After finishing gymnasium in Kutná Hora, Jankovcová studied at the University of Commerce in Prague in 1919–1923.

[1] They were arrested by the Gestapo in 1941; Ludmila was sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp,[3] while Volfgang was imprisoned and executed three years later.

A member of the Czechoslovak Social Democratic Workers' Party (ČSSD) from 1922, Jankovcová entered national politics after World War II, serving as vice-president of the party and being elected a deputy to the Constituent National Assembly in 1946.

[2] After retiring, Jankovcová supported the reform movement within the KSČ, headed by Alexander Dubček, which culminated in the Prague Spring of 1968.

She condemned the subsequent Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968,[1] and was expelled from the KSČ in September 1969.