Association of Eghalanda Gmoin
| Association of Eghalanda Gmoin e. V. - Confederation of the Egerländer | |
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| founding | November 10, 1907
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| place | Tetschen , today's seat in Marktredwitz |
| Board | Volker Jobst |
| Members | 97 Eghalanda Gmoin |
| Website | www.egerlaender.de |
The Bund der Eghalanda Gmoin e. V. - Bund der Egerländer (BdEG) is today a German association of expellees that was originally founded in 1907 with the aim of representing the interests of Germans in the Egerland . After the expulsion of Germans from the Egerland by the Czechoslovak Republic , the BDEG transformed into a displaced persons association. The BdEG is divided into regional associations, which in turn are composed of the individual Egerländer Gmoin. Authorized representative is Volker Jobst. The BdEG is a member of the Federation of Expellees (BdV).
The Egerland
The area of the historical Egerland lies today in the Czech Republic and Bavaria . The Czech part with an area of almost 1000 km² forms the larger part of the Okres Cheb , without the tip around the city of Asch that protrudes into Germany . It includes the Eger basin with parts of its peripheral mountains, the Elster Mountains in the north, the east side of the Upper Palatinate Forest and the Kaiserwald in the east. The eastern border ran along the Leibitschbach and from its confluence with the Eger further south to the Tillenberg. Part of the Egerland was also the Marktredwitz exclave , which was enclosed by the Sechsämterland . The cities of Karlsbad , Elbogen , Falkenau , Marienbad , Tepl and Luditz were outside the historical area.
Short story of the association
- May 12, 1907: Preliminary discussion of the establishment at Gmoi Teplitz-Schönau
- November 10, 1907: Foundation of the BdEG in Tetschen
- 1912: Membership exceeds 700.
- 1914: First Gmoin abroad ( New York , Trieste ) are created and join the BdEG
- 1918: With the incorporation of the German territories into the newly founded Czechoslovakia , only Gmoin resident there were allowed to be members of the BdEG.
- February 24, 1924: The Gmoin in the territory of the German Reich found the Reichsbund der Eghalanda Gmoin
- October 1, 1938: After the annexation of the Sudetenland to the German Reich, the National Socialists initially prohibited all association activities. The BdEG was allowed to continue as the home association of the Egerland with its own traditional costume (clothing) .
- 1945/46: Proclamation of the 2nd Czechoslovak Republic, the Egerlanders were expropriated of their property during the expulsion of the Germans from Czechoslovakia and had to leave the country.
- 1949: First federal meeting after the Second World War in Rothenburg ob der Tauber
- August 27, 1950: The BdEG was re-established at the 2nd federal meeting in Schwäbisch Hall
History of the foundation
On August 6, 1806, through Napoléon's work and with the laying down of the imperial crown by Emperor Franz II, the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation became extinct . The age of Europe of nation states began. With the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss , the Egerland became an integral part of the Austrian Crown Land of Bohemia . During this time, the idea of the nation state also awoke in the Czech population of Bohemia.
In this national climate, the March Revolution of 1848 also developed in Bohemia, especially in Prague ( Prague Whitsun Uprising ). The Czech-speaking sections of the population consequently rejected the German constituent assembly . Instead, a Slavic Congress met in Prague , in which the historian František Palacký played a decisive role. The main demand of the congress was an equal role for the Slavs in the Danube Monarchy ( Austro-Slavism ). This was a significant turning point in the coexistence of people of different languages in Bohemia. While the Czechs founded the Sokol in 1863, following the example of the Jahn gymnastics movement and the original fraternity, which looked after the memory of Jan Hus , the Germans in the outskirts of Bohemia saw themselves forced to assert themselves as "German Bohemia". The identity of the “Bohemian Forests” or “Egerlanders” grew in the minds of the German-speaking population.
In addition to this environment, which the German-speaking Bohemians perceived as hostile, there were social difficulties. In 1843 and 1846 there were famines in Bohemia due to total failure of the potato harvest, industrial change destroyed jobs in agriculture and at the same time created jobs elsewhere in industry. Then there was the gold rush in California . Many Egerlanders left their homeland in this climate and emigrated overseas. There, but also in Europe, the first national associations were formed, some of which still exist today ( Egerland and Sudeten Community Chicago , Association of Sudeten Germans Inc. New York and the surrounding area or the German-Bohemian Heritage Society in New Ulm, Minnesota ) . The first country team merger took place in Vienna in 1860, where students came together to form a table society called the “Egerländer Landtag”. These societies, often called Egerländer Landtag or Egerländer Tischgesellschaft , which arose in Europe, recruited their members primarily from students and academics .
It was only years later that such societies established themselves in the Egerland, first in Marienbad in 1875 and in Karlsbad in 1879. Many Egerlanders moved to the nearby North Bohemian industrial areas around Aussig, Tetschen and Teplitz because there was a shortage of workers there. They also founded country associations, but here the number of industrial workers outweighed the members, so that from here the social aspect of the associations came to the fore.
But not only the German-speaking population formed. On October 28, 1883, an Emperor Franz Joseph monument was inaugurated in Budweis . There was a meeting between the mayor of Budweis, the editor of the Deutsche Zeitung Wien and others. Concern has been expressed about the increasing shouts of “Bohemians for the Czechs” and “Germans out”. It was concluded that a German Schutzbund had to be created.
On April 17, 1884, the founding meeting of the Bohemian Forest Association took place in Budweis . However, the development here was exactly the opposite of that with the BdEG - first the Böhmerwaldbund was founded, then the local groups. In 1890 there were 203 such local groups of the Bohemian Forest Association, and the trend is rising.
The Budweiser Zeitung writes about the aim of the Böhmerwaldbund:
“The purpose and task of the German Böhmerwaldbund, which was founded a year ago, is to assist the German inhabitants of the Bohemian Forest and southern Bohemia in two main ways: on the one hand, they do their best in every need and distress they get into due to poor earnings and low income to support them, as set out in more detail in the statutes of the covenant, and on the other hand to encourage and strengthen them in your legitimate struggle to preserve the language and customs inherited from their ancestors. "
The Böhmerwaldbund thus had largely the same objectives as the national teams of the Egerland clubs, but it was created on site and not abroad.
The term Egerländer Gmoi (= municipality) appears for the first time in 1882 when the Egerländer Gmoi Brüx association was founded . The membership structure of the Egerländer Gmoin was different from that of the Egerländer Landtag. In the Gmoin, the poor and job seekers were mainly involved, who used the Gmoin as charitable aid organizations. In the same year, the Egerländer Landtag Vienna also renamed itself Egerländer Gmoi, here too a change in membership and a changed objective of the association preceded it. The Gmoin turned into an aid organization for the compatriots who remained in their homeland. For example, Gmoi founded the Egerland Children's Aid Organization in the Bohemian industrial city of Tetschen-Bodenbach , which collected 1 million crowns for the near home until 1938 .
Most of the Gmoin before the founding of the umbrella organization originated in the 1880s and 1890s outside the Egerland, including Gmoin in Vienna , Graz , Leitmeritz , Rumburg , Teplitz , Aussig , Budweis , Tschernowitz and Berlin . Besides the already mentioned Gmoin in Marienbad and Karlsbad, there were only two Gmoin in Eger (founded in 1884 and 1890) in the Egerland itself . The wave of founding of the local Gmoin continued until the BdEG was founded in 1907. The focus of the Gmoin was Vienna and the North Bohemian industrial region, where there were seven Gmoin each.
The foundation of the Federation of Egerland Associations in Austria
The founding of the federal association was preceded by an appeal for Our Egerland :
"For years there has been a desire to bring about a merger of all the associations that exist in Austria [...] The purpose of this association would only be to promote love for the homeland, to refresh and renew old acquaintances among the members of the individual associations, to maintain native customs and traditions and the mother tongue, something could possibly also be achieved in social and economic terms "
Thereupon, on May 12, 1907, a preliminary discussion about the establishment of several Gmoin took place in the restaurant of Gmoi Teplitz. The decision to found it was made and statutes were drafted, which had to be approved by the Prague Ministry of the Interior. Finally, the magazine Unser Egerland invited to its constituent meeting on November 10, 1907 in Tetschen. 40 representatives of Egerland associations gathered and founded the association originally known as the Federation of Egerland Associations in Austria . Norbert Teizner became the first national board member.
Annual federal general assemblies were held until the outbreak of the First World War , and Gmoin continued to be established within and outside the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. When the World War broke out, there were no more federal assemblies. The association's activities were suspended until 1920. In 1920 the Bund der Deutschen , a protection association with similar goals as the Bund der Böhmerwälder , celebrated its national festival in Eger. On the fringes of the federal festival, members of various Egerland Gmoin met and decided to re-establish the association. Since the Egerland was mainly on the soil of Czechoslovakia after the First World War, both the statute and the name had to be changed, so a new association was founded as a successor organization - the Bund der Egerländer Gmoin (BdEG).
Foundation of the Association of Egerländer Gmoin
The first federal assembly of the new association took place in September 1920. Richard Siegl (1882–1942) was elected as the first Bundesvüarstäiha (federal head), he was to exercise this office until his death in 1942.
The statutes of the new association were approved by the Czechoslovak Ministry of the Interior only on the condition that only Gmoin from the territory of Czechoslovakia (ČSR) could become members of the association. Despite this, the Gmoin stayed in contact with the federal government abroad, took part in the annual federal meetings and the home days that took place in this context. The Sudeten German ethnic group was dissatisfied with their position in the state. The invasion of Czech troops had prevented German referendums in 1918 and the annexation to Austria planned by the Sudeten Germans had been forbidden by the victorious powers. Former Austrian civil servants who did not speak Czech were dismissed, as were many heads of state-owned companies. The state language Czech was introduced as a compulsory subject in German schools. This led to an increased awareness of their nationality on the part of the German minority (approx. 23% of the population).
This brought the Egerländer Gmoin an increase in members. In Eger alone, five new ones were added to the existing three Gmoin after the First World War. In addition, other associations were formed that consciously took on the Germanness of their members. For example, in the year he was elected national head Richard Siegl became a founding boy of the Vandalia student association . In 1922, this connection was transformed into the Egerländer Landsmannschaft Frankonia Bodenbach with the assistance of Richard Siegl .
The number of the Gmoin grew steadily until 1938, also as a result of the increasing ethnic and social tensions, which radicalized large parts of the German-Bohemian population and which gave the National Socialist Sudeten German Party great approval. In October 1938 it was 106 gmoin worldwide. This steady growth suddenly stopped when the Sudetenland became part of the German Empire . All clubs were initially prohibited from operating. They were subject to a so-called "standstill". A standstill commissioner classified the association in accordance with National Socialist policies or banned them. The BdEG was classified in the Sudetenland Gauverband of Landsmannschaften and traditional costume clubs and was allowed to continue to exist.
With the outbreak of World War II in 1939, life in the association came to a standstill. Many Egerlanders fought on the fronts and died, the federal life was limited to the annual federal assemblies. In 1942, the federal chief Richard Siegl died in Bodenbach (* 1882 in Sangerberg near Marienbad) as a graduate of a teacher training institute in Prague in the school service in Tetschen-Bodenbach. His successor was Ernst Bartl (* 1899 in Preßnitz, died 1972 in Marktredwitz) before 1945 city councilor, councilor and mayor in Eger, owner of a uniform shop, which received numerous awards for his club activities. After the end of World War II in May 1945, during the expulsion of the Germans from Czechoslovakia , the Egerlanders were also expropriated by the Beneš decrees and forced to leave their homeland. Most of them came to southern Germany as expellees . The former Egerland became part of Czechoslovakia and subsequently the Czech Republic . The home association became an association of expellees.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Dr. Heimrath, Ralf, Home in Foreign Countries - 100 Years of the Eghalanda Gmoin Association , Marktredwitz 2007
- ↑ Ulrich Hufeld (ed.): The Reichsdeputationshauptschluss of 1803. A documentation on the fall of the Old Empire . Böhlau, Cologne 2003. ISBN 3-8252-2387-6
- ^ Blecking, Diethelm: The history of the national Polish gymnastics organization “Sokól” in the German Empire 1884-1939. (= Münster writings on physical culture. 5). Münster 1987
- ↑ Frötschl, Oswald Egerländer from West Bohemia in New Zealand in Der Egerländer 10/2005, p. 21. 2005
- ↑ Ad multos annos! 20 years of the German Bohemian Heritage Society in Sudetendeutsche Zeitung from May 6, 2005
- ^ Lippold, Stephan National differentiation in Bohemia in the 19th and early 20th centuries in: Bavaria - Böhmen. 1500 Years Neighborhood House of Bavarian History Augsburg 2007
- ↑ Dr. Heimrath, Ralf, Home in Foreign Countries - 100 Years of the Eghalanda Gmoin Association , Marktredwitz 2007.
- ↑ Heil, Seff (Ed.) 90 Years Bund der Eghalanda Gmoin. 45 years Egerland-Jugend Marktredwitz 1997
- ^ Archives of the Frankonia Triesdorf Landsmannschaft
- ↑ Wolf, Peter National Identities - Language, History, Art in Bavaria - Bohemia. 1500 Years Neighborhood House of Bavarian History Augsburg 2005
- ^ Archives of the Frankonia Landsmannschaft zu Triesdorf