Highlights of Cimrman's Life and Career.

(some lowlights included too)


This chronology of Cimrman's life is intended for amateur-cimrmanologists, who would like to compare their findings with the work of professionals (their discoveries are marked by parenthesized initials at the end of each entry) and other amateurs (indicated by initials in square brackets). The list of sources is at the end of this file. This is a preliminary version, so if you have suggestions, additions or improvements, I'm all ears. For brevity, Jara Cimrman is sometimes referred to as JC.


1857 - 1867 The most probable time of Cimrman's birth in Vienna. According to (ss), the handwriting of Franz Duschek, a notary of the 4th Viennese parish, was rather shaky, due to the fact that he was making most of the records in the state that today could best be described as "writing while intoxicated". Hence, we cannot definitely say, whether Jara Cimrman was born on a freezing February night in 1857, 1864, 1867 or even 1892 or 1893. Because some Cimrman's activities, subsequently found, predate 1892-93, it is safe to assume, that 1857-1867 is the most likely time window in which JC was born. More conservative cimrmanologists (js), however, consider a slightly wider window 1850-1870 as a good starting point. Finally, while on the subject of Cimrman's birth and before we embark on a long journey through his dramatic life, let us briefly introduce his parents: his father, Leopold Cimrman (men's and women's tailor of the Czech origin) and his mother, Marlene Jelinkova-Cimrmanova (originally a seamstress, later on a choir singer affiliated to the "An der Wien" theater), both lived in Vienna and begat two children, a boy Jara and a girl Luisa. The legend has it that young Jara had to wear his older sisters' clothes since his thrifty parents did not want to spend money on boy's clothes. It was only when he was in his early teens that his malevolent classmates from girls boarding school finally disclosed his true sex to him. Well, off on the wrong foot!


1871

1872

1877

1879

1882

1883

1884

1885

1886

1887

1888

1889

1890

1891

1892

1893

1894

1895

1896

1897

1898

1899


1900

1901

1902

1903

1904

1905

1906

1907

1908

1909

1910

1911

1912

1913

1914


1914 - ?? Cimrman's demise, just like his birth, has been shrouded in mystery. It seems (ss) that sometime during 1914, he simply disappeares and is not heard of again. Keep in mind though that some experts place his disappearance a little bit further into the 20th century. At any rate, there are tens of theories and conjectures as to his fate, including UFO abduction, emigration, assassination and so on. Since none of the theories has gained universal acceptance, we will end our journey through Cimrman's colorful life here, at the onset of the First World War.


List of sources

*************************************************
(ss) Zdenek Sverak, Ladislav Smoljak 
(js) Jiri Sebanek 
(kv) Karel Velebny 
*************************************************
[jg] Jan Graas   
[mh] Milan Hubacek
[tk] Tereza Krinkova
[al] Arthur Lawrie
[jr] Jan Rehacek 
*************************************************

[Absurdistan| Cimrman's County]


(last updated: Nov 27, 99)