Rudolf Wierer – pohnuté životní osudy a dílo profesora církevního práva Právnické fakulty Masarykovy univerzity

Abstract

The article provides a detailed analysis of life and professional career of Rudolf Wierer (1907–1986), professor of canon law at the Faculty of Law of Masaryk University. Based on an analysis of archival materials from several Czech archives and a critical study of the memoirs of Wierer’s wife Bohumila, the article provides brand new biographical information about Rudolf Wierer that have never been published before. After the end of the Second World War, Wierer was investigated in Czechoslovakia as a part of the so-called retributive trials for his alleged activities during the period the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. He was never convicted, however, because he managed to escape to Germany, where he became involved in Czechoslovak exile organizations and resumed his academic career as a professor at the Ukrainian Free University. In the 1960s he emigrated to the United States, where he held lectures on history at first and later worked as a librarian.