 Marie Fikáčková (née Schmidl) was born on 9 September 1936 in Sušice, Czechoslovakia, to German parents.She was raised in a dysfunctional family, and her marriage to a Czech man failed.In 1955, Fikáčková graduated from the medical school in Klatovy, and in 1957 began working as a nurse in the obstetrics department of the hospital in Sušice.