Jiří Gruša
Jiří Gruša (10 November 1938, in Pardubice – 28 October 2011, in Bad Oeynhausen) was a Czech poet, novelist, translator, diplomat and politician.
Also recorded as Jiri Grusa
Jiří Gruša

Czech Wikipedia user Packa · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Born
- 1938. · Pardubice.
- Died
- 2011. · Hanover.
- Nationality
- Germany, Czech Republic and West Germany.
- Occupation
- dramaturge, poet, diplomat, translator, writer, politician and literary critic.
- Fields
- philosophy, literature, theatre and editing.
- Education
- Faculty of Arts and Charles University in Prague.
- Honours
- Knight Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, Grand Officer of the Order of Honour (Lower Austria), Knight of the Legion of Honour, Litera for poetry, Adelbert von Chamisso Prize (complimentary gift) and Andreas Gryphius Prize.
- Languages
- German and Czech.
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
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Documentary summary
Jiří Gruša (10 November 1938, in Pardubice – 28 October 2011, in Bad Oeynhausen) was a Czech poet, novelist, translator, diplomat and politician.
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wikipedia incomplete · checked 25 September 2026
- Identity
- resolved
- Independent source families
- 0
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Authority files
wikidata · Q64579 · wikipedia · Jiří Gruša
In this article
Life and career
Life and career
Jiří Gruša studied at Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague. The recorded working language is German and Czech. The field of work recorded is philosophy, literature and theatre. Positions recorded include president and Minister of Education, Youth and Sports. Work by Jiří Gruša is recorded in the collections of Samizdat Collection of Czechoslovak Documentation Centre, Czech Exile Collection at Libri Prohibiti, Czech Samizdat Collection at Libri Prohibiti, Václav Havel Library and Scriptum.cz. Distinctions recorded are Knight Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, Grand Officer of the Order of Honour (Lower Austria), Knight of the Legion of Honour and Litera for poetry.
Gruša was born in Pardubice, then Czechoslovakia (present-day Czech Republic), and later moved to Prague. He graduated from the Philosophical Faculty of Charles University in Prague. He worked for periodicals Tvář, Sešity and Nové knihy. He started coming under the scrutiny of the communist regime of then Czechoslovakia in 1969 because of his writings. He was banned from publishing and had to work in a construction cooperative. He took part in distribution of samizdat literature. He was arrested in 1974 for "the crime of initiating disorder" after distributing nineteen copies of his first novel, Dotazník (The Questionnaire) and voicing his intention to have it published in Switzerland. After world-wide protest, he was released after two months. He later became a signatory of the human rights document, Charter 77. In 1981 his citizenship was revoked, and between 1982 and 1990 he lived in the Federal Republic of Germany. In 1990 conditions in Czechoslovakia became more favorable and he returned to work for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From 1991 to 1997, he served as an ambassador to Germany. Later, he joined the minority government of Václav Klaus as a Minister of Education. The government lost support of the opposition parties and President Václav Havel orchestrated establishment of a new caretaker government. Even though Gruša was a non-party minister, he was replaced by Jan Sokol. He served as an ambassador to Austria until 2004. From 2005 to 2009 he was Director of the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna. From 2004 to 2009 he was the President of PEN International. Gruša participated in standardisation of the term "Tschechien" as the official name of the Czech Republic in German language. See Name of the Czech Republic for overview. Gruša died at the age of 72 on 28 October 2011 during a heart operation in Germany. Václav Havel wrote (before his own death a month and a half later on 18 December) that Gruša was "one of a few close people whom I deeply respected and who have left this world recently."
Works
Works
English translated Franz Kafka of Prague, Trans. Eric Mossbacker. The Questionnaire, Trans. Peter Kussi. Czech language Umění stárnout [The Art of Aging] Gebrauchsanweisung für Tschechien und Prag [Instruction Manual for the Czech Republic and Prague] Grušas Wacht am Rhein aneb Putovní ghetto [The Watch on the Rhein] Original in German Beneš als Österreicher Wieser Verlag, Klagenfurt 2012 ISBN 9783990290088

from left: Petr Oslzlý,?, Jiří Gruša, Břetislav Rychlík, Václav Havel, Zdeněk Černín
Harold

Jiří Gruša, czech poet, writer, politician and diplomat
Harold
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1938
Jiří Gruša born at Pardubice.
2011
Jiří Gruša died at Hanover.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Pardubice.
Birth place
Hanover.
Death place
Primary material
Documents and archives
scholarly publication
- Deutsch-tschechische Migrationsliteratur. Jiří Gruša und Libuše Moníková, Monatshefte, 2011
Scholarly · Crossref registry · 2011
- Jiří Gruša : dichterisches Werk in zwei Sprachen, Brünner Beiträge zur Germanistik und Nordistik, 2019
Scholarly · Crossref registry · 2019
reference work
- “Jiří Gruša”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q64579: Jiří Gruša
Reputable secondary · Wikimedia Foundation
Awards and honors
2007: Chevalier of the Legion of Honor of France 2006: New Culture of New Europe Award 2002: Jaroslav Seifert Prize
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Schriftsteller und Politiker Jiří Gruša gestorben. Der Standard. October 28, 2011.
- 2.Jiří Gruša (1938-2011), Stephan Delbos, 31 October 2011, The Prague Post Book Blog
- 3."Interview with Jirí Grusa", Context N°17, Daily Archive Press
- 4.Festival spisovatelů Praha. Jiří Gruša.
- 5.Horáková, Pavla. Jiri Grusa on his plans as PEN Club President. Czech Radio. 12 December 2003.
- 6.Prague Daily Monitor. Writer and diplomat Jiří Gruša dies aged 72. 31 October 2011.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
scholarly publication
Deutsch-tschechische Migrationsliteratur. Jiří Gruša und Libuše Moníková, Monatshefte, 2011Crossref registry
Verifiedscholarly publication
Jiří Gruša : dichterisches Werk in zwei Sprachen, Brünner Beiträge zur Germanistik und Nordistik, 2019Crossref registry
Verifiedreference work
Partially resolvedreference work
Wikidata, structured authority record Q64579: Jiří GrušaWikimedia Foundation
Partially resolved
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Books
38,624 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
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