Hugo Semler’s Apartment
Due to the reconstruction, the interior is not currently open to public.
We also find traces of architect Adolf Loos in the Semlers’ family home at Klatovská 19, a home with a history worthy of the silver screen. In the town of Vochov near Stříbro, the Semler family owned a wire goods factory producing items like wire mesh, nails, needles, and later quality gramophone needles, which were exported worldwide under the brand SEM. The family lived in their home at Klatovská 19, which was purchased by the company’s founder, Simon Semler. After Simon’s passing, his older brother Hugo lived in the house with his family and mother, the widowed Ms Berta, with the company headquarters and offices located on the ground floor. Hugo led the company as a co-proprietor with his brother Oskar, the investor of the so-called “Semler Residence” at Klatovská 110.
In 1930, Hugo had the entire first floor of the home renovated, where Adolf Loos undoubtedly played a part, for example, in the music lounge. The strictly symmetrical room, clad with white Fantastico marble with black veining and a brick fireplace at the centre of the main wall, is also adorned from above with an enfilade, connecting the multiple spaces – the dining room, the gentlemen’s lounge, and the music lounge. The final two surviving rooms are then most likely the work of some of Loos’ collaborators. In 1932, Loos designed another bold, two-storey renovation of the home with a flat roof. This was originally intended for Oskar, but it was never completed. The drawings, however, are now kept at the Royal Institute of British Architects in London.
Due to their heritage, the Semlers were first forced to sell their factory in 1939 and then flee the country in 1941 under dramatic circumstances. Hugo Semler’s family went through Switzerland and then Cuba before settling in Canada. After 1939, Hugo’s son, Hanuš, fled to England, where he joined the Czechoslovak military forces and became a Royal Air Force member as a flight mechanic for the 311th Czechoslovak bomber squadron. During the war, he achieved the rank of Flight Sergeant. After WWII, he settled in Canada, where he founded a wood processing company inspired by his father. Hanuš Semler died in 2007 in Perth, Ontario, as a Lieutenant Colonel. His descendants still live in Canada to this day.
During WWII, the family home served as the headquarters of the Wehrmacht in Pilsen. In the gentlemen’s lounge, the capitulation of the German garrison was signed at the end of the war. After having signed the capitulation certificates, General Georg von Majewski shot himself dead in front of the US soldiers present, his staff, and his wife Elisabeth. After the war, the Communist regime confiscated the home of the Semler family, which was then also used by the Czechoslovak Army (later the Czech Army) until 2002.
Both the home and its interior are currently waiting to be renovated. However, the home’s military history is inseparably linked to the history of the city. With this in mind, a reconstruction project is underway, which plans to adapt the home into a Museum of General Patton and the Liberation of Pilsen. For now, the building is only open to the public on special occasions.
The modern man uses ornaments of past and foreign cultures at will. During his own self-discovery, he focuses on other matters.