Jaroslav Dufka was born on 9. 3. 1891 in Olešnice (Blansko district) into the evangelical family of Vojtěch Dufka (born 22. 9. 1863 Vanovice, Blansko district), a teacher, and Jindřiška, née Špinarová (born 1. 2. 1867 Rovečné, died 4. 7. 1903 Vanovice). He had two siblings, brother Vladimír (born 8. 9. 1892 Olešnice, died 24. 12. 1969 Brno), an architect and prominent monument preservationist, and sister Jarmila (born 20. 8. 1898 Olešnice). His half-sister Olga was born on 30. 7. 1904 in Rovečné. His father Vojtěch worked in Olešnice between 1887 and 1901, and then became the head teacher in his native village of Vanovice (1902–1924). After the death of his first wife, he married her sister Marie (born 5. 9. 1874 Rovečné).
After graduating from the State Technical School in Brno (Státní průmyslová škola), in 1909, Jaroslav Dufka was employed gradually by seven builders in Brno, Královo Pole, Olomouc, Litovel and Třebíč, spending the longest time with Cyril Knob in Olomouc (one year and two months), Čeněk Chrudimský v Litovel (two years and nine months) and František Brázda in Třebíč (eight months). He came to Jihlava on 8. 12. 1915. For almost two years, he was employed by the Municipal Building Authority. On 27. 3. 1918, he submitted an application to the Moravian Vicegerency in Brno for a building concession based in Jihlava, Josefské náměstí 8 (Josefsplatz, Svobody Square after 1918; from 1924, the address of the now lost building was Bezručova 16). On 22. 5. 1918, he was granted the concession. On 13. 12. 1918, he applied for a permit to establish a branch office in Pelhřimov, which the Provincial Political Administration (Zemská správa politická) in Prague did not approve until 17. 7. 1920. Buildings erected in Pelhřimov for the Generally Beneficial Building Cooperative for Rantířov and Surroundings (Obecně prospěšné stavební a bytové družstvo pro Rantířov a okolí) have not been identified yet. In Jihlava in the first half of the 20s, he also designed and built in the “national style”, mainly for housing cooperatives. In addition to that, he also built his own magnificent villa with a building yard at Fritzova Street 22. His greatest and most famous contract was the Legionary House (Legiodům) on the corner between Fritzova Street and Legionářů Avenue.
Just like the architect and builder Arthur Corazza before, Jaroslav Dufka also probably overestimated his abilities. At the beginning of 1925, his company Jaroslav Dufka, architect and builder in Jihlava (Jaroslav Dufka, architekt a stavitel Jihlava) went bankrupt. As Dufka himself commented: “Due to a lack of conscientiousness on the part of various contractors that failed to meet the agreed delivery terms and conditions, and on the part of various building cooperatives that failed to meet their payment obligations, I have fallen into insolvency.” On 27. 2. 1925, settlement proceedings concerning 74 claims were initiated. On 20. 5. 1925, the company was declared bankrupt by a resolution of the Regional Court in Jihlava. On 31. 7. 1925, the concession was suspended. Jaroslav Dufka was forced to sell his half of the villa with the plot, which was purchased at auction by the Prague builder Ing. Stanislav Brázda (born 17. 8. 1898 Zábřeh, Šumperk district, died 20. 7. 1975 Prague), son of the Třebíč builder František Brázda (born 12. 2. 1870 Řípov, today a local part of Třebíč), who had employed Dufka before his arrival in Jihlava and who had also probably cooperated with Dufka in the project for the Generally Beneficial Building Cooperative for Rantířov and Surroundings (Obecně prospěšné stavební a bytové družstvo pro Rantířov a okolí). The company’s movable assets were sold at compulsory auction. From the beginning of November 1928, Jaroslav Dufka was employed with a Jihlava building company of František Brázda Jr. (born 9. 2. 1897 Uničov, Olomouc district, died 15. 3. 1932 Brno). The bankruptcy was cancelled by a resolution of the Regional Court in Jihlava on 18. 12. 1928.
On 30. 10. 1919 in Třebíč, Jaroslav Dufka married Marie Schwarzová (born 10. 11. 1896 Tarsdorf, Austria). Two sons were born to Mr and Mrs Dufka in Jihlava, Jaroslav (12. 8. 1922) and Jan (25. 2. 1925). In summer 1928, Marie Dufková and Ing. Stanislav Brázda sold the villa and the divided plot on Fritzova Street to Marie and Stanislav Ambrož and to the Czechoslovak Church. At the beginning of November 1928, the family moved to Prague, where they lived in Dejvice at Pernikářka 748 (today’s Na Beránce 748/10) in a semi-detached villa built by the construction company of Ing. Stanislav Brázda, which put up buildings for the building cooperative “Healthy Living” (Zdravé bydlo) in this location (Zvonická, Na Bečvářce, Nad Šárkou, Na Pernikářce Streets) at the end of the 20s. The villa’s owner was Marie Dufková. After arriving in Prague, Jaroslav Dufka was employed by Stanislav Brázda, but his salary was distrained by the Regional Civil Court in Prague 1 and he only received the living wage. According to police reports, he had no job at the beginning of the 30s, earning some money by drawing up plans for odd contracts for various builders.
In 1935, Mr and Mrs Dufka lived shortly in Střešovice, at Ve Střešovičkách 633/25. At the end of August of the same year, they moved to Břevnov, Hošťálkova 1127/123. On 3. 7. 1935, Jaroslav Dufka submitted an application to the Provincial Office (Zemský úřad) in Prague for a building concession in Prague, which was approved on 12. 3. 1936. At the end of February 1937, Mr and Mrs Dufka moved to a villa at Kozlova 1201/1 in Břevnov. We have no further information about Jaroslav Dufka’s building and design activities in Prague but he must have been doing well as he became a member of the supervisory board of the Credit Union “Kredit” in 1939.
After the war, on 9. 9. 1946, Mr and Mrs Dufka left for Cheb, Britská (today’s Evropská) 1053/17, and later lived in Františkovy Lázně at Národní Street 7/4. We do not have a lot of information about Dufka’s post-war activities in the west of Bohemia either. Jaroslav Dufka died on 1. 9. 1964 in hospital in Cheb.
