The famous castle with famous history experienced one equally famous but a little bit peculiar story. It became the object of an international renown fraud. It was sold by a man, who just could not have possibly owned it. The conman in question was Josef Jelínek alias Harry. It all happened in the environment of the cream of society of the First Republic.
Josef Jelínek was born on 14th October 1905. It was a very cute boy, cheeky and intelligent. His mum managed put him to Auerspers´ chateau, where he was friends with the young gentleman. This was where he attended classes and learnt good basic sof English and French. However, along with the languages he learnt to feel superior and exceptional. His superiority never left him. This was probably also the reason why he had himself called Harry, which was a fashionable name at that time.
Josef Jelínek, from that time on called Harry, was enrolled for medical studies. At that time, however, there was a great boom in Prague where daring young men made hundreds of thousands and blew them as easily. Bars and dancing halls were waiting for these nouveau riches and men of the world and this was exactly the world that appealed to Harry. He spoke four languages and had perfect manners. The breaking point of his career was countess Lizy, who came from an old and noble family.
This countess fell madly in love with Harry and showed him the world of international trade in arts. At that time a large number of artistic works changed their owners. The works came from plundered South Bohemian churches and chapels or from seats of impoverished nobles. It was this environment that enabled Harry to fully develop his talent of a briliant crook with his power of persuasion and his skills to take advantage of any of his partner´s weak spots. With such business he could not avoid lawsuits, yet all of them, (there were some 500), ended up with a withdrawal of the complaint or by some kind of settlement.
How to sell Karlštejn was quite well depicted in the film with Oldřich Kaiser as the main character. In reality it all started with Jiří Kristián Lobkovic, who invited Harry to his chateau in Roudnice, where the American king of chewing gums Mr. Chikels was staying. When Mr Chikels was presented with some paintings from which he was supposed to choose some, he became more interested in buying a castle.
“Have you got any idea how well chewingums would sell with such advertisment?“ he sighed.
And Lobkovic, a renowned recesist intoxicated with wine, turned to Harry and asked with a servus face: And you, you would not sell your family seat, baron?
All this was a matter of one short moment, a flash of geniality, an idea worth millions.
“Have you seen Karlštejn, Mr Chickels?“ Jelínek asked the American in a careless way .
Well, and then it all went as in a film. The king of chewing gums paid a huge deposit which Harry used for a holiday in Split. There he soon mingled with the society of holidaymakers and one of his new acquaintances offered that he would sell him his yacht Zornica. Harry did not say he´d buy it but he made the shipowner to allow him try the boat. Harry hired a crew and he bought some supplies. By sheer chance, while Harry was walking around Split, in one of the post cafes there he bumped into Mr and Mrs Chikels. At the very first moment, he felt paralysed, but then he regained confidence and invited them to “his“ yacht, and the next minute he managed to sell it to them for 10 000 Dollars and the couple set off for a cruise to Terst. There they were arrested by the police and this is where Mr Chikels finally understood all that had happened. Nevertheless, he never sued Harry, because he did not want to ridicule himself.
Another unbelievable story is how Harry, making use of all of his exceptional skills, managed to sell “tram line no. 1“ to a Czech-American. In this transaction he received a deposit for 9 000 Dollars.
Jelínek´s fatal mistake and a gradual way down came along at the start of the Protectorate. He positioned himself on the side of the invaders. Harry was last seen on 17th April 1945,when he escaped somewhere in the western direction with brilliants and gold in a company of prominent Polishmen. He was never caught.
Source: wikipedie, hrad-karlstejn.com, zámky a hrady
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