National theatre

The Kemr family has been organizing congresses since 1981, which are repeated every two years. Josef Kemr himself took part in six of them. The nearest one, the twenty-first, will take place on Saturday, June 10, 2023, in the restaurant of the Cultural House of the town of Března near Chomutov.

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Quirky Josef Kemr: He guarded Luba Skořepová’s honesty, loved cats and slept in a coffin

History of the Josef Kemra family

„Josef Kemr was a genuine person, true to his convictions and obsessed with the desire to get to the bottom of everything: dramatic characters as well as musical instruments, works of art and the history of Malostran houses. He was a person who believed deeply: in the meaning of life, the mission of art and in the gifts of God’s grace,” reads the text with which the National Theater said goodbye to the actor when he left us forever on January 15, 1995.

Was Josef Kemr like this due to the history of his family? It’s really long. According to the book Josef Kemr about himself the oldest reports about the Kemr family appear 30 September 1470 in the aristocratic town of Březno near Chomutova. And the first documented ancestor is Michal.

It is interesting that at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries the surname Kemr was written in different forms – Korner, Koenner, Kormer or Kšrmer. The form Kšrnner predominates, in Middle High German it means miller.

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Legendary cottager Josef Kemr: He got upset over little things, he kept his son’s existence a secret until his death

Genealogy of Josef Kemr

In 1549, the actor’s ancestor Jan received a coat of arms certificate from King Ferdinand I with the text: “…from the generosity of our royal family, we lend and give a coat of arms, that is, a sign, on a shield divided in two lengthways…“And that’s not all. In addition to the coat of arms, Jan could also use the surname from Velké Krbětice. When he then acquired the Březno estate, it expanded to “from Velké Krbětice and to Březno”.

The form of the surname changed mainly during the revival, when it went through the form of Kermer, Kemer and Kemr. Even though the Kemras are widespread and the number of members of the family numbers more than a thousand names, the most interesting is their Prague branch. “The founder of the Prague branch was Václav, the youngest son of Jiří, the mayor of Hradec Králové. However, he was already born in Rynholec, where his father moved in 1821,” Josef Kemr writes about himself in the book.

Then the Prague branch is exceptional especially by how many interesting personalities belong to it. Jiří Kemr was a sculptor and ceramicist, Miroslav Kemr worked for NASA and Josef Kemr became a film actor and a member of the National Theatre…

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The secret son of Josef Kemr: How was he with his famous father?

Sources of information:
Wikipedia.org: Josef Kemr
Josef Kemr about himself (… famous about the Czech Don Quixote)