Wischauer language island
The Wischauer Sprachinsel was a German language island within the Czech-speaking areas of South Moravia .
history
After the acquisition of the Slavic Gaus Pustimir on the Bernsteinstrasse by the Diocese of Olomouc , at the transition from the 12th to the 13th century, the country was expanded by German colonists. In the southwest of the Hanna , in the adjacent mountains of the Drahaner Bergland , the Litenčické vrchy ( Litentschitz Mountains ) and the Vyškovská brázda ( Wischauer Tor ), German settlers settled and founded new settlements or expanded old Slavic places.
After the state development was completed, the Wischau language island was one of the largest in Moravia in the 15th century with 60 villages. As a result of the attacks by the Hussites , who were primarily directed against everything Catholic and German, a large part of the German villages fell into desolation. A part of it was repopulated by Czechs; gradually the remaining German residents were assimilated. The Thirty Years' War and the German War, as well as epidemics such as cholera introduced by the Prussians in 1866, led to a decline in the German-speaking population. In the first half of the 20th century, the language island only comprised eight villages with a total of 3500 inhabitants. It was divided in two by the Czech-speaking village Podbřežice . The upper part formed Kutscherau , Hobitschau , Tereschau , Rosternitz , Swonowitz and Lissowitz . The lower part included the villages of Gundrum and Czechs .
During the German occupation , the Czech minority was evacuated from the language island villages. The proximity to the language island was also one of the main reasons for the decision made in 1940 to establish the German military training area Wischau in the Drahaner Bergland. On January 1, 1945, 5,273 Germans lived in the Wischau district. After the end of the Second World War, there were only 3,128 on August 1, 1945. It cannot be determined what proportion of this is due to flight and death as a result of the war. On September 15, 1945, 2970 Germans were recorded in the Okres Vyškov . In 1941 they lived in the eight language island villages. In the course of 1946, the German-speaking residents were expelled and the towns were repopulated with Czechs from the 33 villages in the Drahaner Bergland, which had been cleared for the military training area between 1941 and 1945 and whose houses had been destroyed during the exercises. With that the linguistic island became extinct.
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.wischau.de/geschichte.html
- ↑ Kristýna Taušová: The history of the Wischau language island and its inhabitants yesterday and today (diploma thesis) 2008 ( MS Word ; 445 kB)