Martin Pavlík is a historian and train conductor based in Bavaria, Germany. He is notable for his work supporting refugees following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Early life Pavlík's parents emigrated from Bratislava to Germany as political refugees. Martin Pavlík was born in Geislingen an der Steige, where his father worked as a doctor. After four years he moved to Taufkirchen (Vils) in Upper Bavaria, and attended the gymnasium school in Dorfen. Pavlík gained a scholarship from the Hanns Seidel Foundation and proceeded to study political science in Munich. As a researcher he had visited the Chernobyl exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 2009. In 2010, Pavlík received a master’s degree in Slavic studies, Politics, and History from LMU Munich.
In 2010, he married Angelika, who had previously attended the same school in Dorfen.
Railway career Following his studies at LMU Munich, Pavlík worked as a night train attendant, and later train conductor () on overnight trains from Munich to Venice, to Amsterdam, and to Zagreb. By 2016, he had a collection of notebooks documenting over 400 train journeys. When Deutsche Bahn closed its City Night Line train network in 2016, Pavlík transferred to the private night train operator
During the Ukrainian refugee crisis in 2022 Pavlík worked as a train conductor on special refugee trains between Frankfurt (Oder) station and Hannover Messe/Laatzen station—next to the Hannover Messe refugee centre. In 2023 Pavlík was part of a railway delegation that visited Ukraine.
Refugee support After the end of the refugee train operation, Pavlík began to intensively assist Ukrainian refugees locally in Dorfen and the surrounding area.
In 1993, Pavlik had become an altar server at the Taufkirchen . , Pavlik continued to be the regular altar server for Saturday Ukrainian-language church services held in Dorfen at for the Ukrainian community in Germany.
Engagement , Pavlík remained secretary of the Taufkirchen section of the German Life Saving Association (). At the start of 2014, Pavlík was elected to the board of the Alumni association of the school, and at the 50th-anniversary of the school in 2024 presented his collection of school year books. Prior to the 2015 Polish parliamentary election Pavlík had been leading student exchange programmes to Kraków for ten years, and delivered a lecture in Landshut on Poland as a normal neighboring country of Germany. , Pavlík held dual citizenship with German plus Slovak passports, speaking seven languages; by 2022 Pavlík spoke nine languages.
On 20 March 2023, Pavlik was a guest on the BR Heimat series , being interviewed by Johannes Hitzelberger.
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Further reading
2000s
2010s
2020s
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