Guard (Lusatian Mountains)
| guard | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Signpost and memorial stone for the expulsion on the German side |
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| Compass direction | north | south | |
| Pass height | 571 m | ||
| region | State of Saxony | Region Liberec Region | |
| Watershed | Waltersdorfer Dorfbach → Lausur → Mandau → Lausitzer Neisse → Oder | Svitávka → Ploučnice → Elbe | |
| Valley locations | Waltersdorf , Jonsdorf | Dolní Světlá , Myslivny | |
| expansion | Footpath | ||
| Mountains | Lusatian Mountains | ||
| map | |||
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| Coordinates | 50 ° 50 '57 " N , 14 ° 39' 25" E | ||
Die Wache (Czech Stráž ), 571 m , is a pass in the Lusatian Mountains ( Lužické hory ) on the border between Germany and the Czech Republic . It is located in the saddle between the Lausche ( Luž , 793 m) and Sonneberg (627 m) mountains .
geography
The pass is located about 700 m east of the Lausche summit and southwest of the Sonneberg summit on the border of the Waltersdorf , Horní Světlá and Dolní Světlá districts . Three paths cross at the guard. One of them leads as a continuation of the village road that ends in the Waltersdorf locality of Sonneberg to Dolní Světlá ; the other is the Hohlsteinweg coming from Jonsdorf , whose extension on Czech territory leads to Myslivny . In addition, the ridge path leads between the Rabenstones / Krkavčí Kameny and the Listen over the guard. The natural monument Luž extends to the west of the guard in the Czech Republic, to the east the natural monument Brazilka.
history
A trade route between Upper Lusatia and Bohemia has led across the pass since the Middle Ages . The Bohemian kings forbade merchants to use the “Plunderstraße” leading from Zwickau and Reichstadt via Niederlichtenwalde and Waltersdorf and ordered them to use Leipaer Straße. However, even King Matthias II used the "Plunderstraße" in September 1600 to bypass the city of Zittau extensively because of an outbreak of the plague .
In the course of the tourist development of the Lusatian Mountains, which began at the end of the 19th century, the Hotel Rübezahl was built on the German side and the Deutsche Wacht guest house on the Bohemian side , which was usually called Zur Wache . In addition, a tobacco shop was set up on the Bohemian side , and in addition to the legal shops, the owners also operated fancy dress shops . The road border crossing at the guard was frequented by numerous day trippers between Saxony and Bohemia. A Czechoslovak customs house was built across from the Deutsche Wacht in the mid-1920s. In 1929, west of the road to Nieder Lichtenwalde, on the edge of the Lausche forest, the New Brazil lodge was built , but due to its remote location, it did not bring the number of guests expected. In the years 1937–1938 the German customs office was built at the guard. On September 22, 1938 members of the Sudeten German Freikorps attacked the Czechoslovak customs office and kept it occupied until the next day. After the Munich Agreement , both customs offices lost their function.
The Czechoslovak and German customs offices resumed their activities in May 1945 after the end of World War II, the Deutsche Wacht inn and the tobacco shop remained unmanaged. In the years 1946-1947 was carried through the border crossing at the station, the expulsion of the German population from the area of Česká Lípa , Cvikov and Německé Jablonné . In 1947 the border crossing was closed. In the course of the establishment of a border zone to the GDR, barbed wire, all buildings on the Bohemian side of the guard were blown up in the 1950s. The barbed wire and the border barriers were removed again after 1966. Even after the political change in both countries, it took some time until the border at the Wache, which had previously been illegally crossed mainly by German day trippers to Myslivny , was reopened as a walking border crossing on March 1, 1996. A memorial stone for the expulsion of the Sudeten Germans had previously been unveiled on September 16, 1995 next to the Rübezahlbaude. On September 20, 2003, the memorial stone for the defense of the border customs office against Sudeten German irregulars was unveiled on the Czech side.
A resumption of the road connection to Dolní Světlá is not planned, as it would cross the Brazilka natural monument.
Today the guard is only built on on the German side. This is where the Hotel Rübezahlbaude and the former customs house are located, which the Waltersdorf entrepreneur Peter Landrock is marketing to tourism as the Sonneberg holiday apartment . On the Czech side, only the chestnuts of the beer garden of the Deutsche Wacht inn and the foundation walls of the earlier buildings have been preserved.
Attractions
- Rübezahlbaude
- former German customs office
- Memorial stone to the expulsion of the German residents of the judicial districts Böhmisch Leipa, Deutsch Gabel and Zwickau; the 1.70 m high sandstone was made by Waltersdorf stonemason Wolfgang Dünnebier and unveiled in 1995.
- Memorial stone to the attack of the Sudeten German Freikorps on the border customs office Wache: it was created by the Czechoslovak Legionnaires Association Mladá Boleslav with the support of the military history clubs Bakov nad Jizerou and Česká Lípa and unveiled in 2003.