me to study the applications of their carbon derivatives in sugar factories etc., which took me round many factories in Europe.
During one of such visit in Denmark, I expressed my surprise to see a very strong company witha number of sugar factories and a refinery without a central laboratory. The central technical director, Mr. P. Dorph Broager invited me to join temporarily their company, in order to create and organise a Central Research Laboratory. At that time I had already finished my “Habilitation Thesis” and I knew that all the formalities, the examinations etc. would take 1 or 2 years. I accepted, therefore gladly, the Danish invitation and moved from Prague to Denmark (Maribo). We succeeded quickly in adapting good laboratories, and with the help of the factory chemists could start research work very soon. Thus, for the third time I had to build and organise research laboratories, this time in the industry itself.
In 1927 I became Privatdozent of the Chemical Technology of Beet Sugar in the Czech Technical University in Prague, and spent alternately a fortnight in Denmark and in Prague.
When in 1928 the Chair of Chemical Technology of Foodstuffs and Carbohydrates was etabllished at the Czech Technical University in Brno I applied for it and was nominated Professor, against other competitors, in the autumn of 1928. I had to resign from the direction of the Central Laboratory in Denmark, but remained their technical adviser until today. The Central laboratory, which proved a great success, was afterwards transferred to Copenhagen and found there, under the direction of Dr. Brieghel-Muller, a further splendid evolution. It is now one of the best research laboratories in the Beet Sugar Industry that I know.
The new Chair in Brno was a combination of several smaller, partly old-established departments. They were, however, in the majority, obliged to move to new laboratories.
At the same time I was asked by the Czech Sugar Industry to direct the Beet Sugar
Research Station (responsible for 36 factories in Moravia and 10 in Slovakia) which was located in the premises of the Technical University.
I found myself therefore before a very difficult task, to reorganise and coordinate old established departments, with fixed traditions, manners, etc. to create new ones and to amalgamate all to a new unity. I had to combine educational duties at the University with a close co-operation with the Sugar Industry. I also had to prepare absolutely new courses in branches of chemical technologies which were not very familiar to me.
This was a very exciting but wonderful period of my life.
Thanks especially to some very devoted assistants (first of all to Vasatko) we were able repidly to succeed and to create in Brno a team of workers and an atmosphere which attracted soon even students and young sugar technologists from foreign countries, like Denmark, France, Ireland, Poland, Italy, Hungary, Austria, the Falkan countries and Turkey, some of whom made their doctor thesis in my Institute.
From 1926 to 1939 (when the school was colsed by the German occupants) we produced about 20 doctors, that is to say, about three-quarters of all doctors produced in the same period at all the institutes of our Technical University. My laboratories, courses and exeminations being regarded by the great body of the students as the most difficult ones, I had the chance that only the best students were attracted, which automatically acted as a selection of the most fitted. Two of my assistants became University Professors. (Vasatko, Jelinek).
In this period of 11 years we published about 140 papers.
All laboratory work of advanced students and all post-graduate work was conducted on research lines. This proved to have a first-class eduational effect.
We were attracted in our research more and more towards problems of the industrial value of the sugar beet and the influence of variety, soil and fertilizers – which became the reason why in 1933 I was asked to join the I.I.R.B. (Institut International des RecherchesBetteravieres), which was just being constituted. I am now member of the Board of Directors of this Institute (president F.J.H. Van Ginneken).
Our publications, the result of the co-operation we created between the sugar factories inMoravia, attracted the attention of many sugar facories outside Moravia and I was as ked to visit factories having difficulties, of wishing to make reconstruction, etc. In a number of cases a close and continous co-operation resulted, lasting to this very day.
During this period I had also twice – that is for the fifth and sixth time – the oppurtunity to reorganise old and to create new research laboratories. One of my colleagues having died, I was put in charge of his chair of the Fermentation Industries, which had to be reorganised and co-ordinated with a Research Institute for Beer, a gift of the industry to the Technical University. The second case was the Central Research Laboratory, which the Austrian Sugar Industry founded and asked me to direct and to allow, to be located in the premises of my Institute. All this organisation was practically completed when Hitler invaded Austria, and threw over all our plans.
From November 1939 to May 1945 the Czech Universities were closed and only the Sugar Research Station, which was the property of the Sugar Industry, was allowed to continue its activities. We were able to offer hospitality to about 10 assistants and laboratory aids to the closed institutes and could work on research lines on a very limited scale, owing to shortage of chemicals etc. until the so-called liberation in May 1945.
I personally spent most of the war years in a careful and extended review of some of the most important chemical journals, looking for publications which would give even indirect explanations of the theoretical foundations of the chemical processes in the beet sugar manufacture. I am, since 1940, collecting the material for a Monography about these complex questions.
In 1940 I married my lady assistant (born 1914), in 1942 a boy was born to us, and in 1945 a girl.
During the battle of Brno (spring 1945) the Institute was partly damaged, partly looted by the Russian Army. Political and social unrest which followed the new “liberty” of Czechoslovakia made any organised work impossible. Seeing the tendency of the political evolution I started to prepare for an emigration which, I hoped, could have been done legally. I was offered positions in Sweden, Belgium and Ireland, but wishing to be out of Europe I undertook a three months trip to the U.S.A. I had very encouraging negotiations with the only Central Research Organisation of the U.S.A. Beet Sugar Industry, the Sugar Beet Development Foundation and, when back in Europa in the beginning of February 1948, had the best hopes to be able to settle down in America in a couple of months.
After the political revolution of February in Czechoslovakia my hopes for a legal emigration came to an unexpected end. At the same time, the economical crisis in the U.S.A. Beet Sugar Industriy stopped all negotations.
When the conditions in Czechoslovakia became more and more unrestful and I was privately warned that I was to be arrested and eliminated from the University, I decided to leave Czechoslavakia illegally, with my wife and children, but of course with bare hands. We succeeded in July 1948 and arrived safely in Belgium, where I could settle down and establish myself as technical adviser to my friends in the free parts of Europe. Thanks especially to the Raffinerie Tirlemontoise. I have again a laboratory at my disposition (the seventh organisation of a laboratory). I am at the same time taking an active part in the
laying out of plans for the inner organisation of the new 4-storey building, which the R.T. is constructing for their laboratories (eighth organisation).
As technical adviser to the Irish Sugar Co., Ltd., Dublin, I am aiding Dr. R. Carolan, the Research Chemist, to plan his laboratories (ninth case), as technical adviser of the group of French Sugar Factories, “SERG.”, I have to organise, build and advise their central laboratory in Paris (tenth case), not to mention my regular visits to the Central Research Lagoratories of the Swedish and Danish sugar Industries.
I am very happy to say that, from the economical point of view, disregarding of course what I have lost in Czechoslovakia, (all property, especially a library of more than 6,000 volumes and a collection of photocopies and reprints of more than 20,000 pages) I have no reasons to complain. I have an interesting occupation, and have been able to start again, even laboratory research work.
But the political unrest and uncertainty is weighing heavily on me and on my family, and I would prefer a situation outside Europe.
I speak, read and write Czech, Danish, English, French, German, I read Dutch, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Russian, Swedish.




osoby

Miloslav Jakeš
J. Dědek byl svědkem při sňatku M. Jakeše Bohdan Jelínek
asistent a soukromý docent při Ústavu chemické technologie Aleš Linsbauer
spolužák z VŠ studií, předchůdce - vedoucí ústavu na ČVŠT v Brně Josef Vašátko
asistent ústavu, spolupracovník


partneři

Jarmila Dědková (Králová)
sňatek: 24. 4. 1940


děti

Jaroslav Dědek
Michaela Dědková


rodiče

ulice

Za úvozem
bydliště (30.–40. léta) Karla Wawry
bydliště doložené v roce 1937 (dnes Havlíčkova)


blat, skr


Aktualizováno: 28. 09. 2021