JUDr. Gustáv Hubáček
Gustáv Hubáček (19 January 1893, Nemecký Brod, now Havlíčkův Brod – 29 August 1930) was a Bratislava lawyer and a prominent figure in the city’s sporting life during the 1920s.
He came from a legal family. His father, JUDr. Gustav Hubáček (1857–1941), became the first Prosecutor General at the Supreme Court of the Czechoslovak Republic in Brno after the creation of Czechoslovakia.[8]
In 1927, Hubáček married Kamila Rosalia Kepková. The wedding took place on 28 April 1927 at the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Old Brno.[5]
He lived at 5 Grösslingova Street in Bratislava.
Bratislava’s sporting life
He is documented particularly in tennis, skiing and rowing. When the Lawn-Tennis Club Bratislava was founded in 1923, he was one of its leading figures.[1] The club was established in Petržalka and soon built five tennis courts and organised an international tournament.[1]
Hubáček’s name also appears in connection with the beginnings of the Slovak Rowing Club. Ján Gašperík lists him among those most closely involved in its foundation in his work The Beginnings of Slovak Rowing, quoted in a publication on the history of Petržalka.[2]
He also played an important role in organising skiing in Bratislava. In his recollections of the beginnings of organised skiing, O. Turnovský described Hubáček as the initiator and leading figure of a group of Bratislava skiers. The Ski Club Bratislava subsequently grew from this circle.[3]
Co-founder of the Aeroclub
Hubáček entered the history of Bratislava aviation as one of the founding figures of the Slovak Aeroclub of M. R. Štefánik. In September 1927, together with maj. Vilém Stanovský, he initiated the preparatory committee for the future Aeroclub. In February 1928, he submitted the club’s statutes to the relevant authorities.
His position in the Aeroclub is documented by the annual report published in the journal Letectví in February 1931. It described him as the club’s unexpectedly deceased vice-chairman and co-founder.[7] He was therefore not merely the lawyer who assisted in the organisation’s formal establishment, but a member of its leadership during its first years.
Memorial to Dr Gustáv Hubáček
His name survived after his death in the Memorial to Dr Gustáv Hubáček. In 1931, sculptor Vojtech Ihriský created a bronze portrait plaque entitled Memorial to Dr Gustáv Hubáček.[4]
No photograph of Gustáv Hubáček is known; Ihriský’s plaque is the only known depiction of his likeness.
Sources
[1] Physical Education and Sport in Slovakia after the Establishment of Czechoslovakia (1918–1924). The study records the foundation of Lawn-Tennis Club Bratislava in 1923 and identifies Gustav Hubáček as its leading figure.
[2] Petržalka – oddychová zóna Bratislavy. The publication cites Ján Gašperík’s Počiatky slovenského veslárstva and names Gustáv Hubáček among the founders of the Slovak Rowing Club.
[3] Lyžařství, 1964: “40 rokov organizovaného lyžiarstva v Bratislave”. O. Turnovský’s recollections of the beginnings of skiing in Bratislava and Dr G. Hubáček’s role.
[4] Falathová: Medailérska tvorba v rokoch 1918–1960. Record of Vojtech Ihriský’s bronze plaque Memoriál Dra. Gustáva Hubáčka, 1931.
[5] Encyclopaedia of the History of Brno: Kamila Rosalia Radimská, née Kepková, widowed Hubáčková. Marriage details and archival source.
[6] Bratislava City Archives: inventory of the personal papers of František Adelmann. Dr Gustáv Hubáček is listed among the correspondents.
[7] Letectví, Vol. XI, No. 2, February 1931, p. 61. Annual report of the Slovak Aeroclub of M. R. Štefánik; contemporary primary source.
[8] Encyclopaedia of the History of Brno: JUDr. Gustav Hubáček. Details of the first Prosecutor General at the Supreme Court of the Czechoslovak Republic in Brno and his family relationship to Gustáv Hubáček.