Hranicky
Encyclopedia
Moravia
Moravia is a historical region in Central Europe in the east of the Czech Republic, and one of the former Czech lands, together with Bohemia and Silesia. It takes its name from the Morava River which rises in the northwest of the region...
in the Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
, a territory historically known as Sudetenland
Sudetenland
Sudetenland is the German name used in English in the first half of the 20th century for the northern, southwest and western regions of Czechoslovakia inhabited mostly by ethnic Germans, specifically the border areas of Bohemia, Moravia, and those parts of Silesia being within Czechoslovakia.The...
.
Establishment
The mountain village lies about 12 km south-west from the town JavorníkJavorník
Javorník is the name of several locations in the Czech Republic:* Javorník, a town in the Olomouc Region * Javorník, a village in the Pardubice Region...
(Jauernig in German) and historically always belonged to the township of Nové Vilémovice
Nové Vilémovice
Nové Vilémovice is a small village located in the Rychlebské Hory in the north-eastern part of Moravia in the Czech Republic, a territory historically known as Sudetenland...
(Neu Wilmsdorf in German). It was founded in a broad valley under the Špičák mountain (Spitzberg in German) on the border with today's Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
in 1785. Hraničky was settled by purely German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
farmers, who came to the area from the Northern Moravian
Moravia
Moravia is a historical region in Central Europe in the east of the Czech Republic, and one of the former Czech lands, together with Bohemia and Silesia. It takes its name from the Morava River which rises in the northwest of the region...
districts Králíky and Staré Město. Because of the elevation (696 m), the people of Hraničky were only able to grow barley
Barley
Barley is a major cereal grain, a member of the grass family. It serves as a major animal fodder, as a base malt for beer and certain distilled beverages, and as a component of various health foods...
and most of them worked as forest workers. By 1836, the village had 26 houses and farmhouses, and 281 inhabitants. Also from 1811, Hraničky had a resident teacher and by 1885 also a school. A small church was built in the northern part of the village in 1809. Heinrich Förster, prince-bishop of Breslau, also sponsored the building of the St. Joseph chapel in Hraničky as a gift to the village on its 100 year anniversary of existence.
Recent history
After 1945, under the Beneš decreesBeneš decrees
Decrees of the President of the Republic , more commonly known as the Beneš decrees, were a series of laws that were drafted by the Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile in the absence of the Czechoslovak parliament during the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in World War II and issued by President...
most Sudeten Germans
Sudeten Germans
- Importance of Sudeten Germans :Czechoslovakia was inhabited by over 3 million ethnic Germans, comprising about 23 percent of the population of the republic and about 29.5% of Bohemia and Moravia....
were forced to leave Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
. All but four families were expelled from Hraničky by 1946 and 3 years later the village was empty. In early 1950s, a former resident Franz Schlegel and his family all of whom successfully avoided the German expulsion
Expulsion of Germans after World War II
The later stages of World War II, and the period after the end of that war, saw the forced migration of millions of German nationals and ethnic Germans from various European states and territories, mostly into the areas which would become post-war Germany and post-war Austria...
, move back to one of the farmhouses and continued living there until early 1970s. The rest of the village however remained unoccupied and therefore in 1959 the Czechoslovakian communist government
Communist Party of Czechoslovakia
The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, in Czech and in Slovak: Komunistická strana Československa was a Communist and Marxist-Leninist political party in Czechoslovakia that existed between 1921 and 1992....
decided to completely destroy the settlement. In the summer 1960, the Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
n Army demolished nearly every standing structure in Hraničky, including the local church and St. Joseph’s chapel. The only remaining buildings were two farmhouses occupied by the Schlegel family.
Today, the picturesque, former village Hraničky is once again empty. The last still standing structure is a mountain cottage owned by the members of the Royal family of Bavaria
Wittelsbach
The Wittelsbach family is a European royal family and a German dynasty from Bavaria.Members of the family served as Dukes, Electors and Kings of Bavaria , Counts Palatine of the Rhine , Margraves of Brandenburg , Counts of Holland, Hainaut and Zeeland , Elector-Archbishops of Cologne , Dukes of...
, the Wittelsbachs.
Resources
- Web-page about the Rychlebské Hory and Jeseníky area: http://www.rychleby-jeseniky.cz
- Web-page about the Rychlebské Hory region: http://www.rychleby.cz
- Web-page about no longer existing and disappearing settlements in Sudetenland: http://www.zanikleobce.cz/index.php?obec=982
- Coordinates: 50°19′N 16°59′E